Eyewitness to conflict in Darfur to speak

Brian Steidle, a former Marine captain who served as the United States representative on the African Union’s peacekeeping mission to monitor the conflict in Darfur—where the world’s worst refugee crises is unfolding—will discuss what he saw and photographed in the region during a talk at Sacramento State at 3 p.m., Monday, March 6 in the University Union Hinde Auditorium.

Steidle's appearance is part of the “Tour for Darfur: Eyewitness to Genocide,” a 21,000-mile speaking tour of 22 cities in 11 states. His campus visit is sponsored by Sacramento State’s Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution in association with the Sacramento Committee on Conscience. The talk is free and open to the public.

The United States and several other nations have said genocide has occurred in Sudan’s ravaged Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have died. The United Nations says the Sudanese government has backed the Janjaweed, Arab militias against civilians and driven about two million Africans from their villages, and calls it one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

One of only three Americans to have served with a coalition of African representatives, Steidle says he witnessed mass murder, rape and other atrocities in Darfur and took hundreds of photographs to provide documentation during the peacekeeping mission from September 2004 to February 2005. Steidle has been interviewed for stories by ABC’s “World News Tonight,” the “CBS Evening News,” CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports,” NPR’s “Morning Report,” PBS’ “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” and The New York Times.

The tour is an attempt to raise awareness and to encourage the U.S. government to do more to end the violence in Darfur. Donations can be made at the lecture to the Save Darfur Coalition, which is sponsoring the tour in cooperation with more than 150 faith-based advocacy and humanitarian aid organizations.