At a rally on the steps of Memorial Church last night, students protested the ongoing genocide in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

More than a hundred people gathered on the steps of Memorial Church last night for a candlelight vigil aimed at raising awareness of the ongoing genocide in Sudan.

Arab militias known as the Janjaweed—supported, many charge, by the government in Khartoum—have attacked numerous black African villages in the country’s Darfur region, displacing upwards of 1.5 million people and leaving tens of thousands killed.

Harvard’s Darfur Action Group, which organized the event, handed out petitions for students to sign, urging the United States government and the United Nations to take more action in reigning in the Sudanese government.

The Darfur Action Group is also promoting an effort to get Harvard to divest from companies that conduct business with the Sudanese government. According to organizers, approximately 350 members of the Harvard community have signed a petition asking the University to selling its shares in PetroChina, a Beijing-based oil firm with links to Khartoum. The University’s most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that stake is worth $1.8 million.

Harvard’s top investment official has commented that divestment might have adverse humanitarian consequences by eliminating jobs for Sudanese civilians.

Last night, Sudan native Simon A. Deng addressed the crowd, telling them of his own experiences during the country’s civil war in the 1960s.

He said his village in the Sudan was raided by government troops, who killed—among others—a pregnant woman in labor and two blind elderly people who were unable to run.

“They were burned in their house alive by the government,” said Deng.

He managed to escape with his life, but was forced into slavery for three years.

The conflict in Darfur has received increased media attention in recent months, but Deng stressed that the government and the militias it supports have a long history of violence.

“What you see today in Darfur is not something new. Sudan has been in war since before independence,” Deng said.

He thanked people for sending letters to U.N. and U.S. officials.

“With your pen,” Deng said, “you can save victims in the Sudan.”

The event was the conclusion of the group’s week-long campaign of flyering and holding small events to raise student awareness of the situation in the Darfur.

Although the Darfur Action Group’s focused one-week campaign has ended, the group plans to build off the strength of last night’s event, according to lead organizer Bec Hamilton, a student at the Kennedy School and the Law School.

“[The turnout] certainly helps affirms your faith,” Hamilton said. “This is the launch of what is going to be a long-term campaign.”

Events such as this one have occurred on other college campuses, including Yale, Columbia, and Duke, said Jesse A. Sage ’98, associate director of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which aims to bring attention to slavery worldwide.

“What we are doing here is being echoed across the country,” Sage told the assembled crowd. “You are sending a message that students and Americans will not be silent.”

Students in attendance reacted positively to the event.

Ben B. Collins ’06, a social studies concentrator in Eliot House who co-drafted the divestment petition, said he was impressed by the turnout and the speakers.

“I’m optimistic that it could result in a long-term focus on Africa,” he said.