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Damned in Darfur

We must not ignore the crisis in Darfur

Date published: 5/30/2004

The civilized world must not abide Sudan's ethnic cleansing

WITH ALL EYES FOCUSED on Iraq, it would be easy to overlook the profound humanitarian crisis in Sudan. But the back-page screams of the terrorized people of Darfur, a region in western Sudan, simply cannot be ignored. Since early 2003, thousands have been executed and over a million driven from their homes by a coalition of government troops and Janjgaweed--brutal, armed militiamen on horses or camels who ride into villages to murder, rape, and burn, bent on dispossessing the ethnically black population.

It seems that wherever there can be a racial divide, there is. Africa's largest nation is populated in the north by Arab Muslims, who control much of the government, and in the south and west by black Muslims, Christians, and animists. For 20 years a civil war has raged between north and south--a war that has seen non-Muslims killed, enslaved, and tortured. This facet of the violence in Sudan is the one with which most Americans are familiar, and after a strong U.S. diplomatic effort, the warring parties Wednesday mercifully signed a pact to end hostilities.

But a simultaneous conflict continues. Eighteen months ago, hostilities between the government and ethnic Africans living in Darfur erupted. Instead of punishing the rebels through the legal system, the government joined with Arab militias and began retributions against the civilian, non-combatant members of the insurgents' tribes. This Muslim-on-Muslim violence has entailed massacres, summary executions of civilians, village torchings, and even the desecration of mosques.

As many as a million Africans have fled the region, over 100,000 seeking refuge in neighboring Chad. As if death and displacement weren't enough, government and militia troops have practiced a policy of deliberate, systematic rape--knowing that "ruined" Muslim women are customarily ejected from their tribes--in an odious scheme to ensure that Darfurians don't reproduce.

The government of Sudan has a moral responsibility to protect all its citizens. Instead, it has acted in cahoots with the Janjgaweed, providing air cover for their offensives and refusing to prosecute even the worst war criminals. Also, the regime has frustrated foreign relief efforts, placing the displaced Darfurians at risk for starvation.

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Date published: 5/30/2004