'We can raise our voices loudly' on Darfur

Mohammed Yahya, who will speak in Raleigh on Saturday, has worked to draw the world's attention to Darfur since members of his family died more than a decade ago in one of the earliest attacks by the Sudanese-backed militias known as the janjaweed.

The situation has only worsened. The past four years of fighting between African rebel forces and the government and its allied militias have forced more than 2.5 million people from their homes and resulted in the deaths of at least 200,000.

President Bush and other world leaders have labeled the actions of the Sudanese government genocide. But the largely diplomatic international response to the crisis has been criticized as inadequate.

Yahya sought asylum in the United States in 2002 and is now the volunteer director of the nonprofit Damanga Coalition for Peace and Democracy. He spoke with The News & Observer's Marti Maguire by phone. Here are some excerpts:

Q: Tell me what happened to your family in Darfur.

A: My village was attacked by a marauding militia, janjaweed. They killed 21 of my family members. I had nine siblings, and we don't know where they are. Two brothers were killed, and the others are missing. My parents are alive, but we don't know where my father is.

This was only about four years after this government came to power. I was in Egypt studying at the time, and there was no way for me to go back.

Q: Did you suspect, at that time, how bad the situation would get?

A: At that time, when it just started, nobody knew what was going on. Darfur is a very remote area, and there are so many people, inside Sudan even, who don't know Darfur. When we heard the news that these things were happening from refugees that were starting to come to Cairo, we realized we had to do something about it. We sent an open letter to the international community, and Kofi Annan read it to the United Nations.

Q: What do you think of the international response to the crisis so far?

A: People are still talking, they are not doing anything. Still, we feel that we have to keep going. We don't have any choice.

Q: Why do you think the response has been so slow?

A: It is a very complicated issue. The big guys, China and Russia and all the permanent members of the United Nations, need to be serious about stopping this genocide. China is working with the Sudanese to get oil out of the country and to invest their money there. They do a lot of businesses there, and that helps the government of Sudan. Russia is a big country and one of the most populous, and they are also working with Sudan. They are selling weapons to Sudan, and those weapons are being used in Darfur. The people who are supposed to work to protect our people are doing business in Sudan.

Q: You spend a lot of time telling people about the crisis. What do you hope they'll do?

A: I hope that people ... tell their friends and their families and their neighbors that this is genocide, and that we have to do something, because people are being slaughtered and we can't ignore that. We have to ask our leaders to do their best, because we're all connected. We can tell them to stop this. You have your representatives, and you need to ask them what they're doing in Darfur. Send your government letters, petitions. We can raise our voices loudly.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)