In the wake of the May 10 attacks on Khartoum by the Darfur rebel group JEM (Justice and Equality Movement), the Government of Sudan (GoS) has responded indiscriminately and disproportionately against ethnic Darfuris living in Khartoum. Hundreds of civilians were rounded up in door-to-door raids, at checkpoints, on public transportation, solely for the appearance of being ethnically Darfur, and more specifically, ethnically Zaghawa, which is the tribe that mainly makes up JEM.
From then until now, hundreds were held in arbitrary detention, without access to lawyers or trials, neglected, abused, and tortured. There were reports of children as young as 8 being detained. Two weeks ago, the GoS put 36 of these individuals on trial for charges of "terrorism", without due process.
This highlights yet another time when the Government of Sudan responds to feeling threatened by abusing the civilians of an ethnic group – ethnic-based violence and the tools of genocide are a matter of national policy for the Government of Sudan.
This is why STAND can’t let these trials and these detentions go by unnoticed and unprotested: it is up to us to bring this issue to light in our communities, our Congress, and on Capitol Hill.
Educate yourself on the crisis by listening to the podcast of an emergency response call we had on the crisis. Khartoum needs to know we won’t let them use tactics of ethnic violence without some noise from the world’s student anti-genocide constituency.