Darfur, Sudan (some content may affect readers)

Darfur is currently one of the most dangerous places on the planet. It is the site of the world’s largest humanitarian operation. Since the Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006, attacks (beatings, rape, robbery, assassination) against peacekeepers and humanitarian workers has increased nine-fold. We hear a lot about Darfur in Sudan and the conflict that is going on, but rarely do we hear exactly what is going on, only the names of the places and the number of dead. I was shocked into thoughtful disturbing silence when I looked into the Darfur conflict as to what it is, and felt that the situation needs to be brought into light in the West, because the media so easily influences how much we hear about things which are so important. A quick background, Darfur is a region of Sudan which is mostly made up of Africans and Arabs. When the British granted Independence in 1956, they handed power to a minority of Arab elites, who in various groupings have been in power ever since. This caused the south to mutiny against the north, starting the North-South war which ended in 1972. Peace was signed under President Nimeiry which only lasted a few years as the government kept ignoring the peace treaty, and there was a shift towards forcing political Islam on people, the discovery of oil, extreme droughts and famines and to cut the history short, years which followed which saw the National Islamic Front overpower the democratically elected government, and the proclamation of Jihad (holy war) against the south. The regime was home for several Islamic fundamentalist organisations, which provided a home for Osama Bin Laden from 1991-1996, when the US forced him out. At present, the Janjaweed fighters (militia used by the government to fight wars for them so they can claim they have nothing to do with it) have been deployed out to attack and subdue “rebels” who have sprung up from poverty-stricken, marginalized Darfur in two main groups; the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). These groups have worked together and attacked government airbases, garrisons and other targets, running circles around the government. So any village ‘suspected’ to have links to the rebels have been attacked by the Janjaweed. This is where the horrific scenes of rape, torture, ruthless slaughter and other atrocities have been poured out on innocent people, in an already harsh unforgiving setting of deserts and famine. Sexual violence against women is occurring on a massive scale in Darfur, Amnesty International calling these mass rapes a weapon of war. “In Darfur, the Arab militia and military make a point of abusing women in front of their families or entire village. Raping a woman is such an effective weapon because it affects an entire community, for decades…Children who witness it are traumatized, men flee from their partners in shame, and women become ‘damaged goods’, sometimes literally if they can no longer have children because of the violence. Through raping wives and daughters…they target the ‘real enemy’; the men behind them. Having to have your enemies baby goes one step further and turns sexual violence into a tool for ethnic cleansing.” (New Internationalist, June 07) Victims hesitantly tell of rapes, one young girl raped by five men, the sixth cut her vagina with a knife. Another 18 year old girl, Hawa, tells her story: ‘one Friday night, gunshots awoke me, I saw other villagers running from the attackers; men with Kalashnikov rifles riding horses and camels. Jinaweed. I started running but two men caught me and another girl, they tied our hands together and raped us.’ Hawa fled to Camp Kalma in South Darfur. It was three months later but she was still being reminded of the rape every day, not only because she suffers pain in her stomach and can’t sit for long, but because the rapes are why she lives alone in her hut built of sticks and plastic bags. The uncle and aunt who raised her ignore her: a raped woman isn’t worth much in Darfur. She asks plaintively; ‘who will marry me now?’ I’m not telling this story as a shock method, but because this is what is happening right now, over and over and over again, and how can we keep ignoring it? It was not until the 1990’s that rape was taken seriously as a war crime. Male dominated international institutions, prosecutors and researchers preferred to concentrate on more ‘serious crimes’ like murder. But for the mass raping of women to come to an end, and for all these atrocities to come to an end, there has to be an end to freedom from punishment for rapists and those who incite them. Until the perpetrators can be sure that they will be held legally accountable, they will continue. The struggle to bring peace to Darfur is proving as ruthless and rugged as the conflict itself. But that doesn’t hide the fact that justice needs to be delivered to those who have the right to it. Since 2003: Over 400,000 Darfurian civilians have died- an estimated 150,000 from violent attacks, 250,000 from disease and starvation 2.8 million people have been displaced from their homes and villages 250,000 have fled abroad, mainly to Chad where they face further violence anyway 90% of the villages in Darfur’s targeted ethnic groups have been destroyed Jinaweed militia and government forces have been responsible for 97%of these killings 3.6million people are dependent on international humanitarian assistance A third of the people in need are beyond the reach of the 14,000 humanitarian workers.