After Monday night’s speech from Human Rights Watch researcher Olivier Bercault at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, many more are now informed and educated about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Open to the public, the evening consisted of a main speech and slide show by Bercault, and shorter speeches by representatives from Congregation Beth Am, Congregation Kol Emeth Darfur Committee and STAND [Students Taking Action Now: Darfur] from Stanford.

Bercault, also author of “Smallest Witnesses, The Crisis in Darfur through Children’s Eyes” and “Sudan, Entrenching Impunity: Government Responsibility for International Crimes in Darfur,” stressed the importance and necessity for aid to the Darfur region, while also educating the audience about the situation there.

“We [Human Rights Watch] try to shame the governments responsible [for supporting the war of genocide],” Bercault said.

Recently, Bercault was in the Chad-Sudan area in February of 2005, and was able to portray to the crowd a first hand experience through his words and pictures from the slide show.

“We have to react very quickly,” Bercault said referring to how fast-paced the genocide is becoming. “There used to be farmers and Arab tribes… they used to live together and share the territory [of Darfur]… [then the] Arabs tried to get their own land… and there was the introduction of automatic weapons into the area.”

With the support of the Sudanese government, a tribe of people known as the Janjaweed has been wiping out villages and killing many, including children, while also raping women as a form of ethnic cleansing, according to Bercault.

“Africa is full of people, this area [Darfur] is totally deserted,” Bercault said. “This war created two million refugees… they actually have to leave their own place of living. It’s a disaster that half the population is displaced.”

According to Bercault, there were originally four million people living in Darfur.

Clarifying the situation of whether the genocide is a religious war or not, Bercault said that the genocide is “purely racial.”

According to Bercault, both of the groups in the genocide are Muslim, yet those of the Janjaweed believe that because they are lighter in skin, they are purer in nature.

“After interviewing hundreds of refugees [and] victims, [they said that] people generally try to run away,” Bercault said. “Then after a couple of days they [the Janjaweed] come and burn the city.”

Specifically, Bercault also mentioned how bombs have been affecting the people of Darfur and the genocide in general.

“A lot of people die during the bombings,” Bercault said.

According to Bercault, bombs are also an important part of the war because the bombs that have not exploded can be used as evidence. The serial numbers on the bombs are traced to where they were made, which then allows organizations such as the Human Rights Watch, to collect information showing that the Sudanese government is helping the Janjaweed in the war.

“It’s [the bombs are] clearly evidence that the Sudanese government is behind the attacks,” Bercault said.

Describing the horrific scenes of the damaged villages and towns he has been through Bercault said, “We find piles of bones [and] pieces of clothes left in the open… at one point I stopped counting [the dead].”

Another big issue that Bercault addressed was the children affected by the genocide, and how their lives and mental states have been shaken.

“Schools have been trashed… they [the parents] can’t have their kids going to school,” he said.

When the Human Rights Watch gave the children in the Chad refugee camps crayons and paper to draw with, the children expressed what they witnessed during attack through their artwork.

“They [the children] were starting to draw horrible pictures, villages burned, Janjaweed killing, women being raped… we [Human Rights Watch] were shocked by their drawings… it’s vivid,” Bercault said.

Bercault also mentioned how pictures drawn by the children who survived the attacks have been published in the New York Times to spread awareness about genocide in Darfur and how the pictures also serve as evidence to what has been happening during the attacks.

“No one is there to film,” Bercault said. “We have pictures [drawings] of the attacks… it’s always pictures of Janjaweeds shooting at civilians in the back [of the picture]… to see a Janjaweed in action, thanks to drawings by kids… it’s evidence, but then it’s horrible because they went through these things… they witnessed rapes… they went through hell.”

On a more personal level, Bercault explained a picture of a boy with books around him rather than the usual attack scene. According to Bercault, the boy who drew the picture said that his brother, the boy in the drawing was losing knowledge because he had to join the rebel group to help protect people from the Janjaweed. Bercault said that the boy told him, “his [the boy’s brother] dream was to study, but now he cannot.”

These children, and some others who have survived the attacks are now living in refugee camps in Chad, the neighboring country to Sudan.

“In Chad, people who just crossed the border [from Sudan to Chad] are in the process of being in the camps… after a few days they will be registered,” Bercault said.

According to Bercault, there are twelve refugee camps in Chad and the United Nations (UN) is also trying to aid those who make it across the border.

“After a year and a half the UN is pretty well organized in Chad,” Bercault said.

Yet the other speakers from the other organizations focused more on what Americans can do now.

“The first step to ending genocide in Darfur is to do what we’re doing now, educating ourselves,” said Elissa Test of Stanford’s STAND.

Test also said how “we need to advocate in a direct way.” Test spoke of action such as writing to our representatives, senators and especially President Bush.

Jay Hammer from the Kol Emeth Darfur Committee also stressed the need of spreading the word of the Darfur crisis.

“Plant a seed,” Hammer said referring to spreading the knowledge. “So that each of you becomes three or four people… there are things you can do.”

With an estimated 300,000 people already dead from the massacre, the speakers continually spoke of the need to actually take action and stop genocide.

“Atrocities in Darfur are largely ignored,” said Emily Wu, part of the Beth Am Congregation.

“I don’t know if this is a genocide,” said Bercault addressing a question on what his position was on whether the war in Darfur is genocide or not. “[And] I don’t care, it’s a crime against humanity… [and] we need one voice.”