Washington Post's Emily Wax to Offer First-Hand Look at 'Genocide in Sudan' Tuesday
April 28, 2005
April 28, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - Eight days after Hotel Rwanda's Paul Rusesabagina urged DePauw students to become more aware of the strife in Africa and around the world, Emily Wax, Africa Bureau Chief of the Washington Post, will come to campus to discuss "Genocide in Sudan: A Reporter's First-Hand Look." Wax will speak Tuesday, May 3, as a guest of The Gertrude and G.D. Crain Jr. Lecture Series. Her presentation will begin at 4:15 p.m. in Watson Forum of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media and is free and open to all.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Emily Wax covers the conflict in the Sudan for the Washington Post. Wax is originally from Queens, New York, and has reported for the Trenton Times, freelanced for Newsday, and covered schools and immigrant communities for the Washington Post.
"The conflict in Darfur began two years ago, when rebels protesting discrimination against African tribes by the Arab-led government attacked police stations and military outposts,"
Wax wrote in the April 25 edition of the Post. "The government fought back, and allied Arab militiamen known as the Janjaweed attacked villages repeatedly, causing more than 1 million people to flee. Human rights groups and U.N. officials have reported war crimes in the region, including rapes by militiamen and government bombings of villages, while U.S. officials have said the crisis amounts to genocide."
Wax's article continued, "In recent weeks, aid groups said, relations have worsened following a U.N. resolution that authorizes sending Darfur war crimes suspects, including government officials and rebel 
leaders, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Although grateful for the humanitarian help, some Sudanese officials accuse aid agencies of giving the United Nations wrong information, a charge aid workers deny."
In a February interview with Columbia Journalism Review, Wax said it's hard to know for certain how many have been killed in Sudan. "Truth is the first casualty of war. So this issue has been murky. The government says the numbers are much lower than 70,000, rebels say they are higher. The truth is, no one knows. [The Post's] UN reporter just did a good story on this issue. Many times I try to say tens of thousands have died because that's something all parties agree on."
Endowed by Rance Crain, president of Crain Communications and a member of DePauw's
Class of 1960, The Gertrude and G.D. Crain Jr. Lecture Series honors Mr. Crain's parents. Previous Crain Lecturers have included Father Richard P. McBrien (seen at right),Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and a consultant to ABC News for papal events; political analyst Charlie Cook; FactCheck.org director Brooks Jackson; veteran political columnist Jack Germond; military sociologist Charles Moskos; historian Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War ; David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union; and Joe Trippi, who managed Howard Dean's presidential campaign.