DARFUR

'Never again' means fighting for justice

BY JENNIFER SANTIAGO
santiagoesq@yahoo.com

Never again.

I remember the phrase with haunting clarity -- uttered over and over again on Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remebrance Day. I was just a fourth grader at Solomon Schecter School in Queens. And that year, like every on Yom Hashoah, our teachers would tape yellow paper stars that read ''Jude'' onto our blue-and-white uniforms then march us down to the library to watch grainy black-and-white films of Jewish Holocaust survivors. The film was apparently taken by allied forces after the Germans fled the Nazi concentration camps, leaving thousands of tortured, starving survivors to await rescue. Naked men smiled for the cameras, their flesh hanging lose over bone-thin frames. I remember being confused by their unapologetic nudity, confused by their laughter. I was too young to really understand how this was a moment that captured a freedom thought futile.

And then the world uttered Never Again. But, here we go again. This time I'm much older, and the emotions don't provoke confusion, just a profound, heavy sadness. This time it is mostly women who smile for the cameras -- their black, dusty flesh hanging over bone thin-frames. Some clutch tiny children -- pouring formula onto their chapped lips.

Surrounded by Jews

This isn't a concentration camp, but a refugee camp in Chad where thousands of Sudanese women and children are sheltered after fleeing the Janjaweed -- a maniacal militia supported by the Sudanese government and armed to rid Darfur of its black Africans. A tall white man walks among the refugees -- explaining to a 60 Minutes crew how this 2 ½-year conflict has already cost the lives of more than 300,000 people, threatening millions more. His name is John Prendergast. Today as I watch the video, I am again surrounded by Jews -- this time men and women who have gathered at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation to hear Prendergast explain how it is happening all over again.

''This is Rwanda in slow motion,'' explains Prendergast who has spent a good part of the last 20 years of his career focused on conflict resolution in Africa. The Jewish Community Relations Council invited him to speak last week to raise awareness and promote action to stop the Genocide in Darfur. This former director of African affairs during the Clinton administration likens this genocide to the Holocaust and most recently Rwanda in the '90s when more than 800,000 Tutsis were massacred over the course of 100 days by the majority Hutus after a coup.

Back then the world didn't react -- ambivalent, in part, and confused over whether the killing in Rwanda was in fact genocide.

This time there is no confusion. One year ago, almost to this day, President Bush concurred with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell calling the killings in Sudan's Darfur region genocide. The United States, under the 1948 U.N. convention on genocide, is committed to preventing such killings and punishing the killers if it deems a genocide is taking place. And yet, the killings continue one year later. Never again?

Sudan conflict to forefront

''Shame them,'' says Prendergast to his all-Jewish audience. ''Shame them into doing something,'' he continues acknowledging that grass-root efforts by Jewish organizations have brought the Sudan conflict to the forefront of our consciousness. Because it isn't enough to wear a yellow star and watch videos of the dying to honor the victims of the Jewish Holocaust. ''Never again'' means making the world aware that the only response to genocide isn't designating a day of remembrance but designating everyday to fighting injustice for those who can't fight for themselves

• To see the interview with John Prendergast and video from the refugee camps, watch today's CBS 4 News First at Five.

Jennifer Santiago is a reporter for CBS 4 News.