Op-Ed
Dancing Around Darfur
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Agree to Disagree
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In his Inaugural Address last week, “Dance,” President David J. Skorton envisioned Cornell as a series of rhythms, choreographed by its many participants. For Skorton, dance was important as a “primary, not a derivative” experience; action, rather than reaction or inaction, was hailed as paramount. Prior to the Inauguration, one of Skorton’s first steps was to divest the University’s interests from Sudan, where genocide has ravaged the Darfur region. But according to one Cornell professor, Skorton — in his first major initiative — is dancing around the issue, rather than confronting it directly.
Evidence from April of this year suggests that “total excess mortality in Darfur, over the course of more than three years of deadly conflict, now significantly exceeds 450,000,” according to Eric Reeves of Smith College. After half a million deaths, Cornellians rightly applauded Skorton’s decision to divest from Sudan and bar further investments in oil companies that operate there. But, as Skorton noted in his address last week, “divestment is not enough.”
“In the coming months,” he said, “we will continue to seek the good counsel of our faculty, staff and students as to ways by which the Cornell community can effectively educate itself about this and other areas of Africa; sponsor serious discussions to include Sudanese academics and other knowledgeable colleagues; and contribute, within our capabilities as an educational institution, to the improvement of the educational and related environment in that country.”
Among others, John H. Weiss, a professor in the history department, was left wondering why, as the death toll continues to mount in the region, we would focus our energies on the superfluities of the conflict, rather than on the horror that continues unabated every day. As the Holocaust exterminated helpless souls during World War II, would anyone have suggested a conference of German academics? Should we really be concerned with the “educational and related environment in that country,” or should we expend energy to stop the ethnic cleansing that threatens the stability of the entire region?
In a letter to Skorton and Provost Biddy Martin on August 28, Professor Weiss — the sole American witness to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia — proposed an international workshop of civilian and military experts, to be held in Ithaca in mid-October. Weiss’ plan called for a detailed policy discussion with humanitarian experts, rather than an academic symposium favored by administrators.
In preparing for the conference, Weiss had been in talks with many prominent scholars and civilian leaders, including Walter B. Slocombe, former Undersecretary of Defense, David Kilgour, an international ambassador from the Canadian House of Commons and Brent Beardsley, the award-winning author and diplomat who served on the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda.
Weiss’ proposal, according to Vice Provost for International Relations David Wippman, was one of a “number of ideas that have been advanced by the university community” to a “small group of faculty and administrators” appointed by the Provost. This committee includes, among others, Wippman, Professor Muna Ndulo from the Law School and Professor Salah Hassan from the Africana Studies department.
The committee, in a letter from Wippman to Weiss, wrote, “We are looking at moving in a different direction, so I’m afraid there won’t be central university funding for the conference you proposed.” In an e-mail interview, Wippman said that the University is instead considering several options, including a symposium, but also consultations “with various international organizations and NGOs working on the Darfur issue to identify ways in which Cornell might provide more concrete assistance to refugees and others affected by the violence in Darfur.”
With only three weeks left before the sole peacekeeping forces in Darfur are scheduled to leave, there is hardly time for consideration or consultation. Now is a time for leadership to emerge, so that President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will not be able to carry on the genocide that his government has supported for the last three years.
“We want to make this University relevant to the real world,” said Elvir Camdzic ’00, a collaborator of Professor Weiss’, and a survivor of the genocide in Bosnia. “Academics want to do more of what they always do: academic conferences with papers. That’s all fine, but that doesn’t end genocides. It improves your understanding of a country, but it’s not going to save a single life over the course of the next year, or two years, or three years.”
Administrative deliberations at Cornell underscore a national indifference and a global paralysis in ending the shameful massacres in Darfur. After the global community failed to stop the genocide in Rwanda — in which nearly a million people were killed in 100 days — one might expect Darfur to elicit more of a response. And though the disregard stretches far and wide, apathy can start right here.
“When I spoke at Cornell University recently, a woman asked why I always harp on Darfur,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote. “We have a moral compass within us, and its needle is moved not only by human suffering, but also by human evil. That’s what makes genocide special — not just the number of deaths but the government policy behind them.”
Perhaps the Provost’s committee had good reason to pass over Weiss’ plan, but in its place, a new solution is needed — now. Skorton said last week that as a university, we “must look ever outward, ever more broadly.” He asked, “How can the expertise and heart of Cornell be felt … in Darfur?” Unless action is taken in the very near future, even our most Herculean efforts will be in vain. With hundreds of thousands of lives in the balance, we must be prepared to dance to a much more urgent tune.
Rob Fishman is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at rbf25@cornell.edu Agree to Disagree appears Wednesdays.