After the horrors of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died in concentration camps throughout Eastern Europe, world leaders proclaimed “Never Again”. Never again would genocide be allowed on the face of this earth. Never ever again.
Then there was Bangladesh in 1971. 300,000 killed. 1975-1979. Cambodia. 1.7 million. 1988. Iraq. 200,000. 1994. Rwanda. 800,000 in 100 days. We heard about them years later with incredulous eyes, wet with unshed tears.
Now there is Darfur. To date the United Nations estimates that over 450,000 are dead from violence or disease. Over 2.5 million people have been forced to flee from their homes and into already overcrowded refugee camps in Libya and Chad. Over 1 million are close to death from disease and lack of food.
The current conflict began in February 2003. The Janjaweed, a militia group sponsored by the Sudanese government, and the Sudanese military are fighting against a variety of rebel groups including the SLM (Sudanese Liberation Movement) and the JEM (Justice and Equality Movement). The objective is to cleanse Sudan of dark skinned Africans, to make them pariahs in their own country.
My sympathy lies not with the government, nor with the rebel forces that it is struggling against. I refuse to distinguish between who is right and who is wrong. In this situation, everyone is wrong. The Sudanese government is wrong, for providing money and aid to the Janjaweed as they murder hundreds of thousands of innocent inhabitants. The so called Sudanese Liberation Movement is wrong, for raping twelve year old girls as their parents are murdered before their very eyes. The ironically named Justice and Equality Movement is wrong, for burning villages to the ground. All in the name of “for the greater good”. For whose greater good?
As of August 2006, the African Union had 7,000 severely under funded troops in the area. China has pledged to veto all sanctions in Khartoum to protect its own vested interests, and it has provided the Sudanese government with over 100 million dollars in weapons. The 2008 Olympics are set to be held in Beijing, with the slogan “One World. One Dream.” What a paradox. China seems to hold oil reserves in higher regard than the fate of millions of blameless civilians.
Governments in the Middle East dismiss the situation by claiming that the West exaggerates the situation to direct the attention away from the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and it’s simply war crimes being perpetrated against millions of civilians. Simply war crimes. The world’s most powerful countries have limited their response to expressions of concern and commands that the United Nations take action.
Our leaders are failing us. Their desire for political correctness and indecisive nature is costing 500 civilians their lives each day. Each day. That’s twenty per hour, one every three minutes.
The UN has refused to call this genocide. Genocide, as defined by the dictionary is the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group. Technically speaking, the politicians who waver to designate this as genocide are correct. There is no discrimination between those who are African and who are Arabian, or those who are Muslim and who are Christian. No pause to contemplate the demographic characteristics of a toddler with large, soulful eyes who looks up to the barrel of a gun. The Janjaweed supposedly targets non-Arab Africans, yet the carnage prove otherwise. The violence in Darfur has even spread into Chad, where the Janjaweed attack refugee camps.
So I guess this isn’t genocide after all. This is unbiased mass murder. Much better. It is time to ask ourselves when “Never Again” will truly mean Never Again. And more importantly, can we afford to wait and see?