Transcript Darfur Genocide - St. James-Assiniboia School Division

 Shadowed
by the war in Iraq in 2003.
 350,000-400,000 people had been killed
either from violence, malnutrition, and
disease.
 2.5 million have been displaced.
 This is the first genocide of the 21st
century.
 Victims of the genocide include non-arab
or African tribal groups.
 Fur
 Massaleit
 Zagahawa
 Tunjur
 Birgrid
 Dajo
 Dinka
 Other
non-arab peoples
 People
are beginning to compete for
scarce resources that include: arable
land, water.
 The conflict has been exacerbated by
desertification throughout the Sahel
region.
 Located
in the capital city of Khartoum.
 Made up of Arab peoples
 Failed to respond to the desperate
economic needs.
 Decayed Judiciary, lack of political
representation.
 These all played a role in leading to
armed conflict.
 An
agreement was signed in Nairobi on
January 9, 2005 to end the fighting in the
southern areas of Sudan.
 However, Darfur’s insurgency found early
success against Khartoum’s military
forces.
 This would lead the government to
changing policies that would
systematically destroy the African tribal
groups.
 The
primary instrument in this new
policy would be the creation or
establishment of an Arab militia force.
 This group is made up of 20,000 men who
ride on horse or camel.
 These men are heavily armed, well
supplied, and actively coordinating with
the regime’s regular ground and air
force, thanks to the government.
 Reports
shown by human rights groups
illustrate that genocide is occurring.
 Evidence includes widespread assaults on
men, women, children, and agricultural
areas.
 Thriving villages have had buildings
burned, water sources poisoned, irrigation
systems torn up, food and seed stock
destroyed, and fruit trees cut down.
 Cattle have also been looted on a mass
scale.
 Genocide
in this situation does not just
include attack an non-arabs, but also
“deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or
in part.” -1948 UN Convention.
 Agricultural
Production has come to a
halt.
 The United Nations estimates that 3.5
million people will be in need of urgent
food supplies (total pop 6.5 million).
 There is no sign of current planting
 2 million people have already become
dependent on food aid.
Other obstacles can include the rainy season
which makes it very difficult to travel to certain
regions.
 The rain severs any way of gaining access to
certain areas where people are in need.
 Overcrowded refugee camps.
 Lack of medical supplies, shelter, equipment for
clean water.
 Unsanitary conditions (outbreaks of cholera and
dysentery have been rampant).
 Data suggests that 350,000 to 400,000 people
have died during the last 29 months.

 National
Islamic Front (NIF) has been
unchanged since it gained power from a
democratically elected government in 1989
in a military coup.
 Hassan-El-Turabi who was the mastermind
of the 1989 coup and is still in control of the
NIF.
 Omar-Al-Bashir retains the presidancy, and
Ali Osman serves as the Vice-President and
controls the security services.
 These
are the men that have settled on a
genocidal response to the insurgence that
emerged in 2003.
 These men also ordered the scorched-earth
clearances of the oil regions in southern
Sudan to provide security for the operations
of international oil companies.
 The result of these policies was that
between 1989 and 2002 hundreds of
thousands of Sudanese were killed or
displaced.
 First
Phase (1955-1972)
 The second phase of civil war began in
1983 more than five million people were
displaced.
 Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army
was created to fight against the tyranny of
the Muslim government and militia
groups.
 Prewar population = 6.5 million
 60-65% are non-arab =4 million people
 The use of Arabic as first language,
agricultural practices, and ethnicity divides
the people.
 The government of Khartoum and the
Janjaweed take full responsibility for the
acts that have taken place in Darfur.
 Approx 90% of all villages have been
destroyed
 Many people still go unaccounted for
because of the vast population.
 There
is no sign that agriculture will resume
to what it used to be.
 No sign of displacement camps being
dissolved.
 No sign of international funding for
humanitarian groups.
 No sign of change in the NIF and the new
government it dominates.
 No sign that peace agreements will amount
to anything in Abuja, Nigeria.
 No sign of international intervention.
 There
are signs that:
 People will continue to die indefinitely
 The
Bush administration made many efforts
to end the war between north and south
Sudan.
 The administration also wanted to secure its
intelligence on international terrorism.
 The NIF hosted Osama Bin Laden and AlQaida from 1991-1996, and retained strong
relations with Bin Laden when he moved to
Afghanistan.
 These policies have been the priority for
the US government in fighting against
terrorism.
Powell stated that Genocide was
occurring in Sudan and that the
Khartoum government was
involved.
The agreement made between
north and south was seen as a
great step forward in foreign
policy, making the government
hesitant to act on the issue of
genocide
Khartoum used this peace
agreement as a tool to continue
their acts of genocide. Because
they threatened to revoke the
agreement if they felt pressured.
 History must not continue to repeat itself.
 We must pressure our government to act not
just sit idly by while people are being
killed.
 It is our moral duty to express to others that
if international intervention does not
happen then the population will face a
certainty of death.
 People will continue to starve in camps,
bombed, raped, slaughtered, and those who
do survive will be dependent on food aid.
 Reeves, Eric. Genocide
in Darfur: How
the Horror Began. Sudan Tribute: Plural
news and views on Sudan. Saturday 3
September, 2005.