Darfur and the absence of will

One of the topics we are studying in my politics class is the crisis in Darfur. I know this country has successfully managed to infiltrate even the periphery of people's consciousness, making it's way into YouTube home videos consisting of montages of famine stricken people accompanied by sad music, and facebook groups entitled "One Click Can Save a Child" (really?). But what is Darfur really about? And why, after at least four years of being well aware that we have a refugee crisis of over 2 million displaced Sudanese people flowing out of West Sudan and a systematic genocide campaign that has wiped out at least 700, 000 people is the international community incapable to doing anything?

Darfur is in the Western region of Sudan. Sudan is a country that has been plagued with civil war since the 1950s a conflict between the rebellious regions of the south against the Sudanese government with whom they wished to secede from. This civil battle has raged for years and it was only in the new Millenium was there an eventual progression towards some sort of agreement. Whislt this was being dealt with, a couple of disgruntled revolutionaries in the West decided to start protesting the government, with weapons of course (there's no such thing as peaceful protest in Africa)

Admidst the fighting that ensued from both conflicts, a militant organization known as Junjaweed came onto the scene. The Junjaweed conduct their business with a sort of "scorched earth" policy, they go into villages... they raze the farmland and houses... they kill and torture the men, they rape and torture the women amd children. They destroy everything in their path. And they are endorsed by the Sudanese government making them (with the absence of any sort of international pressure) a very evil force to be reckoned with.

The Junjaweed (above)


This is the trigger for the refugee crisis. Of the 700,000 that weren't systematically wiped out (based on ethnic reasons... a.k.a genocide) 2 million displaced people have fled their homes for fear of facing the same horrific consequences of staying that many of their fellow countrymen have endured. Not only are these refugees surviving in the most barren living standards, but this has the potential to displace the entire region with Chad's resources being stretched to the very limit and widespread famine and poverty.







Forgive me for the horrendous images. Unfortunetly the perils this starving girl is facing have become the norm for Sudanese refugees.



So why? Why the hell is this happening? Have we not learnt from our mistakes? Do the United Nations not still feel the sting of guilt when they think of Rwanda? Is the US still incapable of defining genocide (in 2004 Bush made a comment on the situation claiming that there was evidence of "acts of genocide")




Though little explanation barely seems justified, there are a few factors involved in the apathy of the international community. The UN has always been concerned with the North and South conflict of Sudan and are hesitant to focus their attentions away from the progress they are making. Though the government has been "urged" (strong words from the Security Council) to de-militarise the region, the Junjaweed is essentially a government endorsed organisation so the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has no intention of halting their behvaiour. Of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, China and Russia are afraid to jeopardise an oil trading partner and the United States are concerned with the war on terror so within the United Nations there is a lack of political will to seriously address the problem.

The African Union is the only organization (apart from our very own politically conscious George Clooney) that has taken on the issue, but this mission (AMIS) is desperately underfunded and under resourced. Only now, in the last two years has the UN produced a mandate that seriously considers the plight of Darfur... but it is early days yet, and we are yet to see a result.

It's nothing short of bitterly disappointing that after Rwanda, when Kofi Annan famously came out and said "Never Again" in regards to genocide in any given country that history could be repeating itself in such a fierce form.

For those of you who start those facebook groups and create those videos in an attempt to move against the suffocating apathy we are surrounded by, I commend your efforts. But I sadly hold little optimism for the possibility that these small bursts of outrage can amount to anything tangible. Maybe a well coordinated protest movement involving all sectors of the population (think of the unionist movement in the case of East Timor) can pressure the government into action, but even then, no country has the resources nor the will to go it alone.

It is time, United Nations to put your money where your mouth is and start tackling some of these violations of humanity that you so desperately champion against.