Darfur, the genocide is still going on

Not since Rwanda genocide of 1994, has the world seen such a calculated campaing of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement.

2003

• Open warfare erupted in Darfur when two allied rebel groups (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army SLA, Justice and Equality Movement JEM) attacked military installations (Sudanese Goverment Military Force). The main motive was the inequalities between Sudan's Center and its periphery.
• US tries unsuccessfully to intervene and bring peace after 20 years of civil war in the South of Sudan.
• Rebels took fight to protect their communities against Janjaweed Militias: Goverment-Backed militians, recruited among Arab extensions in Darfur and Chad. Janjaweed receive government support to clear civilians from areas considered disloyal to the Sudanese Goverment. Janjaweed attacks, that infringed 1949 Geneva Convention Agreement, that prohibits attacks to civilians; provoked:

a) Massive Displacement

b) Indiscriminate killings of civilians

c) Looting

d) Mass rape: hallmark of the crimes against hummanity in Darfur.

e) Hunger

f) Genocide: Arabs exterminating original Black African citizens

g) Torture

• There are two main conflicts open in Sudan:

1) Revels (different groups) vs. Government-Alined Forces (North-South Conflict)

2) Goverment-Sponsor Janjaweed vs. Civilians

2004

• June:
• African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) inception as a cease-fire monitoring body. Its main mission is to be witness of what is happening and testify if there are attacks agains civils.

• October:
• AMIS increases its personnel
• Change of mission: from a contigent of primarily unarmed military observers to a major operation that included: armed force protectors, unarmed civilian police, and support teams.
• AMIS mission:

a) To monitor and observe compliance with the cease fire agreement

b) To assist in confidence

c) To contribute to a secure environment by facilitating humanitarian assistance and returns of internally displaced persons

d) To contribute to overall security

• AMIS personnel lack training, operational capacity and political iniciative

2005

• June:
• Peace Deal signed to end the long war between Goverment and Sudan's People Liberation /Army (SPLM) => North South Conflict. This agreement does not address the issues in Darfur where Genocide continues.

• March:
• African Union decides to accept military planners and budgetary and logistical experts from outside the continent to provide training and improve oprations, and to provide military equipment.
• American Union led a March assesment mission with the participation of: United Nations Department of PeaceKeeping Operations (DPKO), European Union, United States, Canada and other international partners.

• End 2005:
• Situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate
• AMIS need to be able to provide a more aggresive response to the persistent violence against civilians in Darfur and must be equipped and supported to do so.

2006

• First Quarter:
• Sudanes Goverment obstacles AMIS mission
• Western Sudanese region of Darfur: acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of first order.

a) 3.5 Million People in hunger

b) 2.5 Million People displaced due to violence

c) Nearly 400,000 died so far. As many as 5,000 civilians die every month.

• International Community is failing to protect civilians or to influence Sudanese government to do so.
• Sudanese Goverment continues to flout international laws with impunity.
• Janjaweed attacks to villages continue and difficult international aid.
• Even though they have been moved to refugee camps, Darfunians have to continue to collect wood and working the fields. These activities are done outside the camps (whose location is perfectly known by Janjaweed). So, daily, women and children have to put themselves at risk of rape, beatiness or death as soon as they are outside the camps, towns and villages.
• A campaing of what United Nations describes as Ethnic Cleansing by Arab militias against Non-Arabs villagers is still creating a climate of terror in Darfur. It threatens to become consolidated, as civilians remain confined in camps exposed to violence and human rights abuse that prevent them from returning their homes and claiming back their land.

• May:
• Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed by: Sudanese Government and Insurgents SLA led by Minni Arkou Minawi (SLA/MM).
• Two of the three revel delegations (SLA/AW (led by Abdel Wahid), and JEM) do not accept it and refuse to sign. Their arguments are:

a) They want more SLA participation in the implementation of the security arrangements

b) They are dissatisfied with provisions for political representations

c) They are dissatisfied with victim's compensation

d) DPA does not solve the conflicts root causes: the structural inequities between Sudan's center and its periphery that led to revelion in 2003.

• June:
• President Bush acknowledged that genocide is occurring in Sudan and must be stopped. The bipartisan Darfur Accountability Act, which would impose sanctions against perpetrators of genocide in Darfur, has passed the Senate and now waits for House approval. US citizens who want to help should write letters to their representatives in Congress, and urge passage of this bill.
• UN’s failure to take meaningful action to end genocide in Darfur. Following the Sudanese government’s outright rejection of an international force in Darfur, the UN continues to compromise the lives of civilians by allowing Khartoum to stall indefinitely on the question of peacekeeping.

• July:
• Problems persist in Sudan’s West Darfur where the security and basic needs of children continues to be threatened by the conflict.

I ask you to....

Open your Eyes and Make a Difference

Act now, because tomorrow it will be too late

We have different ways to help Darfur people:

• Write our governments to put this issue into their priority agendas
• Write a letter to your local newspaper editor
• Write an article about Darfur in your blog
• Raise funds and contribute with the humanitarian organizations working in Darfur
• Raise awareness

Interesting Links:
www.savedarfur.org
http://www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org/
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4027&l=1
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/
http://www.genocideintervention.net/index.php
http://www.unicef.org/spanish/infobycountry/sudan_darfuroverview.html
http://www.changemakers.net/journal/300506/framework.cfm