 |
|
|
Beginning of the burning of the village of Um Zeifa after the Janjaweed looted and attacked. Photograph taken by Brian Steidle. See more photographs |
 |
DARFUR |
||||
|
|
Since early 2003, Sudanese government soldiers and their proxy ethnic militia, known as the Janjaweed, have fought rebel groups in the western region of Darfur. The government and Janjaweed strategy has been to carry out systematic assaults against civilians from the same ethnic groups as the rebels: the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit. Rebel forces are responsible for some attacks against civilians, but overwhelmingly the Sudanese government and Janjaweed have perpetrated the violence. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died from violence, disease, and starvation, and thousands of women have been raped. About 2,500,000 civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and property stolen. Thousands of villages have been systematically destroyed. More than 200,000 Sudanese have escaped to the neighboring country of Chad, but most are trapped inside Darfur. Thousands more die each month from the effects of inadequate food, water, health care, and shelter in a harsh desert environment. |
|
Darfur is home to over 30 ethnic groups, all African and all Muslim. The Janjaweed militas – recruited, armed, trained, and supported by the Sudanese government – are drawn from several small nomadic groups who claim an Arab identity. They have used racial slurs while attacking and raping the targeted groups, who are considered non-Arab. The ethnic and perceived racial basis of the violence has been well documented by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, independent human rights organizations, and international journalists. Government-sponsored actions include: |
|
Inflaming ethnic conflict |
|
Impeding international humanitarian access, resulting in deadly conditions of life for displaced civilians Bombing civilian targets with aircraft Murdering and raping civilians Because of substantial evidence that “acts of genocide or related crimes against humanity were occurring or immediately threatened,” in 2004 the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum declared a Genocide Emergency for Darfur. That same year, the U.S. government determined that genocide had been committed in Darfur. In January 2005, the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that "crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Darfur and may be no less serious and heinous then genocide." UPDATE, 2007 The new UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, announced that Darfur will be a top priority for him. He traveled to the African Union Summit at the end of January to urge al-Bashir to cooperate with the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Out-going Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced in December that the former General Assembly president and Swedish foreign minister Jan Eliasson was appointed as a special envoy for Darfur. At the end of January 2007 a UN assessment mission visited Chad and CAR to assess possibilities for UNPKO being deployed there to stem growing violence spilling over from Sudan. In February, Chinese President Hu Jintao on a visit to Khartoum told Sudan that it must give the United Nations a bigger role in trying to resolve the conflict in Darfur. President Hu Jintao also signed an agreement in which China undertook to build schools, a new presidential palace, reduced import tariffs on some Sudanese goods, granted a loan of 600 million yuan (US$77.4 million; euro59.5 million) for infrastructure, and gave a grant of a US$40 million (euro30.7 million). There has been little progress towards the creation of a UN peacekeeping force for Darfur. Although Sudan’s President al-Bashir wrote to the UN Secretary General Annan that he would agree to hybrid operation in December 2006, he gave no details on troop size or composition, or command and control. Subsequent statements by the Sudanese government make clear that UN troops are not welcome. As of April 2007, the government of Sudan continues to resist the deployment of additional international troops. In early April, five African Union troops were killed and refugees continue to flow into Chad. United States Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte is expected to visit Sudan and deliver a message aimed at persuading the Sudanese government to accept UN troops. |
|
|
|
Museum
