Assigned Blog 17

Starting in February of 2003, Arab rebel groups, mainly the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), began attacks on government forces. They accused the Khartoum (capital of Sudan) government of favoring Afro-Arabs (or African Arabians) over Black Africans. The conflict between the two mass people groups has existed for quite a long time, mostly over farming rights and land. Building tensions finally resulted in the violence, which has sinced continued for 6 years, although now the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, and General Martin Agwai say the fighting is officially over.During those six violent years, Janjaweed (a group of Afro-Arabs) has killed between 10,000 and 300,000 (numbers are uncertain) Black African men, women, and children. The reasons for inaccurate numbers vary; UN reporters who tried to investigate were not welcomed by the Sudan government, who say the situation is being vastly exaggerated. Also, the cause of deaths for refugees isn't always murder; its very often disease and malnutrition. In any case, citizens have been murdered, women raped, dwellins burned down, and belongings stolen.Black African refugees from Darfur (a district in western sudan) have fled to eastern Chad and eastern Sudan districts. In these refugee camps, conditions are poor; dirty water, lack of decent food supplies, cramped and poorly-built shelters, terrible health conditions, etc. But if the people living in them stray to far from the protection of their large numbers and UN forces, they will surely be killed by the lurking Janjaweed militias. Currently, the UN is still in Darfur, trying to continue whatever uneasy peace has settled over the citizens.The UN has also issued an arrest warrant for President Bashir, saying he colaborated with the Janjaweed for the attacks on SLA, JEM, and the black African citizens of Sudan. However, he is safe for now since Sudan and its neighboring countries refuse to accept the warrant, denying the accusations. The UN has not recognized the Darfur situation as being a genocide, since he attacks were not specifically aimed at a certain ethnic or people group, and the true numbers of those actually killed by the attacks remains unknown. However, the United States and several other countries have already declared it to be so, and would like to intervene further.

Map of Sudan (and some neighboring countries). Chad is to the east.

A poster put up by war protesters. It says: "He who does not learn from (history is crossed out) RWANDA is doomed to repeat it! IN DARFUR".I think the UN needs to redefine their definition of genocide. They had overlooked Rwanda and now a similar situation has occured in Sudan, but still they are only "peace-keeping". But, the effect in Sudan was better than that of the reslult in Rwanda, since 1. they didnt leave and 2. they seem to have acheived their "peace-keeping" goals this time. Last time, i compared the Rwanda genocide to that of the one Hitler caused in WW2....i dont think the same can be said of this incident, which was certainly not government-led, although the govrenment really didnt try super hard to stop it. Either way, they are tragedies that could have been avoided, and shouldnt have happened. although the world seems to be uninterested (which also should not be happening....).

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Assigned Blog 17

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