By Matt Collette
On a cold night last Thursday, nearly 60 students, many representing student organizations, gathered on Krentzman Quad. They stood, with candles in hand, to solemnly show their support for the victims of the genocide in Darfur and called upon governments and influential organizations to act to end the crisis.
The vigil was sponsored by Northeastern’s chapter of STAND, a coalition of high school and college students working to end genocide.
Most in attendance marched across campus from the West Village quad starting at 7 p.m., with the vigil beginning 15 minutes later.
“We all at NUSTAND brought you this event to say that we care and show that Northeastern does not support genocide,” said Sunish Oturkar, the organization’s president.
NUSTAND held the vigil to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur. Since 2003, 450,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced by rebels against the nation’s established government, according to the NUSTAND website.
The keynote speaker of the vigil was Jean Vasilingiyimana, a Boston University freshman who grew up in Rwanda during the nation’s genocide that resulted from a conflict between two racial groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis.
“They came by my house and they’re all like, we’re pretty sure that Tutsis live here,” Vasilingiyimana said.
His family managed to get away when one of the people at their door, a friend of his father, recognized him, but that was the point his parents realized they had to get out of the country, he said.
Vasilingiyimana’s family drove for eight hours to get out of the country, where he saw something he never forgot.
“The one image that I never got out of my head was when we got to the border, they took the people who were murdered and used them as barricades,” he said.
After the keynote speaker, those at the vigil stood together for a moment of silence.
“I think that silence is pretty important,” Alex Alvanos, president of Social Change Through Peace games and a junior international affairs major, said after the event. “We have the ability here to be silent, to show that this is important.”
In addition to the students who marched to the vigil, many students joined as they were passing by.
“Students just walked by and came, because they had a natural interest in the cause,” Sushruta Kunnenkeri, a junior biology major and vice president of NUSTAND, said.
Those at the rally stood in solidarity with NUSTAND, many holding signs that said they did not support the genocide in Darfur.
“I think something should be done, and I think things like this help raise awareness,” said Raksa Taing, a freshman pharmacy major. “It’s such an atrocity that [this] can happen in this day and age.”
The event was important, Oturkar said, because it raised awareness for the cause.
“Will this event have an affect? It’s an easy answer, but let me tell you why,” he said in a speech. “Two years ago, people didn’t know what was going on in Darfur and today we have 50 to 60 of you among us saying that we do not agree with this.”
In addition to the rally and a number of screenings held earlier in the semester, NUSTAND is planning an initiative in December where students will give up the cost of a luxury item, like Starbucks coffee, and donate the money to relief efforts in Darfur.
“We’re asking students to sacrifice a luxury item on Dec. 5, give us the value of that item and we’ll give it to relief efforts,” Oturkar said.
Last year, NUSTAND focused their efforts on having Northeastern divest its financial interests from companies that supported or were sympathetic toward the government in Darfur, though university officials said they were uncertain whether any funds were invested in such companies.
“We had a petition last year that could have had a big affect, but didn’t,” Oturkar said.
