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WORDS AND PHOTOS BY DESIREE AFLLEJE
UO Students Jaime Symons and Kailyn
Knight silkscreen T-shirts
Kailyn Knight wears a green bracelet with
the words “Not On Our Watch”
Eugene’s Dream
for Darfur
Local effort for international impact during Trials
O
n a mild spring afternoon, Marti
Berger stood outside the old Federal
Building downtown with a fi ve-foot
sign that read, “China, Oil, Darfur, Genocide”
painted next to Olympic rings. “Don’t
politicize the Olympics,” a woman yelled
from a passing car. But for Berger, China’s
human rights violations make it impossible
to separate government affairs from the
Beijing Games.
Berger and the other members of the
Lane County Darfur Coalition see the
national spotlight the Olympic Track and
Field Trials bring to Eugene as a golden
opportunity to have an impact on the crisis
in Darfur, the western region of Sudan home
to the fi rst genocide of the 21st century.
China stands as the greatest economic ally
Lane County Darfur Coalition member
Marti Berger
of the Sudanese government, a government
participating in the mass murder of its own
people, Berger says.
In Berger’s Eugene home, a vibrant hand-
painted canvas covers the retired elementary
school teacher’s living room fl oor, email
updates pack her inbox, and a stack of signs
pile up on her couch. As businesses prepare
to capture dollars from the thousands
expected to come to the city during the Trials,
Berger hopes to appeal not to the visitors’
pocketbooks but to their consciences.
“This is a track community, but this is
also a social justice community,” Berger
said. “Surely there’s an overlap of people
who care about social justice and are also
enthusiasts for the Olympics. There’s
ground for us to meet and join, and it
doesn’t threaten the Olympics. It’s having
a voice and taking an action when we have
the opportunity to.”
The U.N. reports that more than two
million people have been displaced from
Darfur since 2003 when the fi ghting
erupted among the Sudanese government’s
military, government-funded Janjaweed
militias and rebel groups. With death toll
estimates between 200,000 and 400,000,
the urgency of the situation in Darfur
remains clear. But how to affect real change
in a complex crisis across an ocean has
been a stubborn question the Lane County
Darfur Coalition has faced since it formed
three years ago.
The coalition was born out of a meeting
at a local synagogue attended by more
than 100 people, and since that time the
coalition has dwindled to a core group of
about a dozen members. “We had the wind
go out of our sails,” Berger said when she
was discouraged following a downtown
torch rally that was met with only mild
public enthusiasm.
But in the months leading up to the
trials, the coalition has become reenergized.
Members have been on national conference
calls, designing brochures, sending out
press releases and securing space at the
Trials.
“[The Trials have] really given us a point
of focus,” Berger said. “It will be visible to
the nation; it will be visible to the world.”
The group’s message is “China, please.”
With the 2008 Olympic slogan, “One World,
One Dream,” the coalition is asking China
to use its economic and political leverage to
pressure the Sudanese government to end
the genocide in Darfur.
Several UO students joined the coalition
in recent months and brought new ideas and
a new demographic to the table. Between
classes, Jaime Symons and Kailyn Knight
have been organizing educational movie
nights, writing proposals and passing out
brochures.
National organizations have lent some
support and funding to the coalition in
preparation for the Trials. In April, Knight
and Symons fl ew to San Francisco for the
U.S. leg of the Olympic torch relay. Symons
said the camaraderie was inspirational
as she stood with thousands of others to
ask China to clean up its human rights
violations.
The coalition plans to hold events in the
UO’s Erb Memorial Union Amphitheater from
Saturday, June 28 to Monday, June 30. Stop
Genocide Now, an organization dedicated to
protecting threatened populations, will bring
Camp Darfur to Eugene. Camp Darfur will
display tents that house information, images
and stories about fi ve genocides, including
Darfur. Along with live music, the coalition
plans to have hands-on activities, such as
making school kit donations. In addition, the
local group has teamed up with community
members to hold a benefi t for Darfur at Jo
Federigo’s Restaurant and Jazz Club on
Monday, June 30.
The coalition wants to make the issue
visible to the media by getting Darfur signs
in business and home windows across
town and passing out symbolic armbands
to people on campus. The group is working
with Tents of Hope, a national project that
creates symbolic tents to spark community
education about Darfur.
Even with the opportunity of national
media coverage, Berger knows it’s
impossible to forecast what impact local
activism will have on the distant fi ve-year-
long confl ict.
“There’s some fear,” she said, running
her fi ngers across her green ‘Save Darfur’
bracelet. “But I am hopeful.”
Berger takes at least one action for Darfur
each day: a call to U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio,
a letter to the editor, a conversation with a
stranger.
“Sometimes people think that they
can only make a difference through
donating money, but as citizens there are
certain actions we can take through the
government and it’s not always reaching
into our pocketbooks,” Berger said. “This
is a cause where you just have to take a
breath and just keep taking action.” ew
To contact the Lane County Darfur Coalition, call Jaime
Symons at 707-478-9438
Darfur, Tied to China
• ECONOMIC
China is Sudan’s biggest trading partner. According to PBS, China buys around two-
thirds of Sudan’s largest export, oil.
• POLITICAL
China has repeatedly used its seat on the U.N. Security Council to block U.N.
intervention in Darfur. In 2006, China hindered international support in Darfur by
abstaining from U.N. Security Council Resolution 1706.
• MILITARY
China serves as a major arms supplier to the Sudanese government. Some of these
weapons have been used in the Darfur genocide.
YOUR REAL ESTATE RESOURCE
“In the years that I have known Patrick, I have
always been impressed by his character and desire
to do the right thing.” — E. Clarke. Eugene, OR
Patrick Leiser, Broker 541-431-6480 (cell) 541-870-7707
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EUGENE WEEKLY JUNE 19, 2008 13