ALHAMBRA - Mony Sing was 9 years old when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia on April 17, 1975.

Three days later, her home was burned to the ground; Sing's father and sister were murdered on the streets; and she watched her brothers starve to death when they couldn't beg for enough food.

Sing herself would barely escape a soldier's brutal beating after he accused her of stealing fruit.

"The pain is horrible, unimaginable," the U.S. Congressional field deputy told an auditorium of government and history students at Alhambra High School on Friday morning.

Sing was among a panel of speakers touring area schools with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, to raise awareness for the current genocide in Darfur, Sudan, where around 400,000 people have been killed by roving bands of Muslim janjaweed rebels, and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced to primitive refugee camps.

"As we are sitting here halfway around the world, a genocide is taking place," Schiff told the students. "People are getting killed just because of who they are."

The teenagers sat in silence as Sing told personal accounts of girls their age being summarily raped by soldiers and innocent boys being forced to watch their parents die before being slain themselves.

Isaac Mabior Amol, now a stu dent at Point Loma Nazarene, recounted similar experiences as one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" of the Sudanese civil war.

In 1987, the then-4-year-old's village was attacked and all adults killed. He and the other children ran to the jungles and began their years-long journey from refugee camp to refugee camp, hiding from both wild animals and Sudanese soldiers.

"I didn't have parents," he said. "I couldn't understand why my own country wanted to kill me."

The Rev. Vazken Movsesian, director of In His Shoes Ministries, sought to put the experience into perspective for the teens.

"Your biggest decision is whether to pick up the PSP or the Xbox 360," he said. "Imagine being 10 years old and making life and death decisions every day."

While stopping a genocide half a world away could seem a tall order for a high school student, Adam Sterling, national policy director for the Sudan Divestment task force, urged the youths to join organizations that are forcing companies in the United States and abroad to divest in Sudanese oil. More than 70 percent of the country's oil profits goes to the government, which backs the genocide, he added.

"It's very expensive for the government to support death," he said. "They can't do it without this money."

Afterward, students quietly shuffled out of the auditorium. But many conceded they weren't sure whether their classmates would take action.

"I would hope yes - we'll talk about it ," said Justin Chang, 17. "But we'll say `We're young. What can we do? We can't make a difference."'

cortney.fielding@sgvn.com

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