To the Editor:
The news that Brown University is following Yale’s example and divesting from companies involved in Sudan is encouraging (“Brown University to divest from companies with Sudanese government ties,” 2/27). Here in Ottawa, Canada, we have many refugees from Sudan. What is underway there is murderous and cruel beyond belief. As commendable as the actions of Brown, Yale and other universities are, they are in the end merely symbolic. More needs to be done, and I hope university students across America will be as mobilized as students were during the Vietnam War and spearhead the movement that eventually brought that conflict to an end.
The head of Sudan’s intelligence agency has been flown to Washington in U.S. government jets numerous times for consultation. Some believe the terrorist intelligence Sudan provides America carries more weight than what is taking place in Darfur. America is not only taking no action to help the black victims of Sudanese Arab racism, it is also furiously blocking any planned action by other NATO members. Last autumn, Germany was on the verge of sending in a large fighting unit. Events in Darfur — along with the Sudanese government’s support of the fanatical Lord’s Resistance Army rebels — will end up being worse than the Rwandan genocide for which President Clinton apologized at a memorial service in that country.
One question remains: Will we emasculate the phrase “Never Again” of all moral content and meaning?
C. Alexander Brown
March 1, 2006