The “Darfur Conflict”—the genocide in Darfur is a better term—seems somewhat complicated. One soon comes to that conclusion when researching the historical background, the causes, the warring parties (better term: the pillaging, raping and murdering thugs) involved, and what roles the Sudanese government, the United Nations, the international community and, yes, the United States have played and are playing in this human tragedy.
The “Conflict” became even more complex and tragic when the government of Chad (over 200,000 refugees from Darfur claim asylum in eastern Chad) declared a state of war with Sudan in 2005, which led to several armed clashes between the two countries. There is also the simmering conflict between the semi-autonomous Southern Sudan and Khartoum—a 21-year war that has been at least as violent as the Darfur conflict—,and the fraying “Comprehensive Peace Agreement” between the two.
Some see it as an ethnic, tribal or religious conflict.
Some see the causes as a combination of decades of drought, poverty, overpopulation, and just the simple desire by the African tribes in Darfur for more autonomy from the central government and for a more equitable distribution of scarce resources. Desires that were promptly and savagely answered by the Khartoum government with five years of the most brutal form of genocide.
Some of the “parties” involved in the “on-the-ground” tragedy are the Janjaweed (a Sudanese militia group mostly from the northern Rizeigat region in Sudan); the Sudanese military; several rebel groups such as the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement; the Sudanese government; and, of course the hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children who belong to or are associated with the rebel groups and tribes targeted by the Janjaweed and sometimes by the rebel groups themselves.
But, regardless of the causes, regardless of the “players,” the Darfur conflict has become one of the most urgent humanitarian crises in recent years.
And there is nothing complex about the devastating results and consequences.
We have all seen the photos of emaciated, starving, dying children; of burnt-out villages; of the grotesque corpses of like-cattle-slaughtered women, children and even babies, covered with flies and dirt
According to some non-governmental organizations, between 200,000 and 500,000 human beings have been violently killed as of 2007 and nearly half the population has been displaced.
No one has covered this human tragedy with more dedication, more passion and more persuasive powers than two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Nicholas D. Kristof. He has been writing dozens of eloquent and powerful columns about Darfur since 2004.
When recently asked about the “complexity” of the Darfur conflict, Kristof answered:
…of course it’s complex. Defenders of apartheid, of Jim Crow laws, of the Nazis all made the argument that “it’s complex,” and they had a point as well. The Holocaust was complex, as was the Armenian genocide, and so was the Cambodian genocide (which arguably wasn’t even genocide, since the victims weren’t selected on the basis of religion or ethnicity so much as on the basis of education, wealth or urban background). But at the end of the day, the central reality of the Holocaust was that a government chose a particular people and slaughtered them. And that is likewise the central reality that shines through all the complexities of Darfur.
In one of his columns, “Memo to Bush on Darfur,” in April 2008, on the 14th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide—“the last time we said ‘never again'”—Kristof tried to persuade President Bush to at least try to bring an end to the slaughter in Darfur.
In his column, Kristof lists eight “concrete steps that Bush can take if he wants to end his shameful passivity.”
Here we are almost one year later, and the conflict rages on.
There has been one important development, however.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese head of state Omar Al-Bashir, charging him with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The warrant stops short of charging him with genocide.
This is the first time the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against a sitting head of state.
One of the immediate reactions by Al Bashir has been to expulse more than 10 foreign aid groups, including CARE, Médecins sans Frontières, Oxfam, and Save the Children. A despicable action and one that will only mean more suffering for the more than a million displaced people in Darfur.
According to the Washington Post, Bashir said the court could “eat” its arrest warrant.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, said Wednesday that the United States “supports the ICC’s actions to hold accountable those responsible for the heinous crimes in Darfur.”
But, what is the Obama administration’s position on the Darfur crisis itself?
Presently, we can only go by the promises which the then President-Elect Obama made during his campaign.
For example:
I will make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority from Day One. It is a collective stain on our national and human conscience that the genocide in Sudan, now starting its sixth year, has gone on for far too long.
And in more detail:
I have been one of the leading voices for ending the genocide in Darfur. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, I have met with Sudanese officials and visited refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border to raise international awareness of the ongoing humanitarian disaster there. I also co-sponsored the Sudan Divestment Authorization Act of 2007 to make it easier for states to divest from foreign companies that help fund the genocide in Darfur. In addition, I was a cosponsor of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, and I have cosponsored resolutions calling on the President to work with international partners to enforce a no-fly zone in Darfur. While the U.S. has provided aid and military resources to the African Union mission in Darfur, I believe this is America’s moment to lead the way toward ending this crisis.
On the now very timely issue of ensuring that the perpetrators of genocide in Darfur are brought to justice, Obama said during the campaign:
The U.S. should work with our partners in Africa and Europe to ensure indicted criminals are arrested and turned over to the ICC if they travel outside of Sudan. Political and economic pressure on the Khartoum regime should be extended through sanctions and other means.
As the saying goes, “We’ll See.”
