Darfur

A deadly conflict happening in Darfur (a region of western Sudan) is causing a stir around the world. The conflict is ethnic and tribal, unlike the second Sudanese Civil War which was fought between the mostly Muslim north and the Christian and Animist south (wikipedia 1). One side of the conflict consists of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed, which is a militia group recruited mostly from the Arab Baggara tribes of the northern Rizeigat (camel herding nomads); the other side consists of different rebel groups, including the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement. The Sudanese government has provided money and assistance to the Janjaweed and has participated in attacks targeting the tribes who get support from the rebel groups. Darfur has experienced decades of drought, desertification, and overpopulation which are among the causes of the conflict. The Baggara nomads searching for water have to take their livestock further south, to land mainly occupied by non-Arab farming communities (wikipedia 1). The following text will shine some light on this unfortunate situation, and will analyze American society’s attitude towards the conflict.

Some say the starting point of the conflict was February 26, 2003. On this date, a group called the Darfur Liberation Front (DLF) publicly claimed credit for an attack on the headquarters of the Jebel Marra District (wikipedia 1). Other sources have said that the beginning of the crisis is more accurately dated to July 21, 2001, when a group of Zaghawa and Fur met and swore oaths on the Qur’an to work together to defend against government-sponsored attacks on their villages. On April 23, 2003, a joint Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and a Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) force in 33 Land Cruisers entered al-Fashir and attacked a sleeping garrison (wikipedia 1). Seventy-five people were killed in the attack. In the middle months of 2003, the rebels won 34 of 38 engagements; however, at this point, the government changed its strategy. Given that the army was being consistently defeated, the war effort depended on military intelligence, the air force, and the Janjaweed (wikipedia 1). The Janjaweed were put at the center of the new counter-insurgency strategy, and were turned into a paramilitary force, complete with communication equipment and some artillery. The fact that the Janjaweed were given communication equipment and weapons by the government shows just how much the Sudanese officials wanted certain people annihilated

Following the change in strategy, the better-armed Janjaweed quickly gained the upper hand, and by the spring of 2004, several thousand people had been killed and as many as a million more had been driven from their homes (wikipedia 1). The crisis gained international attention when over 100,000 refugees poured into neighboring Chad, pursued by Janjaweed militiamen, who clashed with Chadian government forces along the border. More that 70 militiamen and 10 Chadian soldiers were killed in one gun battle in April (wikipedia 1). A United Nations observer team reported that non-Arab villages were targeted while Arab villages were left untouched. As the fighting continued throughout the next several years, the crisis threatened to “shut down the world’s largest aid operation” as international aid organizations considered leaving due to attacks on their personnel (wikipedia 1). On August 18, 2006, the deputy head of the UN Peacekeeping Forces Hedi Annabi, warned during a private meeting that Sudan appeared to be undertaking preparations for a major military offensive in the region. On November 17, reports of a potential deal to place a “compromising peace force” in Darfur were announced, but would later appear to have been rejected by Sudan (wikipedia 1). A cease-fire was agreed to, but the attacks continued, which showed that the Sudanese government was not interested in resolving the conflict and did not care about the numerous people who were being murdered.

In July 2007, BBC News reported that a huge underground lake had been found in the Darfur region (wikipedia 1). It was suggested that this find could help end the war, because it could eliminate the existing competition for precious water sources. From August 3, 2007 to August 5, 2007, a conference was held in Tanzania to unite the different existing rebel groups to make peace negotiations with the government of Sudan more streamlined (wikipedia 1). They eventually reached an agreement on joined demands, including power and wealth sharing, security, land, and humanitarian issues. In the several months up through August, Arab tribes that had worked together in the Janjaweed militia began falling out among themselves. Peace talks started on October 27, 2007 (wikipedia 1), which is a ray of hope for the people who are suffering from the violence.

A man who is foreign to Sudan recently took a trip there and wrote a book titled The Devil Came on Horseback. Brian Steidle told a story of his visit and explained what he saw when he spent time in Darfur. He was taken to a village of Um Zaifa that had been attacked Janjaweed forces, and learned that government officials dressed in military uniforms had approached the village and told residents that they could either leave or die. Approximately 1,750 families from the village left the camp (Steidle 167). Steidle saw several shops that had been looted, and saw metal doors with bullet holes in them; he then learned that thirty people had been killed. He saw first-hand the type of unfortunate destruction that is happening in Darfur.

Gerard Prunier, author of the book The Ambiguous Genocide, stated that the quickly deteriorating crisis in Darfur has been know to the world since 1999; but, what actually brought attention to the situation was the interview given by UN Human Rights Coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, to the UN’s IRIN network (Prunier 127). Kapila declared that Darfur was “the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.” Prunier says that few people had ever heard of Darfur and that its history was a mystery that nobody was particularly interested in. But, now there was a good story: the first genocide of the twenty-first century (Prunier 127). He implies that we have been extremely irresponsible in the way we have handled the crisis. The American government knew that something bad was happening, but only chose to pay attention when it was declared a great humanitarian crisis.

A common attitude toward the crisis in Darfur is “out of sight, out of mind.” Americans take for granted the simple everyday luxuries we have: running water, electricity, shelter, food, available medical care, etc. Meanwhile, people in Darfur are persecuted and murdered by their own government, driven from their homes and sent to camps to live. Families are often separated, and children are left to be orphans. People around the world have been turning a blind eye to the people who need their help. We knew there was a crisis but chose to pretend it did not exist, and now it has turned into a massive genocide. Some people believe that focusing their attention on their own lives makes the crisis less real because it is not happening to them. As mentioned above, the attitude is out of sight, out of mind and that attitude is extremely selfish and despicable. The more we get caught up in our own material lives and choose not to pay attention to what’s happening to our fellow human beings, the more pathetic and useless we become.

Since the conflict’s beginning as many as 400,000 villagers have died at the hands of militias backed by the Sudanese government, and another two million have been forced into camps (Speck 1). It is obvious that something has to be done. Death tolls of this magnitude are simply unacceptable; innocent people are dying, and if the violence does not end soon we could see death tolls nearing those of the Holocaust. The people of Sudan are being attacked by their own government, the people who they are supposed to be able to depend on when they need help. Governments are supposed to take care of their people, not take their lives. The world’s powerful nations need to come together and figure out a solution, before Darfur reaches a point from which it cannot recover. Our society needs to wake up and realize that if we continue to turn a blind eye to what’s going on in Darfur, we are no better than the Sudanese government who is killing their citizens. Americans and others must figure out a way to help our fellow human beings, because everyone deserves the chance to lead a happy, peaceful, and safe life, not just the people living in material bliss.

Works Cited

Prunier, Gerard. Darfur The Ambiguous Genocide. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005.

Putrich, Gayle S. “Foreign Operations Bill Sent To Conference After Senate Adds Funds To Fight ‘Genocide.’” CQ Weekly 25 September 2004.

Speck, Mary. “U.S. Calls For Doubling Of Darfur.” CQ Weekly 13 March 2006.

Steidle, Brian, and Gretchen Steidle Wallace. The Devil Came on Horseback. New York, New York: Public Affairs, 2007.

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 24 Oct 2007 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict].rfur