4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4. 2006
》 ACTIVISM
Fasting, shirts help fight war
KU club plans activities to raise awareness about Sudan's genocide
BY ERIN CASTANEDA
One day of fasting isn't much compared to years of starvation.
But a KU club will make the most of it on Thursday, when its members will fast to raise awareness about genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Thursday starts the group Fighting Ignorance of Global Humanitarian Threats' weeklong donation drive. Members of the club will collect donations on Wescoe Beach during the week, which ends Oct. 11. The money will go to Doctors Without Borders, an independent organization that delivers emergency aid, to help provide food and medical care for refugees at camps in Darfur and Chad. Group members will also fast all day Thursday.
Amanda Applegate, Wichita sophomore and vice president of FIGHT, said she thought people were detached from these conflicts in other countries. She said an event like the donation drive helps people understand that 400,000 have died.
"When you see a number that big, people may pay more attention."
she said. "The next time they see something about it on TV or see something in a newspaper, they will pay attention."
"Half the cast of 'West Wing' is doing it," she said. "It's a pretty big deal in activism. We're standing up and saying something is wrong and we need to be doing something about it."
Applegate explained that students would fast from any luxury item, not necessarily food.
"We're giving something up to remember that people have given their lives to unnecessary conflict," she said.
Mark Skoglund, Olathe sophomore and FIGHT president, referenced a quote from the movie "Hotel Rwanda."
"People are going to look at this genocide and then go back to their dinner," he said. "That's the mindset we want to avoid."
He said he wanted people to take action and go to the next level by spreading awareness. He said this could be done by taking part in a campaign such as FIGHT's, calling senators or telling others about the
conflict.
"When awareness translates to other awareness, that's another step" he said.
The fast is inspired by the national program DarfurFast, a national campaign and joint effort between STAND: Student Anti-Genocide Coalition and the Save Darfur Coalition. The event coincides with the holy month of Ramadan.
According to the organization Save Darfur, the three-year-old conflict in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and forced 2 million to flee from their homes. The organization's Web site also stated that 3.5 million people there were reliant on international aid for survival.
Skoglund said people participating have three chances to donate. The club will be on Wescoe Beach on Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at Mass St. Dell, 719 Massachusetts St., at 7:30 Thursday night.
Kansan staff writer Erin Castaneda can be contacted at ecastaneda@ kansan.com.
Edited by Natalie Johnson
Proceeds from 'Save Darfur' T-shirts to fund emergency aid efforts
BY DANNY LUPPINO
Hans Tregear sat in class last week, having seen more news on the ongoing conflict in Darfur, and wondered what he could do to help.
That's when the Wichita sophomore got the idea of selling T-shirts to raise awareness and money. The sale begins this week.
"I have had a lot of people ask me what Darfur is, and it kind of bothered me to see that — with all the media and technology today, not everyone is aware of a genocide going on right now," Tregear said.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003. The conflict centers between Janjaweed, an Arab milia tia group, and tribal ethnic groups. Most accounts estimate the number
of deaths to be 400,000, with more than 2 million displaced. The United Nations' official report in January 2005 did not find it to be a genocide, but many, including foreign affairs experts and American politicians, say the killing has genocidal intent.
Tregar hopes the shirts, the back of which say "Give Life, Give Freedom, Give Peace, Save Darfur," will help more students become aware. The shirts cost $10 and will be distributed Oct. 9.
Tregear's plan is for every student who purchased a shirt to wear it Oct. 10. He has invited the International Medical Corps, a nonprofit organization that provides health care and training to those displaced by the conflict, to come to campus that day to accept the donation. IMC has not
yet confirmed an appearance.
Ron Francisco, professor of political science, called the Darfur conflict a tragic genocide with no end in sight.
He said that no one wanted to go and stop it, because of the tremendous fatal risks. "It's like all genocides, which are tragic because nobody has an incentive to stop it," he said.
Francisco said that the idea of spreading the message to students was a good one, but that monetary donations would have a minimal effect.
"I think everyone should be aware that there is active killing going on, and yet I don't know what anybody can do," Francisco said.
Still, Tregear said he thought the effort would spread the mindset necessary to overcome a conflict like Darfur.
"It's all about helping one another," Treareg said.
Students can place T-shirt orders at the front desks of Naismith, Lewis, and McCollim halles. Students can pick up the shirts at the same place they bought them on Oct. 9.
The North Korean statement did not say when a nuclear test might occur, but the prospect drew rebukes from Japan, South Korea, and the United States. The allies, along with China and Russia, had participated in the stalled six-party talks aimed at getting the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.
The announcement was not a big surprise to many observers of North Korea because U.S. intelligence reports previously had indicated that Pyongyang might be preparing
Kansan staff writer Danny Luppino can be contacted at dluppino@ kansan.com.
a nuclear test. Many experts believe the North has enough radioactive material to build at least a half-dozen or more nuclear weapons.
Many North Korea watchers believe the country's dictator, Kim Jong II, knows that all-out confrontation with the United States would lead to his destruction. Even if Kim seeks negotiations, though, the risk of a miscalculation that spirals out of control cannot be ruled out.
Edited by Natalie Johnson
It was the first time the North had publicly announced its intent to conduct a nuclear test. Previously, it
"It would be a very provocative act," Rice said. "A North Korean nuclear test ... would create a qualitatively different situation on the Korean peninsula," Rice said. "I think that you would see that a number of states in the region would need to reassess where they are now with North Korea."
During a visit to Cairo, Egypt, Rice said the United States would have to assess its options if the North carries out the test, without detailing what those options were. She stressed, however, that a North Korean test was an issue "for the neighborhood" and not just for the United States.
The North's announcement came as the standoff deepened over Iran's nuclear program, with senior U.N. diplomats saying six world powers would begin negotiations Friday in London on possibly imposing sanctions against Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
The contradictory statement fits a North Korean pattern of ratcheting up tension on the Korean Peninsula, a Cold War-era flashpoint, in an attempt to win concessions such as economic aid. The strategy has had mixed results in recent years as the totalitarian regime sinks deeper into isolation and poverty, with China serving as its lifeline for food and fuel.
Yet it said it wanted to "settle hostile relations" between the North and the United States, and that it "will do its utmost to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the announcement "a very provocative act" and urged Asian nations to rethink their relationships with North Korea.
"They are an active proliferator," said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "And were they to test and were they then to proliferate those technologies, wed be living with a proliferator and obviously wed be living in a somewhat different world."
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea triggered global alarm on Tuesday by saying it will conduct a nuclear test, a key step in the manufacture of atomic bombs that it views as a deterrent against any U.S. attack. But the North also said it was committed to nuclear disarmament, suggesting a willingness to negotiate.
The remarks appeared directed primarily at China and South Korea.
"The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a self-defense measure in response," said a statement by the North's Foreign Ministry and carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
Rumsfeld, in Managua, Nicaragua, for meetings with Central and South American foreign ministers, declined to say whether Pyongyang's announcement had triggered any changes in the U.S. alert status.
BY BO-MI LIM ASSOCIATE PRESS
North Korea to do nuclear test
》 WORLD
had warned that it might conduct a test, depending on U.S. actions.
WORLD
Plan aims to stop Iraqi violence
LEE KEATH ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide bomber unleashed a blast in a Baghdad fish market Tuesday and two Shiite families were found slain north of the capital as violence across Iraq claimed at least 52 lives.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of nine soldiers and two Marines in what has been a deadly period for American forces in Iraq. The announcement brought to at least 15 the number of servicemembers killed in fighting since Saturday.
Four of the soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday in separate small-arms fire attacks, the military said. Another four were killed
the same day in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol northwest of Baghdad. The ninth died Sunday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of the capital.
Sunni politicians expressed worries over a new government plan to stop sectarian violence. The plan, announced a day earlier by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, won some praise in parliament Tuesday, but Shiite and Sunni leaders delayed potentially contentious talks to work out its details.
The four-point plan calls for creating neighborhood Shiite-Sunni committees to monitor efforts against sectarian violence. The aim is to overcome the deep mistrust between Sunnis and Shiites.
security forces to crack down more strongly on Shite militias blamed for killing Sunnis — including some linked to parties in the government.
Many Sunnis remain skeptical that Shiite leaders will allow
"I haven't seen any real desire in the other side. There are militias supported by the government," said Sunni lawmaker Khalaf al-Alayan.
U. S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that under the plan, parties that have militias have agreed to take "responsibility for what their groups or people under them are doing, ... committing themselves to ending the sectarian violence."
Still, "there are forces that are not under their control," Khalilzad said in an interview with National Public Radio. "But if they implement what they've agreed to, there should be a significant decrease in the level of violence in Baghdad."
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Another lawmaker, Izzat Shabandar, from the secular Iraqi Bloc, cautioned "we have to be realistic."
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"Those who signed this blessed agreement have to confess, at least to themselves, they are the basis of the problem and they are part of it," he said.