Human Rights Awareness

by Daniel Saulnier
Although the Holocaust is the most well known genocide there are others such as the Rwandan and Cambodian Genocides. The Rwandan Genocide lasted for one hundred days in 1994. Eight-hundred thousand people were estimated to have been killed during this period. One-million to three-million people were estimated to have died in the Cambodian Genocide between 1975 and 1979. An estimated six-million deaths resulted from the Holocaust.

The figures listed above are not as disturbing as hearing the accounts of survivors from each of these genocides. Mr. Banos’s Sophomore honors history class did just this when they went on a field trip to Salem High School for a human rights awareness assembly. There, they heard speeches from Cambodian Genocide survivor, Sayon Soeun, Rwandan Genocide Survivor, Ernest Rugwizangonga, and Holocaust Survivor, Rena Finder.

These speeches made students look at things from a different prospective. Hearing from adults, “the bad things happening to you aren’t as bad as what others have gone through” is always the last thing people want to hear and they often do not really think about it. But listening to these speakers has made some of us think in different way. The Holocaust, Rwanda, and Cambodian genocides were all horrible events in history. Educating the public about these events is very important not only to commemorate the people who suffered from them but to prevent as much as possible another similar event from happening, but genocide still exists today.

“Since 2003, more than 400,000 people have been murdered in Sudan, Africa and 2 million more displaced.” Reports Boston Heralds, Fred Bridgland on March 5^th, 2006. The televised media appears to be just beginning to cover this issue. Many people in America are unaware of the sickening events that are taking place is Sudan and the U.S. Government has not yet taken any direct action into helping stop this situation. It is a very controversial issue and I am sure some people would say this discussion does not belong in a school newspaper.

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If you are a staff member or student, we would like to hear your opinion on weather or not the Rampage should include editorials (written by Rampage staff members or readers) that discuss current events and politics. If you do think we should publish stories about important world events then give us your opinion on the Sudan Genocide issue.