Who you gonna call?...

Here are some numbers you can call and ask what they are doing to help stop the genocide in Darfur, Sudan:

Pres. Bush- (202)456-1111
U.S. House of Reps.-(202)225-3121
U.S. Senate- (202)224-3121
Sen. Hillary Clinton- (202)224-4451
Sen. Chuck Schumer- (202)224-6542

These numbers were found on a video, the link to the video is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx-yD7__ChU&feature=related

You can also donate and join groups here are a few links to websites where you can join groups and donate money to stop genocide in Darfur:

http://www.genocideintervention.net/

Genocide in Darfur

http://www.genocideindarfur.net/?gclid=CPHf-76Fp5cCFRQhnAoddFgxGA

https://secure.ga3.org/03/darfur?gclid=CJm4oeyFp5cCFQKfnAodFg2lJA

What can be done?

There are several things that have to happen for the growing issue of genocide in Darfur to be resolved. “Long-term peace in Darfur requires that the government of Sudan, the Janjaweed militia forces and the rebel groups of Darfur find a way to resolve their political and economic disputes” (Darfurscores.org 2).

What needs to happen?(U.S. Congress Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 4-5)
1. Rebels need to come together. This will be accomplished by first getting negotiators to each rebel group. From there talks can begin to unify the groups. Issues like who will be in charge, along with other details, will have to be worked out before the groups can come together.
2. There needs to be a peace process not just peacemakers. There needs to be a specific plan or set of guidelines planned out by all members involved. This way there is a specific way to do things and nothing is done that would jeopardize the negotiations. The problem with individual peacemakers is that there can be too many and they are forming different deals with different groups that do not coincide with the deals of others. This ends up causing more problems because there is too many deals being made and some of them fall through because of the lack of cohesiveness with the other parties' deals. Another issue that comes with multiple peacemakers is that under-the-table deals are made and results in backtracking from progress made. With a systematic peace process put into place, the negotiations will run more smoothly and there will be less accusations of other parties not delivering or following through with their word.
3. Other countries need to come together and realize the problem and work to help end it. The biggest obstacle for this happening is with the Genocide Convention defining the crisis in Darfur as genocide or not. Once that is settled, and it is classified as a genocide, the parties of the convention are obligated to prevent and punish the acts of genocide. With the crisis being defined as a genocide the countries will come together automatically to help Darfur and its people gain peace.
Along with this comes the assumption that America will lead the other countries in resolving the problems. This shouldn't be the case. ANY country can start the movement to end the genocide.
4. The focus needs to be on Darfur and its neighbors to resolve the spillover effects of the genocide in Darfur. Once the aid of other nations begins, the spillover of refugees into neighboring regions in Sudan should subside. The people displaced will have to return to Darfur and a serious rebuilding stage has to take place.
5. The need for pressure to be placed on Khartoum to accept a significant peacemaking force. The Khartoum government is refusing to let anybody in or out of Darfur to help with the efforts of peace. The main reason for this is because they will be charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other charges. It is because of this that the government is refusing to allow peacekeepers and declining negotiation deals. Once the countries come together they can pressure the Khartoum government to accept peacemaking force.

All of these steps must be taken seriously on a higher level by the governmental officials. They will take much time and hard work to achieve but once they are met the healing process for the Darfurians will be able to begin. On a more common level, people wishing to aid the efforts to stop genocide in Darfur and the surrounding areas can help by contacting your members of Congress about their grades on stopping genocide, meet with the your elected officials, help out with a Sudan divestment campaign, write to your local media, and spread the story of the genocide by telling yours friends and family (Darfurscores.org).

Become a global citizen and help show that the genocide in Darfur is important. Let your voice be heard. We are the ones to help step it up. We need to become more informed about what is happening around the world. We are the voice of change.

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. “Darfur: a “Plan B” to stop
genocide? : hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,
One Hundred Tenth Congress, first session, April 11, 2007.” Washington: U.S. G.P.O. 2008.

The "Broken Promise"

Please view this video before reading blog entry...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhoV5iF3TiM&feature=related

Ever since the Holocaust, the Genocide Convention has made a promise to “never again” allow the “targeted destruction of a particular ethnic, racial, or religious group” to happen (Straus 1). This promise has raised the debate of whether or not the crisis in Darfur should be classified as ‘genocide’ under the terms of the Genocide Convention. Ultimately it is this debate that is causing the delay of help reaching the suffering people in Darfur. Without the crisis in Darfur being classified as genocide under the terms of the Genocide Convention, no immediate help can come.

What happens if the crisis in Darfur is not classified as genocide?
The mass murder of innocent Sudan citizens will continue, unstopped until there are no more African Darfurians left alive.

What happens if the crisis in Darfur is classified as genocide?
A world-wide response will take place. All the countries that are parties to the Genocide Convention are bound to an oath that says they must prevent and punish whoever is responsible for the beginning and carrying out of the genocide.

My personal problem with the debate on whether or not to classify the crisis in Darfur as a genocide is that while they are debating, thousands of people continue to be displaced from their homes and killed. If the mass murders off innocent men, women, and children is not enough to be called genocide then what is? How many thousands... millions of people have to die for these killings to be classified as genocide? There is plenty of evidence that it is genocide that is taking place in Darfur. Maybe the question is whether or not people want to call it genocide because it would mean they would have to step in and help? By debating how to define the crisis in Darfur, it takes away from the more important questions about how to create an effective way to stop the mass violence.

Here is the evidence it is genocide that is taking place ( all info. below taken from http://www.goshenschools.org/staff/mnichols/documents/PowellDarfurArticle_000.pdf):

Under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide occurs when the following three criteria are met:
· Specified acts are committed:
a) killing;
b) causing serious bodily or mental harm;
c) deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction of a group in whole or in part;
d) imposing measures to prevent births; or
e) forcibly transferring children to another group;
· These acts are committed against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group; and
· They are committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [the group] as such”.

The totality of the evidence from the interviews we conducted in July and August, and from the other sources available to us,
shows that:
· The jinjaweid and Sudanese military forces have committed large scale
acts of violence, including murders, rape and
physical assaults on nonArab
individuals;
· The jinjaweid and Sudanese military forces destroyed villages, foodstuffs, and other means of survival;
· The Sudan Government and its military forces obstructed food, water, medicine, and other humanitarian aid from
reaching affected populations, thereby leading to further deaths and suffering; and
· Despite having been put on notice multiple times, Khartoum has failed to stop the violence.

First the Holocaust, then Cambodia, then Bosnia, then Rwanda, now Darfur...will we ever learn?...Who's next?

Stories from the people

In my research, I found a story of a twenty-two year old woman, Nora, who lost her parents and uncle to a Janjaweed raid on their village in 2004. She is the oldest of ten children and has to support her family by working in the field collecting grass. One day while out in the field, “two men with guns pinned her down, took off her clothes and gang-raped her.” She was living in a refugee camp at the time this happened (Refugees International video 2007). It helps illustrate how poor the living conditions are for the people in Darfur during this crisis. They are put into these refugee camps to help protect them from the rebels and the Sudan government, but the Darfurian refugees still do not have the resources or power to protect everyone.

A man who barely got away from the Janjaweed when they burned his village remembered the scene saying, “Every man over fifteen years [of age] are killed, pregnant women are cut open in case they are carrying a boy” (Refugees International Video 2007). Imagine watching your husband, father, brother, or boyfriend being murdered right in front of you and you are forced to watch. Picture the suffering and agonizing pain on a mother-to-be’s face as a machete opens her womb to reveal the tiny figure of an unborn child. These people endure so much suffering yet find a reason to hope that someone will hear their story and make a difference in the situation at hand. Through the loss of their home, food, and spirits, these innocent people die to create “what might be described as ‘genocide by attrition’” (Reeves 2).

Story from: “Darfur.” Genocide Intervention Network. 2008. 22 Nov 2008.
<http://www.genocideintervention.net/educate/darfur>
Story of Halima Abdul Kalima
"She and her 10 year old sister, Sadia, were gang raped and tormented for two days. Before leaving, the attackers shot and killed young Sadia for refusing to give-up her donkey.
"Halima and others fled the village. But several months later, once Halima had given birth to baby Noorelayn, the janjaweed attacked and captured Halima along with six other women while they were collecting firewood.
"They threw her baby to the ground, raped, beat her and yelled,
"'You blacks are like monkeys. You are not human.'"
—Nicholas Kristof, “The Face of Genocide,” The New York Times, Nov. 19, 2006

Hear some of the stories from the people who are living in the genocide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_jjTJ19WgE&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdR9SB4yPOo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCeKK8F3gRY&feature=related

This video is partially in another language, but what I really want you to pay attention to is the man's story. He is speaking English but has an African accent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N1fBPmlQ7I&feature=related

This video helps to put a face to the people I have been talking about in this blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLZ4ci1c59c

This video contains drawings from children in Darfur depicting what they see going on around them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXdWDM4fmRY&feature=related

How? and Who?

How are the Janjaweed ruling Darfur, Sudan?

These criminals hired by the Sudanese government have used an array of torturous and just unforgiveable tactics to achieve the governments plan of crushing the rebellion. Some of these tactics include rape, displacement (burning villages down to the ground and poisoning wells), organized starvation(killing livestock and burning crops), and mass murder. To keep foreign interference to a minimum, Janjaweed have used threats against aid workers to stop help from reaching the people who need it.

Who are the main targets of the Janjaweed?

Records made over different times and locations illustrate that no one is safe. Men have been singled out majority of the time, but women, children, and the elderly are not spared.

More displaced

According to Reeves, approximately half of Darfur's population, which is over three million people (2) have been displaced from their homes and the number continues to grow. More than one hundred people continue to die each day, adding up to around five thousand people dying every month (Darfurscores.org 2). The death rate is so large and continues to grow with such force that the final death toll is estimated to exceed that of Rwanda's genocide, which was "800,000 lives" (Booker et al 1).

If this kind of issue was happening in a more developed country, for example the United States, there would be floods of troops and government supported agencies to help stop these mass murders. The lack of media attention and the lack of concern shown by other nations does not help the crisis in Darfur. By people being aware of the situation and standing by and doing nothing, it enables the Khartoum government and the Janjaweed to continue with their slaughter of innocent people.

The picture above is of a small refugee camp in Chad that thousands of Darfurians now call home after being displaced from their homes.

Booker, Salith, and Ann-Louise Colgan. “Genocide in Darfur.” The Nation. 24 June 2004. 3 Nov
2008. < http://thenation.com/doc/20040712/booker/print>.

Reeves, Eric. “Darfur and the International Criminal Court.” Middle East Report Online. 29
April 2005. 29 Oct 2008. < http://www.merip.org/mero/mero042905.html >.

“Take Action Now.” DarfurScores.org. 2004. 3 Nov 2008.
<http://www.darfurscores.org/takeaction>.

What is the affect of it all?

The effect of genocide is epic! Even though the issues are not preached about in the news everyday, the problem is significant. In 2004 Booker and his colleagues noted the genocide in Darfur as the "worst humanitarian crisis to be going on in the world." (1) If this was said in 2004, and no big changes have been made to end the crisis, imagine what people would say now after the issue has had almost five years to grow.

Over a million people in Darfur were displaced in 2004, as a result of Janjaweed forces destroying villages, crops, and livestock. A rough "188,000 people seeked refuge in neighboring Chad" (Depoortere et al 1).


Booker, Salith, and Ann-Louise Colgan. “Genocide in Darfur.” The Nation. 24 June 2004. 3 Nov
2008. < http://thenation.com/doc/20040712/booker/print>.

Depoortere, Evelyn, et al. "Violence and mortality in West Darfur, Sudan (2003-04):
epidemiological evidence from four surveys." Lancet 364.9442 (09 Oct. 2004): 1315-
1320. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation].
11 Nov. 2008 .

Pictures are worth a thousand words

Janjaweed soldier heavily armed.

No one is safe from the violence the genocide in Darfur is causing.

The genocide not only kills people from the murderous acts being carried out by the Janjaweed, but also from starvation. Starvation happens as a result from Janjaweed soldiers destroying the resources.

*PLEASE take note that these pictures may not be suitable for all ages and that the content in which they are displaced is purely for educational purposes in that they are here to help illustrate the severity of the genocide taking place in Darfur, Sudan. *

You can click on the picture and it will take you to the link it was taken from.

Brief History

Since gaining its independence from the United Kingdom in 1956, Darfur has been in constant disarray and as a result of this has cost an estimated 2 million lives (Straus 1). These deaths come from two civil wars and local lineage tensions between the 'African ' farmers and the 'Arab' herders. The issue of genocide came to be as a result from the second civil war, involving the "the Islamist, Khartoum-based national government and two rebel groups; the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement" (Depoortere et al 1).


In February 2003, the tension between the Sudan government and the two rebel groups exploded into a heated and prolonged conflict (Totten et al 1). The two rebel groups, in April 2003, attacked a military airfield to protest the government for its neglect to unanswered pleas for political and economical help. Another reason for the rebel attack was the alleged oppression of the Khartoum government on its Black Sudanese population. Instead of "addressing long-term grievances over political and economical marginalization...the regime switched to a policy of destroying" (Reeves 2). This destroying plan was known as a scorched-earth policy. Under this plan of action, civilians of the same ethnicity as the rebel groups (primarily the groups of Massalit, Fur and Zaghawa) were murdered. The government rationalized this policy by an assumption: people of the same ethnic back ground as the rebels most have the same motives as the rebels, making them suspects of challenging Khartoum's authoritarian rule (Booker et al 1). This rationalization gives a whole different meaning to "guilty by association".



The government carried out this systematic method of displacing and murdering African civilians by supporting the recruitment of a militia formed from local Arab tribes (Darfurscroes.org 1-2). This group of "soldiers" call themselves the Janjaweed, meaning 'evil men on horseback'. The name was picked to inspire fear, this properly suits the murderous clan because many of the men are convicted felons and criminals (Hoile 1). These horseback militias were instructed by the Khartoum government to terminate the rebellion. Since that order was made, only a flood of violence and murderous rampages without mercy have followed.


Below are three websites that link to videos. They are a series of a documentary on the Janjaweed. They are interesting to watch because it shows the point of view from the people who are doing the killing.
Play first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWSF82GeNTU&feature=related
Play second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzfbKn2zJVw&feature=related
Play last:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTEX-55uxpQ&feature=related


Booker, Salith, and Ann-Louise Colgan. “Genocide in Darfur.” The Nation. 24 June 2004. 3 Nov
2008. < http://thenation.com/doc/20040712/booker/print>.

Depoortere, Evelyn, et al. "Violence and mortality in West Darfur, Sudan (2003-04):
epidemiological evidence from four surveys." Lancet 364.9442 (09 Oct. 2004): 1315-
1320. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [Zach Henderson Library], [Statesboro], [GA].
11 Nov. 2008 http://proxygsu-gso1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14671492&site=ehost-live.

“Genocide in Darfur, Sudan.” DarfurScores.org. 2004. 3 Nov 2008. < http://www.darfurscores.org/darfur>.

Hoile, David. “The ‘Janjaweed’ Militia in Darfur.” Media Monitors Network . 5 July 2004. 18 Nov 2008. <http://usa.mediamonitors.net/headlines/the_janjaweed_militia_in_darfur>

Reeves, Eric. “Darfur and the International Criminal Court.” Middle East Report Online. 29
April 2005. 29 Oct 2008. < http://www.merip.org/mero/mero042905.html >.

Straus, Scott. "Darfur and the Genocide Debate." Foreign Affairs 84.1 (Jan. 2005): 123-
133. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. [Zach S. Henderson], [Statesboro],
[GA]. 28 Oct. 2008 http://proxygsu-gso1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=15496775&site=ehost-live.

Totten, Samuel, and Eric Markusen.. "The US government Darfur genocide
investigation." Journal of Genocide Research 7.2 (June 2005): 279-290.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [Zach S. Henderson], [Statesboro], [GA]. 28 Oct. 2008 http://proxygsu-gso1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17267372&site=ehost-live.

First Words

Hello! This is my first time as a blogger so please bear with me while I learn the basics and try to present you with the most accurate information that I can while presenting it in a clear way that you will understand.

The purpose of this blog is to inform you about the terrible tragedies that are taking place in the Western part of Sudan, in the region called Darfur. Many may not know but there is a genocide taking place in Darfur for the past five years, since February of 2003. The saddest part is there has not been much change since then. Through this blog you will learn about the history of war and conflict that brought about the genocide in Darfur. You will also learn about the what is going on now, hear live testimonies of people living through the crisis, and learn the solutions and why or why not they are working or being used.