Dangerous liaisons with Darfur

There's always something slightly comical about alumni occasions, and this weekend's Alumni Day events were no exception. Universities walk a fine line between welcoming home their alumni in warmly flag-waving fashion — hoping to reap a donation now that their proteges are in the real world and earning hard cash — and striking a stern tone of intellectual rigor, reminding them why they chose their alma mater in the first place.

Saturday's afternoon panel, titled "Never Again? The Crisis in Darfur" and held in Richardson Auditorium, was no exception. Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 was effusive in her introductory praise of the panelists. Politics professor Gary Bass grinned when he was described as a "star teacher." Bass even got a plug for his book, "Stay the Hand of Vengeance"; Slaughter, who is an international law expert, presumably didn't really mean to call it "Stay the Hand of Justice." Given what was about to transpire, the slip would prove to be Freudian.

When Slaughter announced that former Sen. Bill Frist '74 (R-Tenn.) was in the audience, a palpable tremor of delight went around the room, as alumni recalled the other reason they came to Princeton: the celebrities. Slaughter had good reason to call on Frist to talk about Darfur, as he had just returned from one of many trips to the region where he has done sterling work as a physician. But first we had to be educated.

Politics professor Jennifer Widner patiently laid out the conflict's dire statistics: at least 200,000 killed, 2 million in Sudanese refugee camps. Hassan Turabi, the nation's notorious former president, had harbored Osama bin Laden and allowed al Qaeda to develop a base in Darfur. Chronic neglect and poverty reigned; militia soldiers were paid in loot.

Julius Cole GS '66, who was awarded the James Madison Medal, picked up the baton and explained the ethnic basis of the conflict. The Madison Medal is given each year to an alumnus/a who has advanced the cause of education or has an outstanding record of public service. It is one of the University's two highest alumni awards; the other, the Woodrow Wilson Award, was presented to former Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes '54 in honor of his government service.

Sarbanes, speaking in his characteristically gravelly tones, praised the United States for donating $700 million to the humanitarian effort — though, he noted regretfully, security in the Darfur region is so poor that aid agencies can't enter for fear of being killed. He further argued that the United States should support a joint U.N.-African Union force.

Then Bass got up to the mic, and that's where the fun started. He had some interesting new ideas about how to stop the fighting: The United States and the United Nations should impose travel bans and freeze assets — this would hit western-educated Sudanese politicians where it hurt. America should feed information to the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes in Darfur, and impose sanctions on Sudanese oil. He added that the government should consider divestment, noting that Princeton has a good record on refusing to fund dictatorial regimes.

But, Bass added, these ideas have limitations, not the least being the United States' intelligence cooperation with Khartoum in the war on terror — which, he implied, sends mixed messages.

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It was Frist's turn next. He and Sarbanes had been among the first to describe the genocide as, well, genocide. He praised U.S. efforts in Sudan, saying that it was doing more than all the other nations in the world combined to end the killing in Darfur. But he added that the government had to put pressure on Khartoum.

Frist then said that though he doesn't "have much respect for the Sudanese government, [Sudanese President Omar al] Bashir has given us lots of useful intelligence in the war on terror."

So that's all right then. Now we know why Bashir can flout the international community and throw out the United Nation's envoy without sanction. Sudan is our friend!

Bass politely inclined his head, as if to acknowledge Frist's point. Then he looked as if he'd like the stage to swallow him up. You could have heard a pin drop.

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The audience broke into applause as Frist's remarks closed. An alumnus turned to me, beamed and sighed, "It's so nice to hear something positive about Darfur."

Indeed.

Victoria Whitford is a graduate student in the Wilson School and a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.