Neil Salsich's Webassingment: Genocide In The Sudan
Choose one of your classmates research projects concerning a topic about war, medical ethics or business ethics. Read it and then write a summary of what you learned. Make sure you head your assignment with the topic author and a link to the web site you are reading.
Original research report by Dominic Zanaboni
Source: www.humanrightswatch.org
Darfur, a region in Western Sudan, is experiencing tremendous oppression, violence, and genocide, and though the rest of the world claims it is wrong, they are hesitant to do anything about it. The Darfur region is occupied by four tribes: the Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa, and Baggara tribes; each tribe occupies a portion of the land. While all four tribes are Musilim, the Zaqhawa and Baggara tribes are of Arab decent and the Fur and Masalit tribes are not. Conflicts have been present between these four tribes for many years, starting during the slave trade but escalating during recent years because of land issues; much of Darfur is desert and there is very little freshwater and decent farming land. In addition to the violent relationships betweent these tribes, there was political instablity i the goverment. When the Arab president Sadiq Al-Mahdi was elected, the minor land conflicts grew dramatically because the Fur and Masalit tribes felt Al-Mahdi was favoring his own Arab people. The conflicts soon exploded into the civil war of 1972. Throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's, two more presidents were elected, each of them granting even more legal rights to Arabs. In response, the non-Arabs formed two movements: Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). When the peaceful action of the grops did not seem to change the government's mind, they became violent and attacked government troops and buildings in Darfur. The conflict became what is is today as the goverment used the Janjaweed, hired mercenaries, to kill the non-Arabs.
At first, the violence was seen by the United Nations as a small uprising that would be put down soon. However, the UN and other nations became wary when the fighting continuedm, even after the defeat of the rebels in February 2003. The goverment of Chad and the African Union attempted to instill a ceasefire, but to no avail. When the UN sent investigators to Darfur in late April, they found that the Janjaweed had done more than put down the rebellion: they had targeted villages based on ethnicity and had killed thousands of people, even pursuing refugees into Chad and fighting with the military forces of Chad. When the UN urged the goverment to stop supporting the Janjaweed, the goverment denied their involvement. Despite the UN's urgings, the violence continued, but the rest of the world began to recognize the enormity of the situation. On July, 23, 2005, the United States Congress declared the situation an official genocide, but President Bush could do nothing because of his involvement in Iraq and could not convince the UN or European Union to intervene because neither of them had declared the situation a genocide.
When the Janjaweed began targeting refugee camps and killing hundreds of starved, homeless, defenseless people, the UN finally saw the attrocities of these human rights violations and began to take action. The plan was to quickly target, remove, and convict on the International Court the leaders of the genocide. There were fifty-one identified leaders, but the plan failed when the president, Omar Al-Bashid, refused to turn over the perpetrators. The violence is still going on today, but in February of this year the UN sent between 12,000 and 20,00 more troops to keep the peace. These troops will be able to engage more freely with the Janjaweed and hopefully protect the defensless refugees. However, the tragic damage already done is irreversible. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, and 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes, approximately 20, 000 people have fled to neighboring Chad, and it is estimated that 10,000 more people will die from malnutrition if more action is not taken. The moral of the issues lies within the hands of three groups: the Sudanese government, the UN and the European Union, and the United States goverment. Al-Bashid was the obvous culprit in this situation, denying his involvement with the Janjaweed and falsely promising aid for the refugees only in order to keep the involvement of other countries out. Secondly, though UN General Kofi Anan was adamant in his support for the refuegees and eventually ensured help for them, they did not act swiftly enough, partly due to lack of support from the European Union. Lastly, there is specualtion as to why the US did not intervene. Though President Bush was the most outspoken opponent of the attrocities, he did nothing. The most prevalent reason is that the US was too involved in Iraq to avoid entanglement in another foreign crisis, but some believe there are deeper motives. It has been said that Al-Bashid had information on certain terrorist groups involved in the American conflict in the middle east, and that the US government was using him to provide information about these groups. If the UN, the EU and the US had stepped up to the plate and assumed responsibility and acted swiflty, the problem might not have become a genocide, and hundreds of thousands of lives would be saved.
Source:www.ruadajudiaria.blogspot.com
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