The leader of a group seeking to bring peace to Sudan — where conflicts between militias and government-sponsored terrorists have raged for years — will speak about his experiences Friday.

John Garang, chairman of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement, will give an analysis of peace agreements that have been negotiated over the past two years.

The speech is at 3 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

Garang is an ISU graduate; he earned a master’s in agricultural economics in 1979 and doctorate in economics in 1981. He started the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army in 1983 to improve the political, economic and human rights conditions of the majority Christian population.

Lual Duo, president of the South Sudanese Student Association and junior in political science, said that Garang had an opportunity to stay in the United States to teach and lead a comfortable life but decided to return to Sudan to help the people.

Duo said the South Sudanese hold Garang in high regard for this decision.

Since 1983, 2.5 million Sudanese have been killed and 4 million displaced from their homes by the Islamic minority, Duo said. He said displacement has been primarily to control the oil fields in the south.

The militias have committed numerous human rights violations in the 21-year civil war — burning villages and displacing, raping and killing people, according to a June CNN report.

The current Sudanese government is similar to the Taliban: fundamentalist and difficult to change, Duo said. The atrocities and theft of land in southern Sudan tapered off after the U.S. government threatened sanctions two years ago, he said. The violence has since shifted west, to the Darfur region.

Arne Hallam, chairman and professor of economics, said the peace agreement should hold as long as there is international pressure.

“Clearly, Sudan has been one of the most violent and unpleasant places in the world,” Hallam said.

Since the south has been holding its ground for the last 20 years, he said the north is beginning to realize they will reach little more than a stalemate. He said the North Sudanese have begun attacking Darfur to sap them of their resources and humanity as they did in the southern part of Sudan.

“I’m surprised there isn’t more of a worldwide outcry about the West,” Hallam said.

Attendance is expected to be good, but not standing-room-only as it was when Garang spoke here two years ago.

Lowered expected attendance is being attributed to short notice and the fact that Garang may be speaking in Des Moines on Saturday, Hallam said.