April 1, 2008
Ambassadors and expert panelists decry the genocide in Darfur
Student die-in raises issue of Darfur on the quad.
The crisis in Darfur has become a passion for many young people. It is also a challenge for the international community, which has been striving with limited success to staunch the killings in the western Sudan region where at least 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been displaced.
A panel of experts and ambassadors spoke last week at “Darfur Action Now,” organized by students in the School of Public Affairs’ leadership program. The ambassador of Sudan to the United States was on the program, but did not attend.
Juan Mendez, who was U.N. advisor to Kofi Annan on genocide prevention, said he has been deeply disappointed in the world community’s ability to handle the crisis. At the United Nations, he spent “maybe 75 percent of my time” on Darfur, he said, with limited results.
Countries spent too much time debating whether it is or isn’t genocide. Whether it’s labeled genocide or war crimes or crimes against humanity, he said, the situation is outrageous and needs to be addressed.
Another frustration: some members of the U.N. Security Counsel clearly cover for the government of Sudan, he said, and apologists for Sudan aren’t limited to a few countries. Sudan has managed to marshal support in part because the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq “has allowed them to play this card of a conspiracy against the Islamic world.”
The people of Darfur are Muslim, but ethnic African rather than Arab or Afro-Arab. The conflict developed after rebel groups emerged in the area, and militias called Janjaweed, from Arab-speaking African tribes, launched brutal campaigns against the tribes from which the rebels came. The Sudanese government is accused of supporting the Janjaweed and mounting joint attacks on civilian villages. Charges of genocide have emerged because of the ethnic and tribal aspects of the conflict.
“It is a genocide,” said the ambassador of Chad, Mahamoud Bechir, and in spite of Sudan’s efforts, it “has been unable to convince the international community that Sudan is a victim of a Jewish conspiracy.” Chad houses some 240,000 refugees who have fled across the border, and tensions between the countries, which were at war until last year, are high.
As “the first genocide of the twenty-first century,” the conflict has captured the attention of young people to such an extent that “in many ways, we can look at it as our generation’s story, our challenge,” said Sam Bell, advocacy director for Genocide Intervention Network.
“We would like you also, the students, to stand up and give pressure to your government here so things are achieved in a short time,” because the long run is too late, added Ruben Marial Benjamin, acting head of the Government of Southern Sudan Mission, a regional government established following the civil war between the Islamist government of the north and the Christian and animist south.
The State Department’s Joan Mower said the movement to save Darfur “has really made our job easier at the State Department, because you guys put pressure on Congress, and Congress provides our budget.” The United States was the first country to label the crisis a genocide and is the largest humanitarian donor, several panelists noted.
Mower added that she hopes the passion will extend to other African issues as well.
Although the ambassador of the Sudan didn’t participate, a representative from the embassy spoke during the question period. “My country has been suffering from a sensational campaign for the last two decades,” said Khalid Musa Dafallah. He said that tribal conflicts are at the root of the trouble, accused Chad of smuggling arms to rebels in Darfur, and said that “the most rabid group fighting in Sudan” is from the same ethnic group as the Chadian ambassador, casting doubt on his neutrality.
Moderator A. Carl LeVan, a professor and Africa specialist in the School of International Service, told the embassy representative that the audience would have loved to hear a more elaborate explanation from the ambassador, if he had come.
Dafallah later said that the ambassador didn’t attend because he’d originally been invited to give a 50-minute speech with 10 minutes of questions, but the ground rules had been changed.
Mower said that in regards to tribal conflict, “Our friend from the embassy is right [that] it’s a very complicated story.” However, she added, “the bottom line is people are still suffering in Darfur, and we want to see it end.”
