News-Sentinel - 10/11/2006

Students’ cross-country trek puts focus on genocide
By Nicole Lee

On Tuesday, Hasmig Tatiossian, Vahe Abovian and Edward S. Majian walked along U.S. 30 in Fort Wayne as part of their 3,000-mile trek to raise awareness to the genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

They belong to Journey for Humanity, an advocacy group comprising a handful of college students from across the country.

Logging about 30 miles a day, the walkers have now trekked through Warsaw, Columbia City and Fort Wayne.

The point of the walk, said Tatiossian, 23, a graduate student at New York University, is to put the spotlight on what’s happening in Darfur, and also to bring public attention to other genocides that occurred in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Nazi Germany.

“We see genocide as a problem that plagued the 20th century and is starting to plague the 21st century,” she said. “It’s been an incredible experience.”

The walk started in June at City Hall in Los Angeles and will culminate in late October or early November in Washington, D.C. Tatiossian said Journey for Humanity organizers are working with legislators to make their case before Congress.

Since civil war erupted in Darfur in February 2003, more than 400,000 people have been killed and 2 million driven from their homes, according to the Fort Wayne office of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization.

The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997. Congress declared the situation in Darfur a “genocide” in July 2004.

Source: News Sentinel