President of Save Darfur Coalition Speaks at Duquesne U.

The President of the Save Darfur Coalition is speaking at Duquesne University today from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Power Center Ballroom on the topic, "How to Stop Genocide and Bring 2.7 Million Refugees Home." The event is free and open to the public.

Jerry Fowler says power and wealth in Sudan have always been concentrated around the capital Khartoum, with people in the South and Darfur in the West marginalized. Millions died during two decades of civil war in the South before a 2002 ceasefire and power sharing agreement--partly a result of President George W. Bush's diplomatic initiatives pushed by conservative and evangelical Christians in the United States. Southern Sudan is heavily Christian.

In 2003, western rebels in Darfur, which is Muslim, attacked police and military targets in an effort to win their own slice of the pie, according to Fowler. In response, he says a terrified central government promised land to Arab groups in Darfur if they would drive out the farming populations to which the rebels belonged. The result has been 300,000 or more deaths and 2.7 million people displaced.

The International Criminal Court recently charged Sudanese President Bashir with war crimes, and he responded by kicking out all the international aid groups ministering to Darfuri refugees. Fowler thinks a coordinated and sustained diplomatic effort led by the Obama administration might induce a change in behavior.

He calls Sudanese government officials "calculating pragmatists" who do not wish to be isolated from the international community but have not yet paid much of a price for the Darfur genocide.

Jerry Fowler says people must keep encouraging President Obama to keep campaign promises he made about stopping the genocide in Darfur, given all the other important issues he's facing.