PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Darfur advocacy groups protest Sudanese speaker at Pitt
by Matt Toups for Rustbelt Radio Tuesday, May. 24, 2005 at 7:01 PM
mtoups@indymedia.org (email address validated)

On Saturday May 21st, Abdel Bagi Kabeir, a Sudanese deputy ambassador to the US, spoke in David Lawrence Hall at the University of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition in collaboration with the group Africa Peace Education organized a protest outside his talk.

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Above: Pitt senior Robert Lino, from Sudan, addreses protestors

On this past Saturday, Abdel Bagi Kabeir, a Sudanese deputy ambassador to the US, spoke in David Lawrence Hall at the University of Pittsburgh. The speaking event was organized by the Muslim Students Association at Pitt as well as the Sankore' Institute of Pittsburgh. Kabeir spoke about the intervention the Sudan government has taken in the crisis in Darfur. During the past two years, violence in the southern Darfur region has left up to 200,000 dead and 2 million displaced to crowded refugee camps. Now, 3 million people are starving and drought threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of others.

Much of the violence in Darfur has been attributed to a militia group of Sudanese Arabs called the Janjaweed, who are accused of genocide against the black African population there. The Arab-majority Sudan government, while claiming to have nothing to do with the Janjaweed, has been shown by many reports to be in collusion with the militias. Observers have noted that Janjaweed ground attacks have often been supported by air strike from the Sudanese Air Force.

A counter-demonstration outside of Kabeir's talk was organized by The Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition in collaboration with the group Africa Peace Education. On Forbes Avenue outside of the lecture hall, the groups spoke out and held signs decrying the violence in Darfur that they say the government there has allowed to happen.

Groups from Schenley and Allderdice high schools turned out to protest along with other peace activists and were joined by local natives of the Sudan, including Pittsburgh's Lost Boys, survivors of Sudan's refugee camps. The refugees say they continue to lose family members to violence by the Sudanese government.

One Sudanese man, Robert Lino, a senior at Pitt, tearfully narrated the suffering him and his people are facing in Sudan. Peter Okema, a Uganda native, protest organizer and recent Pitt graduate, said the event's intention was to give a good image to bad government and said the government has a horrible record on human rights. Kabeir's visit, he said, "will be used to misinform people."

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