Speaker recounts experience in Darfur
Abu Asal Abu Asal, a Darfur survivor, spoke about his life and genocide.
Published Oct. 23, 2007
On Monday, MU students and members of the Columbia community gathered in Ellis Auditorium to hear the first-hand account of Abu Asal Abu Asal, a survivor of the genocide in Darfur.
STAND Mizzou, an organization devoted to ending genocide around the world, presented Voices From Darfur, a nationwide tour that features personal stories from refugees from Darfur.
Darfur is a region of Western Sudan that has been dealing with genocide since February 2003.
Abu Asal, who was born in Darfur, said he experienced the genocide that has taken the lives of approximately 400,000 civilians.
Before being arrested, he worked as a veterinarian and was a published author in Sudan.
He said he was arrested and beaten for speaking out publicly against the Sudanese
government.
After living in the U.S. for more than a year, he teaches English as a second language at a school in Massachusetts.
In many regions of Africa, large numbers of individuals have little, if any, education, he said. He said the Sudanese government makes little effort to support educational opportunities for civilians.
"When I was a kid, I had to walk for about one hour to go to school because simply we had very few schools," he said. "And when you were lucky, you go to school."
Abu Asal provided audience members with more in-depth reasoning as to why he thinks there is genocide in Darfur.
Civilians in Darfur are being targeted and killed by a mercenary group called the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government, he said.
"In Sudan now, the government worked hard to make people think Janjaweed are separate from government and that they're the ones to blame ... that is completely untrue," Abu Asal said.
After providing the audience with more information regarding the genocide and his personal stories he experienced while living in Darfur, Abu Asal, along with members of STAND, provided spectators with ways to help the people of Darfur.
Ways to help include writing letters to government officials; calling 1-800-GENOCIDE, which puts callers in direct contact with the legislators advocating for Darfur-related legislation; and donating money to organizations such as Genocide Intervention Network, Save Darfur and Genocide Watch, they said.
"I think anything that puts pressure on the government will stop genocide," Abu Asal said.
