Spring Break
New York Times journalist visits
Kristof concluding speaker at Human Rights Education Program conference
Caitlin Booker, Contributing Writer, cebooker@smu.edu
Issue date: 4/11/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 4 next >
|
Kristof's lecture was a part of the Human Trafficking symposium sponsored by SMU's Human Rights Education program.
Kristof has taken numerous trips to Darfur and written extensively on the genocide occuring there, and he has become a leading expert on the genocide in Darfur. He has been at the forefront of the movement to bring Darfur into the media with his op-ed columns in The New York Times, guest appearances on network television and videos.
"The brutality, ferocity and scale of Darfur hit me after talking to the victims. It's hard to move on and write about other things," he said.
Kristof blamed the media for "dropping the ball" on drawing attention to Darfur. He said that in 2004, CBS covered Darfur for three minutes while the Michael Jackson trial received 28 minutes of coverage. He noted that in the 2004 presidential race, the candidates addressed the issue delicately but the tsunami in Asia "knocked Darfur out of the picture."
"We can't solve the problem completely," Kristof said. "But every time there is less coverage on Darfur, we cause the Sudanese government to ratchet the violence up. With more coverage, the violence lessens."
Kristof showed images of refugees on the border of Chad and Sudan. There were many pictures of women with deep scars inflicted by the Janjaweed as a stigmatizing sign of rape. The Janjaweed policy of killing men and boys of villages has left hundreds of thousands of widows in Darfur. Many women stood alone as they lost their children when the Sudanese government blocked off access to hospitals.
Kristof described the genocide in Darfur as a result of tensions between the lighter-skinned Arab nomadic herdsmen and non-Arab farmers. Since almost everyone in the area is Muslim, the tensions remain over race and "agricultural distinction."
In 2003, the Africans rebelled against the Sudanese government for providing arms to Arab tribes in the Darfur region. According to Kristof, the government faltered and ultimately decided to wipe out African tribes to end the unrest.
Be the first to comment on this story