Mohamed Yahya spoke at Golden High School

Students of the Golden High School,
Distinguished teachers and Staff,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning,

First of all, I would like to thank you all so much for having me here today, It is a real honor to come to speak to you about Darfur genocide and to share with you my personal story, the conflict dimension, the current situation and more.
Before proceeding with my speech, please allow me to give my special recognition to one of my  wonderful friends and one of your very active, compassionate students, without his initiative, and  putting successfully all this together, we wouldn't be here today. Please give a round of applause to Mr. Kevin Thiorin for his amazing work that he did with all of you, as students, teachers and even the community and organizations around the Colorado area. Please also let me to recognize our great teachers who helped  enormously to make this event possible. Without their cooperation, guidance and support we couldn't make it.  Especially Mr. Hashemi David. Please give him a big round of applause.
 
Thank you very much again for your kind invitation, and generous consideration to my work and my organization Damanga and my people of Darfur. Today I was deeply touched and enormously moved by the  outstanding support and the spectacular arrangements you all participated to make. I can't just thank you enough.

The question I would ask to consider - could you imagine being beaten, attacked, even killed - just for who you are?  Not just men, but women and children - even young school children.  Could you imagine your home being burned down just because of who you are?  This and much worse is part of the genocide that is going on in Darfur today.
 
You might all know about Darfur of the western Sudan from the media and the daily news. But you might not meet with a refugee from Darfur like me. So when a victim and the audience meet face to face for the first time. Honestly, It is easy for me to speak to adults a bout my story and Darfur tragedy. But it wasn't easy to talk to young people like you. Simply because it is something that beyond your comprehension, as well as beyond your imagination. But we have to do our best to deal with it in a capacity that easier for  all of us to understand.

Ladies and gentlemen, I was born in a small village in the eastern part of al-geniena town and capitol of west Darfur. Since I was a child of a 7 years old in my school, I have experienced a brutal discrimination by my own Arab teacher, who beaten me badly for every single reason. I can't forget the worst one when I have beaten terribly, just because I asked my classmate politely for eraser in my tribal language. Because, I have to speak in Arabic not my language as my teacher said. However, since then I realized, it must be something wrong in my country. A few years later, a systematic campaign of Arabs militias what so called Janjaweed, with a support of Sudan government leaded by the president Omar Hessian Ahmad Al-bashir attacked my village in 1993 a long with fifty surrounding villages and destroyed them to the ashes in one day. They set a fire over our "huts," shot those running out, Including Kids, eldest, women and girls and even animals. Looted our properties, money and burnt our crops and poisoned our "wells" of only water resources we had. In that day, I lost 21 of my family members and very close relatives. Some of them burnt alive, others Insulted and killed, the rest were shot dead. I was just left them peaceful and a live returning back to my University of Al-azhar in Cairo Egypt, after I spent with my family a few weeks of my vacation. I was totally shocked and couldn't believed what happened when I received a letter from my Mom, telling me about the horrible stories that was hard to believe, But her story was emphasized by those able to flee Darfur to Egypt seeking for safe haven. I immediately, called my friends and colleagues for an urgent meeting where we discussed the situation, and decided to form our first grassroots organization RMCE- "The representatives of the Massage Community in Exile" and wrote our first "Open letter to the United Nations and the International Community a bout the Hidden slaughter and Ethnic Cleansing in Western Sudan."
 
Please visit www.damanga.org to see our archieve the first article ever done about Darfur genocide at a time and quoted often by the former Secretary General of the UN Mr. Kofi Anan in 1999 to 2000. We walked on foot and delivered our letters to the Foreign Embassies around Cairo. Then it was circulated widely a round the world. Since then Darfur Issue has gotten this remarkable attention. We were just students like you and are able to do this without having even resources like you have. We don't have funds or donations.  We only had money out of our pockets which were very little. No office, no Cars and no other logistics. Even though we are able to help and facilitate, coordinate and translate the critical cases for more than 20 thousands of Darfuri and Sudanese refugees who fled to Europe, Africa, Middle-east and Western countries. We are able to support their claims with collaborations with UN offices in Egypt and other countries to grant them asylums, refugee status and protection to live in such countries like US, Europe, Canada, Austria and Norway. This is one of our best accomplishments beside highlighting Darfur to the world media and the continues education we still doing it with you in your school.

We are also working with hundreds of schools, Universities, Colleges, Synagogues and Churches a round US and even overseas.

I strongly believe you can do it my friends, since you have those active students like Kevin and teachers like Hashemi. I'm sure we can change the whole world not only Darfur. The world failed to stop the first Holocaust in Europe, when Hitler killed over 5 million Jews and Christians, The world failed to stop Burma Genocide in Seventies, Yugoslavia genocide, Armenian genocide, Rwanda genocide in 1994.  Will the world fail Darfur genocide of today. Which is the only ongoing genocide of the 21st century? It is very Important that we will work together to stop it. And bring those Indicted by the ICC, the International Criminal Court that released it's arrest warrant against Al-bashir and other suspects for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. We need to bring them to Justice. Because we believe, there's no justice without peace. We can't forgive criminals who uprooted more than 450.000 of their own Innocent civilians without any reason only because they are black Africans, not Arabs. Despite they all Muslims in Darfur the same as their Muslim killers from Arab. It just makes no sense at all.

Can you believe that while these attacks, against the Innocents going on all over Darfur, inside their Camps, Cities, Villages, day through the night by the Sudanese government troops and the Janjaweed Militias, Al-bashir allowed to negotiate Doha/Qatar peace deal with couple Darfuri rebels Rebels, Also Al-bashir allowed by the UN, US, EU, AU, Arab leagues and the Islamic Countries to run for presidency through the April 11th elections. Which's totally unfair and unacceptable? Because an Indicted war criminal who killed millions of Christians of South Sudan before the CPA Agreement in 2005. Now they have killed over ½ millions in Darfur. They shouldn't allowed to be legitimized by the name of Democracy or peace. This is illegal and unacceptable. We need to ask our leaders and the whole world not to allow this to happen. Specially Al-bashir and his NCP government are never trusted and never honored any agreement before since they came to power by a coup in 1989. They must go forever. We can't let someone who is worse than Hitler, Sdddam Hussein of Iraq, Charles Taylor of Liberia, and Milosevic of Yugoslavia to get away with it. It is our moral responsibility to do the  justice. We can't forget what President Bush Said before" not on my watch, to Rwanda, and Darfur" and we can't forget what President Obama said: during the elections: "the Darfur genocide is stain on our faces and we will stop it". But when he becomes president, he forgot his promises. So let's remind him.

Dear friends, you are our leaders for tomorrow. But you can't be a real leader for tomorrow if you don't assume leadership today. You must feel confident from now that you are a leader and feel confident upon yourself that you will do the best and the right thing our leaders of today have failed to do it. Because we need to have a better world that we all can live to enjoy in peace, dignity and freedom. Regardless of our culture, religions, nationalities, languages, colors and borders, we are all connected in a one small world that we must all work hard for its safety and survivals. Please continue to do your very important work that just started today. I'm certain that this school, those students and those teachers can lead us to the best, hopeful and brighter future.

Thank you again, God bless you all in this beautiful City, God bless our great America.
Mohamed Yahya