Scribbles.

Darfur Interview with Ben&Alex

Darfur is a region in western Sudan. In February 2003, right after the civil war ended, the genocide and conflict began to start. The rebel groups became largely frustrated and led an attack against the government. But the government took it seriously, and led an even bigger attack against the Darfur region.  The government just implemented the policies used in the Civil War, which was to “get rid” and attack and kill people.  There is a small debate over whether the term “genocide” fits what’s going on in Darfur, although the U.S. government uses it to describe the conflict. There are about 400,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced from homes.  People are being forced to move into refugee camps and leave to the nearest country, Chad. 

The people that cause most of this damage are the Sudanese Government and Janjaweed. The gov’t has been giving the Janjaweed money and weapons. Because the Janjaweed and the people of Darfur have been in conflict for years, the gov’t is taking advantage of this and using them to kill.  The Janjaweed use mainly horseback, and some of its militia are on foot.  Even though Sudan insists that they dont supply the Janjaweed, we know that the Janjaweed doesn’t have enough to do what they have been doing.

China gives Sudan military support & support in the UN Security Council, and because Africa is growing, the Chinese want to strength their ties to Africa. The UN gets power from the U.S., United Kingdom and China. Because China doesn’t believe in human intervention, they’ve been one of the main reason the U.S. government hasn’t been able to do anything to resolve this issue.

February 2008 is the 5 year anniversary of the genocide in Darfur. Darfur represents the first ON-GOING genocide. It also marks the first genocide in which the UN Security Council has resolved to have something done, and it hasn’t been done because the Sudanese gov’t has essentially eluded the UN Security Council concerning this issue.  The Sudanese gov’t is now hesistant to complete and go with the decisions and resolutions they have committed to in the past.

Another thing about the conflict is that it started around the same time as the war in Iraq. Because it is an overlap of time, the U.S.’s foreign policy has been “dominated” by the war in Iraq.  Another thing is that it may END by the end of the war in Iraq, depending on who is president in 2009, since it is not a top priority in the Bush Administration.

One of the reasons people don’t know about Darfur is that the media hardly covers it, we get more stories about celebrities than we do about world events. When you turn the news on, you expect to hear about world conflicts, but instead you are hearing about things we DON’T need to know. Some people don’t feel that its our place to help in Darfur and that it’s not our duty to “intervene.”  People fear that what happened in Iraq will happen if we go to Darfur, and that it will be another invasion.  we[us against Genocide]are not looking for an invasion, we just want the situation to be known and provide the very needed help to the suffering in Darfur.

The ultimate goal is a comprehensive, regional treaty and indictments on all perpetrators. 

The remaining question is:

 “How can people take action if they are oblivious to the conflict?”

We need to make people more aware of what’s going on in the world, and raise awareness for something that needs to be stopped.

Filed by two13 at February 11th, 2008 under Uncategorized