UC Students Lobby for Divestment in Sudan

UC students are hoping to convince the UC Regents tomorrow to divest funds to help stop the slaughter of innocent civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan, where genocide is being waged against non-Arab African people. The San Francisco Chronicle covered the student-run divestment campaign in an article posted on SF Gate here. Three UC students co-wrote the following opinion piece titled "Genocide in Sudan: What the University of California Can Do." Adam Rosenthal, a law student at the University of California Davis, is the student Regent for the University of California. Jason Miller, an MD/PHD student at UCSF, and Adam Sterling, an African American Studies major at UCLA, are co-chairs of the University of California Sudan Divestment Taskforce.

Genocide in Sudan: What the University of California Can Do

In 1944, Polish lawyer Raphel Lemkin, in response to the Holocaust that took the lives of 49 family members, coined the term genocide to describe a crime against humanity so horrific that it needed its own definition and code of governing laws.

While Lemkin's efforts led directly to increased awareness about the crime, scarcely a decade has since passed without the perpetration of a major genocide. Despite strong declarations of "never again" after the Rwandan genocide in 1994, we are once again acquiescing to genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Since early 2003, Sudanese troops and government-sponsored militias have carried out the coordinated and targeted killing of the black African population in Sudan's Darfur region. For the first time in history, the US Congress, State Department, and Executive Branch have all declared that an ongoing massacre amounts to genocide and that the Sudanese government is directly responsible.

To date, an estimated 400,000 people have been slaughtered, 2.5 million more have been driven from their homes, and 70 percent of all Darfurian villages have been destroyed. Furthermore, a systematic policy of rape has maimed and humiliated scores of Darfurian women while the government's blockade of humanitarian aid to the displaced has left more than 3 million in danger of starvation.

Why should the students of UCSF care about the genocide in Darfur in a world where billions are afflicted by disease, poverty and conflict? New York Times editorialist Nicholas Kristof explains, "…there is something special about genocide. When humans deliberately wipe out others because of their tribe or skin color, when babies succumb not to diarrhea but to bayonets and bonfires, that is not just one more tragedy. It is a monstrosity that demands a response from other humans. We demean our own humanity, and that of the victims, when we avert our eyes."

Today, the University of California (UC) is in a unique position to make "never again" more than just an empty promise. As a result of the combined efforts of thousands of UC students, the UC Board of Regents will meet at UC San Diego on January 19t to consider a process known as divestment, the removal of over $100 million of foreign investments tied up in companies that directly or indirectly facilitate government-sponsored genocide in Sudan.

As the students of the University of California, it is our responsibility to ensure that our university does not continue to passively condone genocide. "Silence in the face of atrocity is not neutrality; silence in the face of atrocity is acquiescence," explains Pulitzer Prize winning author and Harvard professor Samantha Power.

On Thursday, January 19, the more than 188,000 students of the University of California must come together and provide a voice to the millions of Darfurians who have lost theirs. Join the thousands of students, faculty, and staff that have expressed their concern by signing the petition for divestment. And if you are inspired to join us in San Diego this Thursday, please contact student organizers for the divestment campaign at [email protected].

Source: Adam Rosenthal, Jason Miller and Adam Sterling