York Town News
"Life has a value"
By Melissa Wood
Mansour Ahmed points to western Darfur, where he grew up in a rural village of about 100 people. That village is now gone and the area resettled by Arabs. Ahmed now lives with his wife and two children in Portland, which has the largest community of Fur tribal members from Darfur of any city in the United States. The Fur tribe makes up 74 percent of Darfur’s native population.
Photo by Melissa Wood
YORK - Imagine if the town you grew up in disappeared.
That is what happened to the small, rural village where Mansour Ahmed grew up and where generations of his family lived peacefully in western Darfur. It no longer exists.
However, the village of about 100 people did not simply vanish like a mirage on the desert. The Arab-controlled government of Darfur destroyed the village's homes and either killed or forced its citizens into exile in a campaign of ethnic cleansing taking place right now against black citizens like Ahmed in Darfur.
"Let us pray for peace," said Ahmed. "Let us pray for justice for people who have no voice."
Ahmed now lives in Portland with his wife and two children in a community of 85 people in 23 families who make up the largest Fur population - the tribe that makes up 74 percent of the Darfur population - in the United States. He, along with Wells Staley-Mays, spoke at St. George's Church on Sunday morning, April 29, about the reality in Darfur and what people in the United States can do to stop the killings.
Since 2003, more than 400,000 people have been killed, almost 4 million have been displaced, either emigrating or living in refugee camps, and still the violence continues.
Staley-Mays said the press in the West has vastly oversimplified what is going on by calling the conflict Muslims versus Christians. In fact, he said, all residents of Darfur are Muslims, but the minority Arab population, who make up 20 percent, is making war against the black population, who make up 80 percent.
"The issue is skin color," said Staley-Mays. "The issue is race."
Staley-Mays said Sudan is the largest country in Africa, about the size of the eastern United States, while Darfur is roughly the size of Texas. The country was absorbed by Sudan after World War II.
While the black population is being moved out of the villages, Arabs are quickly resettling the land, changing place names and moving in from countries around the Middle East and Africa. Para-militia on horseback, sponsored by the Sudan government, called Janjuweed or "devils on horseback" are given license to rape and kill those remaining.
Both Ahmed and Staley-Mays said the only way that can be stopped is if United Nations troops with the authority to shoot to kill are deployed to the country. Currently about 7,000 African peacekeepers who do not have that authority leave the population defenseless.
"This is our responsibility as an international community," said Staley-Mays. "Life has a value."
When asked how well the Bush Administration has handled the crisis in Darfur, Staley-Mays said it took immense amounts of pressure on the administration to call what is happening genocide.
"We're in the awkward position of saying the current administration has done more than any other government in the world, and it hasn't been enough," he said.
The United States is also the second largest supplier of weapons to Sudan - behind China - which find their way indirectly to the country. The United States is also the largest source of humanitarian aid, 90 percent, but often those aid workers are forced to leave the country.
In Maine, the Legislature passed a bill in 2006 requiring the state to divest from Sudan. The bill was brought by Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Cumberland County, who also lives in Portland.
Individuals can also see how to divest by going to the website http://www.savedarfur.org/. It is also possible to keep track of how well representatives "score" on Darfur by checking the website http://www.darfurscore.org/.
"One thing about the power of the dollar," said Staley-Mays, "it's powerful and nonviolent."
Gail Marshall said she remembers when Rev. Beverly Tucker, who passed away recently, first asked the church's congregation to put the people of Darfur in their prayers.
"I'd like to see us, as a faith community, start putting this in our prayers every week," she said.
For more information on taking action in Darfur, visit http://www.savedarfur.org/ where you can send a postcard, sign up for email alerts, download an activist toolkit or a how-to manual for further Darfur activism.
To find out more about the Fur community in Portland, visit www.savedarfur.org/page/group/FurCulturalRevival.
