Former deputy of U.N. speaks out on the situation in Darfur

By Jeff Merski

A former member of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spoke to members of the university community on Oct. 16 about his experiences in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Donald Price, a former deputy head of the United Nations operations in the region, spoke in Annenberg Forum about the destruction in the region, in which an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 people have lost their lives, with it continuing daily.

“People will have been kidnapped, raped and killed while I give this presentation,” he said.

Price described the actions of the Arab government destroying homes, poising wells and degrazing agricultural land in an effort to persecute the black population. “It’s the systematic destruction of civilian villages,” he said.

“A helicopter wipes out a village in an hour. It’s an attack helicopter that has rockets and machine guns,” he said. Villages range in size from a maximum of 7,000 occupants to a minimum of 200, with sizes depending on the amount of land available for grazing. Read more >>>