User:Josifguy/sandbox

WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS

My name is Guy. I was born in a village called Mara in western Sudan, Darfur. I was

born by the name Abdelhamid Yousif Ismail Adem in 1986. I am the son of Yousif

Ismail Adem and Fatimah Abdul Mahmud. I am the second in a family/line of four

brothers and three sisters. A family of which I am not certain whether they are alive

today. I survived the genocide in Darfur. After I have seen people being killed by the

name of religion I converted from Islam to Christianity. With this change of religion

came a change of name and a change of place. No longer do I carry the name given to

me by my parents. My name is Guy now and today I live in Israel.

I will take you back to my childhood in Darfur, one that was brutally disrupted by the

Janjaweed when I was a teenager. My parents were farmers. They cultivated fruits like

citrus and vegetable such as sorghum. Our family owned cows, goats, sheep, horses,

and camels. We were self-reliant. There were around 2000 people living in our village,

all of us were farmers. Today there is no village anymore, everything was burned and

the villagers had to flee to IDP-camps or across the border to Chad or even further to

Egypt or Israel. Before the genocide happened I used to help my father and mother in

the farm when I returned from school. Unfortunately I had to stop school after grade

six. My parents did not have money to pay for the school fees. The little money we had

was used for survival and to provide the family with basic necessities. Therefore, I did

not complete my education in Darfur. Although I was really interested in education there

was no opportunity for me due to our family situation.

In 2003 our lives changed indefinitely. The war broke down in Darfur and my village was

looted and burned and we remained with nothing. One afternoon in August 2003 started

as usual, we were having tea together and brothers were playing in front of us. Suddenly

nine people with the uniform of the Sudanese military came into our compound and

started beating us. Our village was attacked by around 200 members of the Janjaweed.

They came on foot, horse, camels, and in cars with machine guns and Khalasnikov’s

shooting at every human being in their sight. They burned all the houses in our village

and took the cattle with them. I got a change to escape, but never saw my family again.

The Janjaweed got support from the Sudanese government, who got support from other

Arab states to eliminate people in Darfur. As I understand it Darfur is a region that is

rich of natural resources and everyone is really interested and want to have their share.

The people in Darfur are killed because they have a different colour of skin and they

follow different cultural traditions. Furthermore they want to steal our land. They are

still killing nowadays, but no one knows about this, and no one cares. The world seems

to be ignorant for the suffering of my people in Darfur. A lot of people were killed in

my village and other villages in our neighbourhood by the Janjaweed. Janjaweed literally

translates into ‘devil on the back of horse’. During the attack all members of my family

escaped in different ways. I escaped alone and left my family behind. I was not sure if I

would see them alive again or not. I was running away alone.

I met some guys from the UN mine action office and they stopped and asked me where

I was going. I told them that my village was burned and that I left my family there. I told

them that I was not sure if the villagers survived. They told me to turn back with them,

I told them no, because the youngsters could be killed by the Janjaweed if they returned.

That is why I was afraid. The village that was close to us was burned and a lot of young

people were killed even in the hand of the UN and that is why I was afraid to return to

my village. From there I stayed with some guys from the UN who hide me in their car.

While I remained in the car they went to my village and saw that everyone was killed and

they could not find my family.

From that day I stayed with the guys from the UN until they took me to their main

office in Khartoum. I started working with them as a security guard. There was one guy

who supported me to go to school. I went to the Evangelical evening basic school in

Giraf West and I stayed there from class one up to class four. From there I continue in

the Young Men Christian Association Centre in Amarat, Khartoum. I studied there for

six month before I went to Abraham Higher School in Bahre. In Bahre I sat for my high

school examination and I succeeded. From there I went to Juba University, Khartoum

branch and studied for one month. The government created a plan for the students from

Darfur or South Sudan that you will be arrested and they will take you to the security

prison and torture you. Some of my good friends were killed in the university. The

Sudanese Security arbitrary arrested students from Darfur and South Sudan. The security

from the National Congress Party (NCP), the party leaded by Omar Hassan Ahmad Al

Bashir, followed me because I am from Darfur and because I was staying with the guys

from the UN. I supported them with information on what was going on in Darfur and

sometimes we visited Darfur and I explained about the people living in de IDP-camp. I

was interpreting for the people and explained what they wanted and needed. Then we

came back to Khartoum where I was arrested for three months and I was in the prison. I

was tortured and they beat me, insult me, they said: “you people cannot rule this state

and you will not get your right”. They asked me what I was doing with the UN and why

I was working with them. After three months imprisonment and humiliation I was

released. After one month I was arrested again for another two weeks. They beat me and

asked what the UN guys were doing and why they want to help people from my region,

because they do not want the people from Darfur to survive and they do not want the

UN to help Darfurians. I was quite and they beat me, but I did not answer their

questions and they released me. After one week I was arrested again in the streets when I

was going to the market. The last day that I was arrested they threat me and told me that

they do not want to see me again and gave me one week to leave Sudan. They want me

to quit my job with the UN. From there I told them nothing and they guy from the UN

wrote in the newspaper about me. He wrote that he helped a displaced person from

Darfur who had no family to study. In the article he explained that I was arrested a few

times and bad things happened to me also he requested my release. The security men

brought me the newspaper and told me that: “there is someone who want you to have a

future and want you to study so we are going to release you but you have one week to

leave Khartoum and Sudan in general”. I had to leave the country but to where?

There was someone from the UN who tried to help me to go to Denmark, but the

process took at least one month and I told him if I stay one month I might miss my life.

I heard there was a way for refugees from Darfur to go to Israel. I made my decision and

I came to Israel. First I travelled to Egypt from Khartoum. I travelled by train to Halfa

port, the border of Egypt and Sudan, and then from there I crossed into Egypt. I spend

one month in Egypt in En Shams where I met someone who helped the guys to go to

Israel. In the evening we were taken by small bus to a Bedouin place and I stayed with

them for nine days. We were 23 people from Darfur and Eritrea. Thirteen people got

killed in front of our eyes; only ten survived and arrived in Israel. The Egyptian border

patrol shoots at people randomly. People arrive in Israel with bullet wounds, families are

separated at the border, others loose their lives there.

“EDUCATION IS THE KEY OF LIFE”

After all I have been through, I was looking for a place where I can be safe and study

and do something for the coming generation. In Israel I have a dream to study. However

it is not unproblematic as we have no right to study or to work to earn money to survive.

Nevertheless I really have a dream; my dream is that with education I can change

something. It is really hard. Until now I did not know where my family is and if they are

alive or not and I never been in contact with them since 2003. On the 4th

2011 I received a phone call from someone who used to live in the same village where I

was born. He told me that my brother is in Israel. My brother did not know that I was in

Israel or even that I was alive. I did not expect to see him alive. It was a very good day

for me because I saw my brother alive that I was not expecting to see him. He is here in

Israel with me. He got shot in his leg when he was crossing the Israeli border. I asked

him about my family. He also does not know where they are. But the situation that he

was explaining to me was something that we need to go to school so that we can provide

a good future for the coming generation. However here in Israel I do not think that we

can do anything. Education is the key of life and here in Israel it is really hard, we cannot

go to school in Israel. I was trying, worked really hard but I was not able to join

university here. I am looking for the school that accept me to study and I would

appreciate it if I could be part of your university. I came here because the Israeli’s and

Darfurians have a shared history of genocide. The Israeli’s experienced the Holocaust. I

came because I could not stay in Sudan and there was no place for me to go. If I go to

another African country it is very hard for me to live. I was expecting to find the Israeli

government and society after happening the Holocaust and they were refugees and I was

expecting that they may help me to go to school and do something to stop the ongoing

killing in Darfur and to work for change in my home and the rest of the world. When I

came here I saw that everything was the opposite of what I expected. First, I got a visa

from the detention camp in the Negev desert. I was in the camp for 28 days and the

judge released me and I got a visa for three months. Every three months I go to the

interior minister to renew my visa and in my visa it is written that I am not allowed to

work. All Sudanese are ‘protected’ under a temporary group protection. With this

conditional release visa there are no rights, other than to legally stay in the country. We

have no medical or social rights here. We went to the UNHCR in Israel and they are

really different because they seem not to care for the plight of African refugees in Israel.

I got baptized in the Evangelical church in Khartoum. When I was young I saw a lot of

people being killed without reason because of their religion in 1988. According to me

this is not what is written in the Koran. I studied the killings and I saw that what they did

and what is written in the Koran are not what supposed to be done. I do not want to be

a part of this crime. What they do is against human rights and international law and they

do not tell the truth and I do not want to be part of that. I made a decision to change my

religion to Christianity at the Young Man Association Center. I believe that as human

beings we are equal as we were born, whatever our color; black, white, pink, blue. I

believe that we are all human beings.