BBC Questions and Answers on Darfur
A summary of the conflict in Darfur from BBC News:
Q&A: Sudan’s Darfur conflict
Many thousands of displaced people are in need of relief supplies |
The African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur is struggling to halt widespread abuses and violence, but Sudan is rejecting plans for it to hand over to a larger, stronger UN mission, raising the prospect of wider US sanctions. More than two million people are living in camps after fleeing almost four years of fighting in the region and they would be even more vulnerable without any peacekeepers.
Sudan’s government and the pro-government Arab militias are accused of war crimes against the region’s black African population, although the UN has stopped short of calling it genocide.
Sudan also rejects moves by the International Criminal Court to name and then try war crimes suspects.
How did the conflict start?
The conflict began in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, saying the region was being neglected by Khartoum.
The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs.
Darfur, which means land of the Fur, has faced many years of tension over land and grazing rights between the mostly nomadic Arabs, and farmers from the Fur, Massaleet and Zagawa communities.
There are two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), although the peace talks were complicated by splits in both groups, some along ethnic lines.
The groups opposed to May 2006 peace deal with the government have now merged into the National Redemption Front led by former Darfur governor Ahmed Diraige.
What is the government doing?
It admits mobilising “self-defence militias” following rebel attacks but denies any links to the Janjaweed, accused of trying to “cleanse” black Africans from large swathes of territory.
Refugees from Darfur say that following air raids by government aircraft, the Janjaweed ride into villages on horses and camels, slaughtering men, raping women and stealing whatever they can find.
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Many women report being abducted by the Janjaweed and held as sex slaves for more than a week before being released.
The US and some human rights groups say that genocide is taking place – though a UN investigation team sent to Sudan said that while war crimes had been committed, there had been no intent to commit genocide.
Sudan’s government denies being in control of the Janjaweed and President Omar al-Bashir has called them “thieves and gangsters”.
After strong international pressure and the threat of sanctions, the government promised to disarm the Janjaweed. But so far there is little evidence this has happened.
Trials have been announced in Khartoum of some members of the security forces suspected of abuses – but this is viewed as part of a campaign against UN-backed attempts to get some 50 key suspects tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Read the rest of the story here.
Why does the news media continue to describe the conflict in the Sudan as being between blacks and “Arabs”? If the sudanese Arabs aren’t black then African-Americans aren’t black either! And, Colin Powell must be a White man.
The maisntream media and “Save Darfur” movement doesn’t bring up the role of the United States and Israel in fueling the violence in Sudan. Here are two articles that provide informatuon that the mainstrema media will not discuss
one is written by F. William Engdahl at http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Oil_in_Africa/oil_in_africa.html
and the other is written by Keith Harmon Snow at http://allthingspass.com/journalism.php?jid=165
Because of the United States military already strained with it inhabitance in Iraq, is there really anything that can be done to help change the Genocide that is occuring?
Would supplying funds to AU/UN humanitarian groups make a difference? Especially with the current attacks on humanitarian groups-
Could China take it upon themselves to show that they do indeed have a humanitarian side and intervine while still keeping good relations and the oil supply that they need?
Towards the end of the Abuja talks, an Arab intellectual sympathetic to the Darfur rebels remarked: ‘Ninety percent of the Arabs of Darfur are neutral so far. We cannot continue like this if there is no agreement. We may take a role.’ Eighteen months later they are, slowly but surely, in many ways. In last months the Sudan government has begun responding with predictable force—aerial bombardment, ground attack, arrests of family members. The Arabs of Darfur feel abandoned by the international community, collectively demonized for the sins of the government and the Janjaweed. But there is a new problem today, and one that needs addressing urgently: how are the growing number of Arabs who have chosen to stand against the government to be protected as the government turns its guns on them, in their turn?
This really helped with my social studies project since this is the topic that we have been talking about for the last 2 weeks. Thanks for the help!!