Last night it seemed there was hardly anybody who left the CIGI building in Uptown Waterloo unmoved by what they had seen. The Centre for International Governance Intervention, with the help of UW’S Genocide Action Group set up a filming of a CBC documentary that exposed the crisis in Darfur. This was followed by three key speakers, and finally a question-answer discussion between the audience and the three speakers.

The first of the speakers was Rich Hichens who gave a background and some political context to those unfamiliar with the exact details of the genocide ongoing in Darfur. Hichens is the president and founder of the Canadian Centre for Genocide and Human Rights Education. Most touching, however, was Debbie Bodkin’s personal account of the atrocities that she had witnessed on two trips to Darfur. Bodkin is a Waterloo Police officer, who has served for over twenty years in Waterloo’s police force, and who served as a UN human rights investigator in Darfur. She was in charge of investigating the crimes and atrocities that occurred in various regions of Darfur. She interviewed survivors, and visited camp sites. Her account of what she has heard and seen was horrific: scenes of massacre, families separated and killed, and women who were raped and left to die.

UW’s Genocide Action Group volunteered for the event. They gave out information packages, sold green Darfur shirts, and talked about the upcoming annual Walk for Darfur, being held next week, March 26th, at the University of Waterloo. Kirstin Biefer, president of the UWGAG explained that these types of events are typically emotionally charged and moving. Addressing the issues of UN lack of support and help for Darfur, and the campaign to taint the Olympics in China (China buys oil from the Sudan, thus financially supporting the country and furthering means for war), the lecture was also informative and challenged the audience members to take action.

UWGAG has a facebook group, and meets every Monday at 4:30 at SLC 2134/5. They hope to educate people about genocide in the past, how to stop genocide in the present, and how to prevent genocide in the future. For more information on the Walk for Darfur go to, www.footstepsofdeath.com.

For photos from the event, check out the Photo gallery.