Feb. 9, 2007
WORLD & NATION
Page 5
www.guilfordian.com
Greensboro. N.C.
African Union summit focuses on Darfur
Landry Haarmann | Staff Writer
On Jan. 30, at an African Union
summit, Sudanese president Omar
al-Bashir was blocked from becom
ing leader of the African Union for
the second time. The following day
an A.U. peacekeeper was shot in the
war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
Instead of al-Bashir receiving the
position, members of the African
Union decided to elect President John
Kufuor of Ghana.
According to The Boston Herald,
"Sudan's government has been ac
cused of retaliating against civilians
and supporting paramilitary groups
from nomadic Arab tribes blamed for
some of the worst atrocities in the
conflict."
Sophomore Becky Pittman thinks
such allegations may be one of the
reasons the African Union blocked
al-Bashir from becoming their next
elected leader.
"It seems like they don't want al-
Bashir to treat all of Africa the way he
treats his own country," Pittman said
Tension has existed between al-
Bashir and the African Union for
some time now. In September 2006,
the African Union threatened to pull
peacekeeping troops out of Darfur if
al-Bashir did not allow U.N. peace
keeping troops into Darfur.
Currently, the African Union is still
handling the Darfur situation, and
U.N. peacekeeping troops have not
been deployed. However, at the sum
mit, al-Bashir agreed to allow deploy
ment of hybrid U.N.-A.U. peacekeep
ing troops.
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu
spoke at the
summit and
urged leaders
not to elect al-
Bashir.
"Sudan's
President Mr.
Bashir longs
to be given the
A.U.'s presi
dency. The
A.U. cannot
allow itself to
comfort the op
pressor." Tutu
said, according
to BBC News.
"I appeal to
those leaders
meeting at the
A.U. summit
to stand up to
tyranny and
stand by the
people of Dar
fur," Tutu said,
speaking of al-
Bashir's failure
to bring peace
to Darfur and
his attitude to
wards efforts being made by different
peacekeeping groups in and out of
Darfur.
Sophomore Eric Steginsky holds
sentiments similar to Archbishop Tutu,
believing that by blocking al-Bashir's
bid to lead the
African Union
they are send
ing him a mes
sage.
"By passing
Omar al-Bashir
over, the Af
rican Union
is showing
that they want
peace," Stegin
sky said. "They
are showing
al-Bashir tl^at
they will not
tolerate his re
fusal to allow
U.N. peace
keeping troops
in Darfur."
The situa
tion in Darfur
largely domi
nated the sum
mit's talks.
U.N. Secre
tary General
Ban Ki Moon
also spoke at
the summit.
"The toll of
the crisis re
mains unacceptable," Moon said, ac
cording to BBC News, speaking of the
estimated 250,000 dead and the 2.5
Peopledaily.com.
Denis Sassou-Nguessou, the named chairman of the
AFRICAN UNION
million displaced refugees. "Together
we must work to end the violence and
scorched-earth policies adopted by
various parties, including militias, as
well as the bombings which are still a
terrifying feature of life in Darfur."
Despite the fact that rebel groups,
known as the Janjaweed, signed a
peace treaty in May, violence in Dar
fur increased, permeating into neigh
boring countries of Chad and the
Central African Republic.
First-year Chelsea Hornick-Becker
feels that the violence stems from
deeper problems and that peacekeep
ers may not be a cure-all for the Dar
fur situation.
"A lot of people care, but they don't
know why it really happens," Horn
ick-Becker said, referring to Africa's
long history of colonization, instabil
ity and bloodshed. "(The violence)
did not come out of the blue."
Hornick-Becker has questioned
whether deployment of U.N.-A.U.
peacekeeping troops will really be as
beneficial as some think.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu elabo
rated on the importance of peace
keeping troops in Darfur.
Tutu said, "(Darfur needs) a
strengthened force with U.N. troops
and a robust mandate to protect the
innocent."
Tutu also stressed the importance
of immediate action.
Tutu said, "They have suffered ter
ribly, and they cannot wait any lon
ger."
World Social Forum invokes issues of appropriate activism
Demonstrations interrupt activist forum
Atreese Watkins | Staff Writer
The prospect of meaning
ful change. One day's travel.
Loss of three days' wages. A
well-fed foreigner asking for
an impossible entrance fee.
These were what faced
dozens of homeless, hungry
Kenyan children.
"(The street children) in
vaded a five-star hotel food
tent and feasted on meals
meant for sale at the World
Social Forum in Kenya's capi
tal," according to BBC News.
The World Social Forum
was established to protest
the efforts of the World Eco
nomic Forum, a yearly meet
ing to discuss such issues as
economic partnerships. The
World Social Forum devel
oped as a "self-organized"
counter to the corporation-
supported WEF mega-confer-
ence.
This year, those in charge
of the forum came under
fire from locals for their at
tempt to charge a $7 fee for
participants. Local citizens,
who were enthusiastically in
vited to attend and give a lo- ing so at the expense of par-
cal perspective to the forum, ticipating in food-procuring
were outraged when they dis- activities. For many, charg-
covered the entrance fee was ing them for food created a
worth over three days' salary, burden. According to BBC
The living wage
“I think
in Kenya is less
than $2 per day.
After revok
ing this fee,
there was still
much resent
ment over the
price of meals at
the conference,
which was also
$7.
"This kind of
problem goes
way back," said
Max Carter,
campus minis
try coordinator.
Carter made
connections
with the story
of a family of Quaker leaders. News, the children had been
the Smileys, who held several begging for food. After be-
we simply need to be
more creative to find ways of
reaching out to the people with
the resources without caving in
to the culture, and we need to
give them more credit that they
will be open to it.”
Max Carter
Campus Ministry Coordinator
yearly retreats on American
Indian issues without ever
inviting an American Indian.
Most of the youth attend
ing the conference were do
ing told they would have to
pay for meals, the children
stormed the tent and feasted.
This, viewed alongside the
demonstrations earlier in the
conference against the en
trance fee, created a strange
paradox for the World Social
Forum - a protest against
the policies of a conference
meant to protest
against another
conference.
"This is a
huge issue with
the progressive
movement,"
said junior Da
vid Norton,
who has expe
rienced a range
of liberal orga
nizations in his
professional and
academic experi
ences. "There is
a divergence be
tween the means
of proliferat
ing a perspec
tive and what
that perspective is meant to
achieve."
Much of this has to do with
how activists are gaining ac
cess to resources.
"I think we simply need to
be more creative to find ways
of reaching out to the people
with the resources without
caving in to the culture, and
we need to give them more
credit that they will be open
to it," Carter said.
This distance between
means and ends was resolved
at the conference when coor
dinators decided to eliminate
the fees and stop charging
participants for meals.
"We are now not charging
anybody; the event is free so
that many people can par
ticipate," Boniface Beti, WSF
media director, said to BBC
News.
This event brings up a big
ger issue, which confronts
Guilford, Kenya's capital city,
and activist communities
throughout the world.
"The means don't jus
tify the ends because in the
means you already have the
seeds of what you want to ac
complish," Carter said, para
phrasing Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. "By using a medium
that is so inconsistent with
the message, you are sowing
the seeds of failure."