Josalynn Smith's List: Global Issues

• As the conflict in Darfur enters its sixth year, conditions continue to  deteriorate for civilians.
• The United Nations puts the death toll at roughly 300,000, while the former U.N.  undersecretary-general puts the number at no less than 400,000.(1) Up to 2.5 million Darfuris have fled their  homes and continue to live in camps throughout Darfur, or in refugee camps in  neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic.
• In September 2006, the United Nations estimated that such a collapse would cause  up to 100,000 civilian deaths every month.(

1 more annotation...

• Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has  caused conflict throughout the country.
• Since February 2003, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the  government-sponsored Janjaweed militia have used rape, displacement, organized  starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder.
• The United States and international governments have yet to take the actions  needed to end this genocide.
• Thousands of innocent civilians continue to die from murder, disease and  starvation every month. Today, millions of displaced civilians living in refugee  camps are in dire need of international support as the violence continues.

2 more annotations...

• Mr Hilal, a tribal leader from northern Darfur who lives in the Sudanese capital  Khartoum, is thought to be running one of 16 known Janjaweed bases.
• Answering claims of genocide against the black Africans in the region, he  accused the media and the west of making the situation seem worse.
•  

  The rebels started this war - they started destroying our  villages first
  

   

   

  Musa Hilal
  Suspected Janjaweed leader
•  

  He (Musa Hilal) saw that his soldiers were looting and burning  villages. He never questioned them.
  

   

   

  Anonymous Janjaweed recruit

2 more annotations...

• A large number of these refugees have been he
• rded into overpopulated makeshift camps built from nothing in the middle of  nowhere. Some of them are in fact closer to concentration camps than to  humanitarian operations.

• The war in Darfur did not come out of the blue, of course. Although a  separate conflict, its roots are nevertheless to be found in the civil war  between the northern and southern parts of the country.

   

  Civil war broke out in 1955, just one year before Sudan's formal independence  and has continued ever since, although there was an 11-year interruption from  1972 to 1983. Just after the war resumed, in 1983, the National Islamic Front  (the Sudanese offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which later became  the National Congress Party – NCP) succeeded in getting the "sharia" law  adopted, with the backing of the army. As a result, the civil war has taken the  form of a confrontation between an Islamic north and secular forces regrouped in  the SPLA (Sudanese People's Liberation Army), which claims to represent the  country's southern population, which is mostly non-Muslim.

1 more annotation...

• The conflicts erupted between the British and the Muslims Africans in the Sudan  in 1881 because of religious disputes and the British attempt to end the "new"  slavery trade.
• Britain, having assumed control of Egypt in 1882, was presented with the problem  of the Egyptian- controlled Sudan, an Islamic land south of Egypt where the  Nile's tributaries are located.
• Sudan was independent until 1898, when the British regained control at Omdurman.  These engagements demonstrated the British determination to control Africa in  light of tremendous opposition from a native source
• full-scale war was averted by diplomatic intervention, which arrived at a  settlement to partition the disputed area. Britain received east Sudan with  Egypt, while France gained control of the expanse from the Congo Darfur.
• The Sudan Wars, in exemplifying this stand- fast attitude of imperialism in  Africa, were a prime example of the cause of the eminent commencement of World  War I.

3 more annotations...

• A detained Sudanese opposition leader could be tried over accusations of  supporting a Darfur rebel movement, state media reported yesterday.

• More than 10,000 aid workers, both Sudanese and international, are actively  involved in assisting victims of this man-made disaster.
• Governments issued position papers and sent representatives to Sudan to see the  situation firsthand. New organizations, each with Web sites, have been formed  because of the Darfur crisis. Reminiscent of those seen during the 1970's and  1980's which opposed the oppressive apartheid system in South Africa, campaigns  have begun urging U.S. states and universities to divest from companies doing  business in Sudan and asking the public to petition its government officials to  take action.

• Since 2003, the Darfur region has been plagued by an armed conflict between the  government and rebels. Local and regional efforts to clam-down the situation had  failed to reach a final settlement on the issue.

• Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Court's chief prosecutor, accused Mr Bashir of three  counts of "genocide", five of "crimes against humanity" and two of "war crimes".
• The Prosecutor's office added: "Bashir masterminded and implemented a plan to  destroy in substantial part the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit groups on account of  their ethnicity."
• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both reported that Darfur's  killings do not amount to "genocide" because the crucial element of an intention  to eradicate a given ethnic group has not been proven.

• The Prosecutor said: "He did not need bullets. He used other weapons: rape,  hunger and fear. As efficient, but silent."

2 more annotations...

• The United States, Britain and the European Union have  repeatedly condemned the atrocities but have failed to carry out effective  actions to stop the war. The US referred to the killings as genocide in 2004,  while in 2006, Tony Blair said  the situation was "completely unacceptable" and called for "urgent action".
• Attempts to negotiate ceasefires and peace deals have been sporadic and slow.  New Mexico's governor Bill Richardson met with President Omar  al-Bashir in Khartoum in January  2007. Richardson and al-Bashir agreed to a 60-day ceasefire.^[28] However, within  the week Sudanese planes were again bombing regions in Darfur.