Darfur

Darfur was always and independent Islamic sultanate until it was annexed to Sudan by Britain in 1916. In 1994 it split up into three states; North, South, and West Darfur. In 2003, the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), began to attacked the neglectful central government. The SLM was joined by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in the fight against the government. The government responded by supporting (although unnofficially) another local militia, the janjaweed. The fighting in Darfur is very complicated to decide on a cause, both sides seem ethnically and religiously alike enough for that to be a non-issue, but competition over scarce resources seems to be a reason. Although both sides were accused of excessive violence and brutality, it was the government/janjaweed singled out internationaly for attacks against civilians. In 2005, the government and janjaweed were reported to have commited acts of genocide. Officially, however, the government did not recognize affiliation with janjaweed and therefore did not pursue a genocide policy. It is unclear exactly what went on or is going on in Darfur. In response to the growing suspicion of genocide and war crimes, the UN and Security Council reffered specific human rights abuses to International Criminal Court. In February 2007, prosecuting attourney lodged 51 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the former Sudanese interior state prime minister. The UN is trying to keep the peace, mobilizing a foce of 26,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, but the situation is still unclear. This is really the most basic roots of all war, competition for resources. These were the earliest wars and will continue to be major wars until the end of time. This cartoon shows the reluctance of other nations to intervene in Darfur and the hesitation, although it seems silly. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke. media type="youtube" key="JeC6S6bDTXI" height="344" width="425"This video shows that not only were/are people not acting, that most people aren't even noticing. As with all genocides in history, people don't act until its too late, this was true with the Holocaust, Rwanda, Cambodia, and nearly every other genocide. People dont seem to learn. Most of this suffering could be avoided if good people choose to act.