Scribbles.

Darfur Mini Thesis [ a call for action. ]

His name is Mohammed. He is 10 years old, and living in Darfur, Sudan. Seven months ago, his village was raided, and the Janjaweed forced his family to run and live in the refugee camps. He currently lives with his mother and sister. But he has no idea what has happened with his father. They didn’t have any food, or water. But they made the long journey to Nyala, a town in Southern Darfur. Nyala is the largest town in the region, and over 150,000 people have gone there seeking refuge. When Mohammed isn’t reading or learning, he is working. He rents a donkey from a man living nearby, and goes to the wells each day to collect water. Mohammed then sells the water to the refugees, and splits his profits with the donkey’s owner. After all of this work, he makes about a dollar [in U.S. dollars] a day. Mohammed’s future is unknown. He makes the rides out to the well everyday, putting his life at risk to gather water for the people in his camp. It is our global responsibility to help the suffering refugees of Darfur.

The crisis began in 2003, when Sudan discovered that its capital had a great resource of oil. Because of this, other countries bargained with Sudan so that they could be some of the recipients of the oil. One of the main receivers of the oil was China. Since China was receiving enough oil for their supply, they became the main backers of the Sudanese policy. This came in handy when people from certain villages in Sudan decided to fight back .The capital was getting large amounts of money for their oil, yet they couldn’t spare any to the villages in need. Some rebels set out on a mission to save themselves and the others in their villages. This confrontation eventually came to the point where the government had to hire people to “deal” with the rebels. Here came the Janjaweed. A group of pro-government soldiers on a mission to “exterminate” the rebels in Darfur, and anyone standing in their way. Even after several hundreds of thousands of people were killed, the UN still did nothing to help. This was mainly because of China, and its relationship with Sudan. China remained a main political supporter for Sudan and its policies. They also believed that we shouldn’t interfere in other countries’ issues. But one question that came up was, “Is our relationship with China more important than our global responsibility to the world?”

To this day, people are still dying. This is a call for action. Something needs to be done. Our country should not be sitting here, fighting a war already lost in Iraq, while other countries are suffering because of their own government. It is our global responsibility to help Darfur. The Sudanese government are hiring the Janjaweed to do their dirty work for them, by killing innocent civilians. At first, they were going after the rebels of the country. But now, they won’t stop for just anything. About 500,000 people have died, and more are dying each day. If we don’t do something soon, we will be responsible for many lives, whether we are doing the killing or not. I hope that someone in the government sees this before its too late. -Melissa, 8^th grade, Maryland.

Filed by two13 at March 9th, 2008 under Uncategorized