Darfur Genocide

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

I'm looking for stratforward information on the Darfur and Sudanies genocide. I know it has little to do with leftist politics but I need the information for school.

the questions i need answered are...

1) causes of the genocide in the country (are they political? religious? racial?
2)a descrip[tion of the genocide- what's been happening so far?
3)Number of casualties.
4)political governmental or humanitarian aid organisations that offerd assistance
5) Has canada had any role in helping or assisting the cause.

[Red Commissar]

Just to specify, do you mean Darfur or South Sudan? People seem to mix the two up so I want to make sure you mean Darfur.

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

Just to specify, do you mean Darfur or South Sudan? People seem to mix the two up so I want to make sure you mean Darfur.

I mean Darfur. Is there another genocide going on in south Sudan?

[Nolan]

I don't know if this is relevant, but:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/oil-and-sudans-t138474/index.html?t=138474

[Red Commissar]

I mean Darfur. Is there another genocide going on in south Sudan?

Yeah. The media boils it down to a "Christian" vs "Muslim" thing. There's been a lot of warfare between the factions up until a few months ago. Come January there will be a referendum in South Sudan whether or not to declare independence.

Darfur suffered from similar problems, but it could not be boiled down to religious conflict since most of those who live in Darfur are Muslims, but apparently culturally not similar to the Arab culture that is more common in northern Sudan.

In both cases we had "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" applied, and the one in Darfur got a particular amount of attention. Though most of the international effort seems to be building off South Sudan, for reasons I will describe below:


I don't know if this is relevant, but:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/oil-and-sudans-t138474/index.html?t=138474

Yes, and to build upon this look at:

http://www.zawya.com/eiu/images/SUDAN_Industry_overview_01May2008_1.gif

South Sudan will have a lionshare of these fields. Darfur had a bit on the northwestern corners, but it seems more prudent for those who want better access to the fields to line up behind a bid for South Sudan's independent, as opposed to Darfur.

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

Do you know anything about what the government is doing to stop this? I believe the president is the "ring leader" of the janjaweed, what political ideology does he hold and whet are other parties/organizations doing to stop him? Why has he been president since 1996, surely the population can't support a man like that?

[Red Commissar]

Do you know anything about what the government is doing to stop this? I believe the president is the "ring leader" of the janjaweed, what political ideology does he hold and whet are other parties/organizations doing to stop him? Why has he been president since 1996, surely the population can't support a man like that?

The thing to remember is that Sudan is a large country- it is exceeding 40 million by this point. While people in Darfur and South Sudan might not approve of him, he still retains support among the military and the various tribes and groups who he has managed to retain good relations among. Ultimately the people look at their economic conditions, which they feel they have been benefiting off, and as such will line up behind al-Bashir.

This is even more pronounced if you consider that al-Bashir, presenting himself as a strongman and symbol of the country, will have his supporters defend him even more fiercely considering an attack against him to be an attack on Sudan itself. We have seen this in that many of them have lined up behind his opinion that the issues in South Sudan and Darfur are a matter of national integrity and he must keep the nation together.

Consequently himself and his party hold a firm grip on the state and can manipulate support to fall in line behind them.

You must also understand that Sudan's history also plays a lot into it. Sudan was in a union with Egypt after it was conquered by Egypt in the mid 1800s. Darfur, which had been an independent sultanate, was conquered by Egyption forces and integrated into their administrative unit in Sudan. When the British exerted influence over Egypt to the point of making it a virtual puppet, Sudan (and Darfur with it) was administered as "Anglo-Egypt" with joint rule between the two.

When the British started decolonizing and leaving Africa, Sudan was formally created as an entity, independent of both Egypt and the United Kingdom. This began an issue over where the power of the new state should have its power concentrated in among the various tribes and groups of Sudan. The ones who were in the position to do so first were the more Arabized elements of the population, and they proceeded to do so. The other groups were marginalized, but those in South Sudan rose up. This caused a First Civil war that went from 1955-1972, and another that went from 1983-2005. This was again an issue with South Sudan.

As such for much of the its early years, Sudan was essentially a chaotic mess with a central government that was struggling to exert itself much beyond population near Khartoum.

While the Second Civil War was raging, a coup was launched in 1985 by elements of the military, who in turn created a coalition government between various parties. This was unstable, and in 1989 another coup took place, led by then Colonel al-Bashir, which instituted a more firm and centralized state. Al-Bashir appointed himself president in 1993 and formed a government under his orders.

When someone like Al-Bashir came in (via coup) and began to more strongly assert the framework of the state over the nation, naturally elements of society were willing to line up behind someone they felt would bring back order.

Sudan does not have much going for it beyond its oil and natural gases. 70% of its export revenue is from this alone. And with a significant share of it in the south, he sees it as a threat to his government and the future of his group's interests.

The West comes in here more in that they do not have a way to get into his fields. Sudan's fields are mostly worked on by Russian and Chinese firms. If South Sudan were to secede for some reason, this could open up easily to western firms.

Since then he has exerted more and more control into his office. But again, the people lined up behind him when he was able to show that South Sudan and later Darfur presented a threat to the national integrity and unity of Sudan as awhole.

Darfur joined in hoping that with South Sudan going the way it was, they too could possibly rise up in arms and fight for more rights within the government.

So we saw the usual stuff go down- ethnic cleansing. Al-Bashir could not work with the local elements of the country and consequently looked to exploiting tribal rivalries, which he was able to manifest in the form of the Janjaweed. The latter were used as a way by the government to continue its war against the South and Darfur with out being directly involved- their way of trying to maintain plausible deniability and write the incidents off as tribal violence.

Darfur had an excess of violence, because the rebel groups that were operating there did not receive the level of foreign support that South Sudan was getting. There are indications that neighboring states, chiefly Ethiopia and Uganda, are sending significant support to South Sudan and this is possibly as a result of the United States and other powers trying to cut into the region.

Darfur rebels only had what they could smuggle, and with out that support, the Janjaweed were able to cut a large scathe of destruction through the region. This combined with whenever the government "officially" intervened, led to high death tolls. Violence spilled over into Chad (to the point that Chad and Sudan were in a short war with one another), and into the Central African Republic.

Al-Bashir was made to agree with South Sudan in Nairobi of 2005 in a summit between his government and the South Sudanese rebels. This established a semi-autonomous framework for the region along with a condition that the region be allowed to carry out a referendum in six years if they wish to secede from Sudan. People from the movements of South Sudan were in the meantime incorporated into the government and one of their leaders a vice president- but this fell apart in 2007.

A similar move was made with Darfur too. But with out the level of interest the foreign governments had with South Sudan, this was largely half-assed.

Al-Bashir has an international arrest warrant on him too issued by the ICC due to actions in Darfur, but this is not followed up upon and for the most part is only a sign of anger from western powers rather than a genuine attempt to do anything.

Darfur has unfortunately been largely made submissive, with the damage done already. South Sudan is the one which western powers are interested in, and Darfur is consigned to remain under the boot of Khartoum.

Keep a look out on January 8th of 2011- very soon, just next month- will be that referendum for South Sudan I mentioned earlier over secession. You'll see some fireworks out of that one. We'll see the efforts of foreign interference in the region pay off for some powers.