PANGEA, ALLIES host two-day event to address "The Dilemmas of Darfur"

Lilly Riber

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Tim Straub/Tufts Daily,
Sophomore Sabina Carlson and Junior Jesse Sloman participated in last night's screening.

PANGEA and the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) have collaborated to create a two-part series entitled "The Dilemmas of Darfur," which began last night with a film screening and will conclude tonight with a panel discussion.

PANGEA is a group aimed at increasing students' awareness about issues of global importance, while ALLIES focuses on bridging the civilian-military gap by encouraging interaction between members of both populations.

Senior Mike Eddy, co-president of PANGEA, said that combining the missions of these organizations for this programming will offer students a unique perspective.

"It's really an event that brings together people that are interested in security studies with the activist community to get us thinking about the complex issues of the dilemmas of implementing peacekeeping on the ground in Darfur," he said.

Last night, students gathered in Barnum Hall to watch the award-winning documentary "The Devil Came on Horseback." Released this year, it depicts the war-ravaged region through the eyes of an American.

This film will be the subject of a discussion tonight at 7:30 in Cabot 206. Panelists will include Feinstein International Center researcher Abdal Monium Osma and Fletcher School students Michelle Barsa and David Raikow.

Eddy hopes that the documentary will lead to a productive discussion. "I'm hoping it will spark some serious questions about peacekeeping in Darfur," he said.

ALLIES Co-Chair Jesse Sloman, a junior, hopes that these questions will do more than just scratch the surface.

"There are a lot of issues underlying these calls for action that aren't really addressed. ... They say, 'Send in the peacekeepers,' but they don't address the logistics," Sloman said. "We'd like to move the discourse about Darfur beyond 'save Darfur' t-shirts."

Eddy agreed. "[We want] to actually get people thinking about the realities and the ... complexities of how a peacekeeping force would navigate its relationship with Sudan, the Sudanese government, the rebel parties in Darfur, and [fulfill] the responsibilities of the peacekeeping operation while still trying to maintain neutrality," he said.

Junior Nancy Henry, also a co-chair of ALLIES, hopes the two-day event will confirm the relevance of Allies, a group run through the Institute for Global Leadership that was founded last year.

"We want to show the campus that civil-military issues are really relevant and of interest to the Tufts student body," she said.

The programming is additionally co-sponsored by Hillel's Moral Voices Initiative and the IR Director's Leadership Council.

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