On Darfur

- This is a column that I wrote for my campus newspaper in January. I figured I'd post it here.


December 11, 2006 – A man lay, gunned down by an unknown assailant, on the corner of Addison Road and St. Clair Avenue on Cleveland’s East Side. In his right hand, he clutched three dollars – bus fare for his trip home to the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood across town.

To many of us, this man represents merely another name & face, just another one of the 119 homicide victims in Cleveland last year.

But 26-year old Majok Madut signifies much more than just those killed in Cleveland. His voice is another one in the chorus of voices that have been silenced in the African nation of Sudan for over 20 years.

Majok Madut had the profound misfortune to be born into such conflict. He was one of the so-called “Lost Boys” – southern Sudanese youths whose families died at the hands of the oppressive northern government.

These Lost Boys endured immense hardships. They fled their war-ravaged villages at the barrel of a rifle and fled across the Sahara to Kenya without food or water. They survived by eating mud and drinking one another’s urine.

In 2000, the US government allowed about 4,000 of these young men to emigrate to America. Thirty-six of these Lost Boys found their way to Cleveland, including Majok. He was one of the 26 who remained here. Now there are 25.

These Lost Boys had escaped the ongoing civil war in Sudan. As 2.5 million innocent people died, the civil war was overshadowed by other international matters – including the genocide in Rwanda. Following that disaster that took the lives of around half a million Rwandans, the world community swore it would never again allow genocide to occur.

Well, less than a decade later, the raging civil war in Sudan gave way to a bitter conflict and, ultimately, genocide in Darfur. The United Nations estimates that at least 400,000 people have died since the conflict began in 2003.

What began as a battle for political autonomy by Darfuri rebels against the ruthless, government-sponsored Janjaweed militias has blossomed into a full-fledged genocide. The Sudanese military has begun to work alongside the Janjaweed to rape and murder helpless people and pillage the region.

President Omar al-Bashir has steadfastly refused to allow UN peacekeeping troops into the area. He recently went so far as to boldly claim that the humanitarian crisis in his nation is a fabrication of the imperialist West and that no more than 9,000 Darfuri have died in the conflict.

In 2004, the United States took the first step towards ending the slaughter. Congress declared the situation in Darfur genocide on July 22, 2004. Since that time, however, the US government has done nothing further to resolve the crisis.
Despite the countless horror stories that I have heard – of pregnant mothers being raped and murdered, of infants being scalded by boiling water, of villages being burned to the ground with people trapped inside – there still exists a tangible lack of interest about this in our nation.

Recently I gave a presentation to a College 101 class on Darfur with another member of B-W’s chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND). The question we heard most frequently was not how we could help or what more could be done but, rather, why should we even care? The sentiment seemed to be: So what? People die in Africa all the time; we have problems here to worry about.

Now, granted, this is absolutely true. There are very real social problems here in America. I also agree that the US cannot waiver in its commitment to national security. The Bush Administration is correct in stating there is a concrete threat posed by Islamic extremism and terrorism in the world. This threat runs rife in countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.

But the threat of Islamic extremism and terrorism is not unique to the Middle East.
Following his ascendancy to power on the back of a military coup, Omar al-Bashir established a harsh form of Sharia Law, a very stringent Qur’anic code. Under the guise of this code, he has cruelly repressed the Christians in southern Sudan and the native African tribes in Darfur.

Though the economy has boomed in Sudan due to ever-increasing oil profits, that money has not left the North, especially the capital of Khartoum, which is al-Bashir’s power base. Military spending accounts for over 70% of the national budget. The al-Bashir regime, despite constant denials, has continually supplied and supported the militant, radical Islamic Janjaweed militias. And, most blatantly, Osama bin Laden lived, trained, and received safe haven in Sudan during the mid-1990s.

If it is our national policy to oppose those nations who harbor terrorists, then why do we turn a blind eye to Sudan?

Now, I am in no way insinuating that I want the US to take military action against the Sudanese. That would be imprudent. I am simply asking that we step up and take an active role in ending this reprehensible genocide. It is both our moral obligation and in the best interest of our national security.

The genocide in Darfur hit home last month. But for the millions of innocent Darfuri in refugee camps and vulnerable villages in Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic and the surrounding areas, it is a reality every morning when they wake up. The question that we as a nation have to ask is: How long are we willing to sit by idly while people die?