Indifference: The Greatest Sin of All
Raising Awareness in Darfur
Only recently has the situation in Darfur has come into my awareness. It is sad to say, seeing as how this UN declared genocide has been going on for 3 years! The underreporting of this conflict is something I wish to bring awareness to as well as share some unfortunate information as to what exactly is going on.
Darfur, the western region of Sudan, Africa is home to an estimated six million people. It is also the battlefield on which the 21st century's first genocide rages. It is estimated that some 400,000 have already been killed. 2.5 million are displaced, 3.5 million are hungry and 80 – 90% of all villages in Darfur have been decimated. Darfurians who make it to the crowded refugee camps along the Sudan-Chad border are plagued by lurking Janjaweed militias and inadequate food, water, shelter, healthcare, and sanitation.
According to reports, the situation in Darfur is complex, resulting from many historic, social and cultural forces. Unequal distribution of economic resources and general neglect of the Darfur region prompted a rebellion against the Sudanese government in 2003. The two main rebel groups, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), claim that the government is oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs.
In response, the Sudanese government (often referred to as Khartoum, which is the capital of Sudan) is backing Janjaweed militias as they murder, rape, loot, and expel non-Arab Africans from Darfur. Non-Arab men, women, and children have been forced from their homes and face starvation and the constant threat of violence. Though the government denies that they are connected to the Janjaweed, hard evidence shows that they have aided the militias by providing them with arms and enhancing attacks with aerial bombardment. The tactics of the Janjaweed, including the systematic poisoning of wells and burning of food stores, indicate that the dispute is not over land or resources. Nor is it a religious conflict. It is believed that the Khartoum is utilizing the historic animosity between the region’s mostly “Arab” nomadic herders and “African” settled farmers for its own benefit. By generating anarchy, the government weakens the position of its enemies.
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry found evidence of systematic rape, burning, looting, and other crimes against humanity occurring throughout the Darfur region and the violence is visibly increasing. The International Rescue Committee reported that more humanitarian aid workers were killed in July of this year (2006) than had been killed in the previous three years combined.
President Bush classified the crisis a genocide in September 2004. The U.S. was the force behind a U.N. Security Council statement that began preliminary planning for the possible deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur. Though the need has been recognized, international troops have not been officially pledged to Darfur. All that stands between the Janjaweed and innocent civilians are the approximately 7,000 under-funded, under-armed African Union (AU) troops currently in Darfur, an area the size of Texas or France. Though the African Union presence has been shown to deter attacks in some situations, AU troops cannot offer outright protection to Darfurian civilians.
The U.N. hopes to deploy peacekeepers by January 2007 at the earliest. There are several obstacles though. Troops take time to deploy, and the logistical and financial support of U.N. member states is both necessary and unlikely to be timely. Sudan, a sovereign nation, has stated that it will refuse to admit peacekeepers. The U.N. is pressuring Khartoum with little success and unfortunately the situation on the ground continues to disintegrate. The increase in violence has put the humanitarian life-support system on life-support itself, and the nightmare scenario of a complete security collapse and the spike in death-rate that will surely follow now appears to be not a possibility, but a probability. UN official Jan Egland has previously said that he believes the death-rate could rise as high as 100,000 per month if security collapses.
With non-Arab men, women, and children are being killed in Darfur and millions of people being forced from their homes, will we continue to turn a blind eye? How long before we learn from history? How many more times will humanity let a Nazi Germany, Idi Amin, Khmer Rouge, Rwanda, or Bosnia occur. I feel saddened and ignorant for not knowing much about this situation. Upon asking several residents of Cleveland about Darfur, I have shockingly found that I am not alone in my lack of understanding and awareness. As Election Day has come and gone, stopping the genocide in Darfur should have been on the agenda. By some figures more have died in three years of genocide in Darfur then under the entire regime of Saddam Hussein (24 years)! We have fought 2 wars, spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and lost thousands of our young men and women for that “brutal regime.” Shouldn’t we be urging the United Statesst Century not worthy of national attention? government to set-up an international peacekeeping intervention, or is the first genocide of the 21 Without immediate action we abandon thousands, perhaps millions, to a massacre. Can this happen under our watch? In our time? As George Santayana stated, “Those who do not learn from history are damned to repeat it.” I fear, as the most powerful country on earth we will be judged harshly on the altar of history for our silence! I urge you to learn and raise awareness of this situation as I wish to no longer remain ignorant to such crimes against humanity. The whole underreported situation brings tears to my eyes.
Information for this article was taken from the group STAND (www.standnow.org) Volunteers are needed to help organize a fundraiser for organizations working directly with the refugees of Darfur --Janee Kuta-Iliano
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