Thursday, April 27, 2006
Posted by Jacqueline Henretta
Some background on Sudan:
The largest country in Africa, the Republic of Sudan, lies directly south of Egypt. The Nile river not only provides a livelihood for Egypt, it is also extremely crucial for Sudan’s agriculture, and its tributaries act as a lifeline to its people.
Up until the late 1890’s Sudan was under Egyptian rule. In 1898 the United Kingdom gained control and essentially divided Sudan into two separate colonies, North and South. For almost 6 decades they remained divided until claiming independence on January 1, 1956.
Civil war and egregious human rights violations including rape, torture, and down right slaughter have dominated the national life in Sudan since the country became independent. Its capital is Khartoum and the official language is Arabic although many other dialects and languages are spoken.
AIDs and HIV are prominent in Sudan with over 400,000 (known) people infected with the disease and an estimated 23,000 deaths annually, extremely high for a population of that size. With the unemployment rate at almost one-fifth of the country’s residents, it is no wonder why more than 40 % of the population live far below the poverty line.
Sudan borders many different countries, as well as the Red Sea, and in result civil war is ever present leaving its 40 million residents dependent on humanitarian aid. Despite the fact thousands of the Sudanese people are starving to death, the government denies this dire aid to its people.
For many years the conflict in and around Darfur was mostly over clean water and land resources (desertification has been a serious problem, so geographically speaking Sudan is suffering) but since 2003 it has escalated to a new height involving religion, race and culture. The aforementioned factors led to the disparities between North and South Sudan as well as in the present Darfur conflict.
Where is Darfur?
Darfur is a region in the Western area of Sudan bordering Chad and the Central African Republic. Although in the past 50 years civil war was in progress more often than not, a major conflict broke out in 2003 when the two allied rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement attacked military installations.
The Sudanese militia, (more commonly know as the “Janjaweed” a self-proclaimed nomadic militia) sets out to contain any one who dares to defy the Sudanese government. These men systematically contain and slowly murder their refugees, whether it be by starvation or by poisoning their crops. There are no boundaries in this genocide.
Although for over a year the Sudanese government denies any ties to the Janjaweed, survivors of the violence, who overcame extreme starvation as well as horrific torture methods, testify otherwise. These claims of government involvement range from supplying the Janjaweed with guns, horses, uniforms, communication equipment, to poisons and other options of warfare such as air reconnaissance from government aircrafts.
"It’s absurd to distinguish between the Sudanese government forces and the militias - they are one. These documents show that militia activity has not just been condoned, it’s been specifically supported by Sudan government officials.” Peter Takirambudee said in an investigation.
With this coalition of the government and Janjaweed militia, the people of Darfur have no chance of surviving. Whether or not the people doing these investigations will blatantly admit the Sudanese government is behind this genocide, the people of this region are being openly gathered, contained and slaughtered by the government and its adversaries, either first hand or by turning a blind eye.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are being picked off because they have darker skin, participate in different religions, or they might just have a clean water source. While almost 300 thousand have been murdered, three times as many are being displaced from their homes, forced to wander aimlessly, no doubt to receive the same fate as their fallen friends. This ethnic cleansing must cease and desist. The United States can no longer pretend Rwanda, and the holocaust are events of the past. It is happening again, right now in many places around the world, not just in Darfur. I suggest we focus our resources and time on helping these countries who are being cleansed, rather than trying to get a supply of oil.
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