World needs to hear survivors' tales -- and act, Holocaust Museum audience toldThe news reports the bombings and the flight of refugees from Darfur, Sudan, but only the testimony of the survivors can really describe the horrors and atrocities that have been visited upon these victims, who now share the same scars as those who survived the Holocaust during World War II.
That is why it is so important that we hear and retell the stories of the victims so the world will take notice and act to change the situation and stop the violence, explained Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, at a May 26 museum-sponsored program on the current crisis.
Fowler, who had just returned from the area, said he came away from that experience with his mind seared by the stories that survivors told of the horrors they experienced.
"Stories of peoples' villages being destroyed, of their villages being burned, of their relatives being killed -- especially men and boys -- of them being blocked from water sources. It was clear to me...that these people fled their homes in terror."
Stories of Refugees From Sudan's Darfur Echo Horrors of Holocaust....***Jerry Fowler's covered the war in the south before. I found his contribution to the discussion at Crimes of War:
Is there Genocide in Sudan?. That was in 2002, and although it concerned targetted efforts against different groups than those who are being slaughtered and driven from their homes in Darfur, I reckon history has revealed that those who argued in the affirmative were right. Crimes of War has also looked at the Darfur conflict,
Crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Two more recent stories: (1)
Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan, and (2)
Suffering Lingers in Darfur Region.