-Greg Koppell, Jasmine Kahn, Lara Christie
The charred skeletons of huts stand feebly. Scorched fragments of household items — a teapot, or perhaps a chair leg — are scattered about the parched ground. There is blood. Whether the blood was shed from livestock or humans, nobody knows. Even more chilling are the corpses, the blackened corpses reeking in the intense heat. No one remains to tell the gruesome tale. But no one needs to. The signs of death are everywhere. This is no particular village. This is an entire region. This is Darfur.
Where is Darfur?
Darfur
is an impoverished region in western Sudan, the
largest country in Africa. The region is about the size of Texas, with
six
million inhabitants, most of whom are poor and live by subsistence
farming. It
has a long history of turmoil, including a devastating famine in the
1980s
which killed an estimated 95,000 people. Incompetent regimes and tribal
conflicts have fractured
The Muslim people of Darfur fall into two distinct groups. One group consists of settled farmers who identify themselves as Africans, while the other group is comprised of Arab nomadic herders. Scores of violent conflicts have taken place between these groups, over land and water. For many years, the government of Sudan armed and supported an Arab militia called the Janjaweed, used to instill fear in and control the population. The two main rebel groups involved in the crisis call themselves the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice Equality Movement. Both armed organizations instigated a war against their government in February 2003, attacking officials and civilians, destroying towns and villages and ultimately causing complete disorder and chaos in Darfur.
Darfur Now
Flash forward four years, and civilians still wait on adequate help to arrive. Throughout the years, Janjaweed militiamen and rebels from other regions have continued to sporadically attack villages and contribute to the death toll, with numbers ranging from 60 to 400 deaths in a single ambush. The United Nations took an especially heavy blow Sept. 30, 2007 when 12 peacekeepers died as a result of rebels overrunning an African Union Mission in a Sudan base. Charitable organizations such as Oxfam are now backing out of the support they had been providing to refugee camps, largely due to the rebel raids, murders and hijackings that have taken place in the camps. With the population being faced with the idea of living their last day every single day, the Sudanese government has taken matters into its own hands and has begun relocating civilians. More than 75,000 Arabs were moved from their homeland of Chad into neighboring Sudan to fill non-Arab villages. Even after being displaced from villages, females in Darfur are subject to further tragedy. Countless women and children have been raped and severely beaten by members of the Janjaweed militia in numbers horrendously underestimated. Rape in Darfur is considered a disgrace, and victims are ostracized from families and communities — punished for a crime they couldn’t control.
A Brighter
Future
Despite the aid provided by outside nations, the situation in Darfur remains dire. Approximately 400,000 people have perished and about three million have been displaced since 2003. Thousands of refugees still need supplies, and the health and security of millions remain in danger. In mid-October of this year, new reports arose of slaughter by the Sudanese government force and its allied militias of 30 civilians. Financial aid, peacekeeping forces, and supplies have been given by countries including the U.S., Ireland, France, UK, Canada; yet it is apparent that more could be done to assist the refugees and citizens of Darfur.
Despite the seemingly unbeatable odds, progress is being made. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and president of Chad Idriss Deby signed a peace agreement last May to reduce tension between the countries. In more recent news, a conference was held in Tanzania between most of the rebel and government leaders involved to make peace negotiations. Having reached agreements and satisfied demands concerning power and wealth sharing, security, land and humanitarian issues, a brighter future may come to pass for Darfur.
Get Involved
Around Austin, a small effort has been made towards the improvement of Darfur. This is mostly due to lack of awareness about the true severity of the war in Sudan. Organizations such as Dining for Darfur and St. Edward’s University have previously held events to spread knowledge of the crisis to Austinites, but these were not widely publicized. The most recent of these took place at the end of September. Since then, no further events have been planned.
Around the country, however, groups of students and citizens have been signing petitions for humanitarian rights, writing to the president and participating in student activist groups such as National STAND Coalition. Ways to help locally include writing to local newspapers, alerting local media and even raising money for humanitarian relief. These actions help to fight the spread of the Darfur genocide while simultaneously encouraging the government to take a global stand. Organizations such as saveDarfur, Omni-Peace, Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop and Help Darfur Now have been created to raise funds and public awareness for the victims of the genocide in Darfur. Help Darfur Now, specifically, was started by a group of three New Jersey high school students, and each organization has links on their websites for viewers to donate money to the cause. Students around Westlake have already been seen sporting saveDarfur and Omni-Peace t-shirts and sweatshirts, for prices ranging from $10-$30. Students can also raise awareness by supporting charitable groups like these and buying fundraising products. Non-profit organizations send raised money directly to victims and support groups in the region. Help doesn’t have to come with a million dollar price tag. With a situation as desperate as Darfur, a little can go a long way.