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Another Rwanda?
Darfur,
Another Rwanda?
By
Charles Jackson
Oct.
5, 2004
Ever
since U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly expressed
regrets for the
genocide
in Rwanda that claimed the lives of over 1 million people,
a
tragedy
he thought the international community had the capacity to
stop but
failed
to, one would have thought that lessons learned would have
been
incorporated
into policies to avert another calamity on the African continent.
But
sadly to say, this has not been the case, as similar acts of
terror and
mayhem
are being perpetrated against the dark skinned Africans in
Dafur by
the
Janjaweed Arab militias with support from the Khartoum-based
government
of Sudan.
Against
the backdrop of widespread destruction of towns and villages,
killings,
rape and abductions in Darfur, one of the poorest and most
inaccessible
regions in the world, the international community has done
little
to stop the wave of barbaric acts. This has led political observers
to
question as to whether the world will allow the situation
to deteriorate only to apologize later as Secretary Annan did?
But
the writing is on the wall that unless urgent action is taken,
Rwanda
will
be revisited.
The
crisis began when the two rebel groups accused the Khartoum
government
of
ignoring Darfur. The government then armed the Janjaweed Arab
militias
who
conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the black
Africans
there.
The
French, with troops stationed in neighboring Chad, have failed
to intervene, while the United States has only condemned the
perpetrators, although Secretary of State Collin Powell made
a historic declaration describing the situation as genocide
when he appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
recently. The Bush administration has not backed
Powell's declaration to demonstrate leadership to stop the
violence. Besides, the United States in a new draft resolution
to the Security Council made no proposal for a no fly zone
to protect the war-weary people of Darfur from the aerial bombardment,
as it did for the Kurds and Shiites in Iraq after the 1991
Gulf War.
After
a series of summits, the African Union managed to deploy 300
troops from Rwanda and Nigeria with a weaker mandate to monitor
the situation. What can mere 300 troops do in such a vast and
inaccessible area such as Darfur? It is now evidently
clear that since their deployment, the situation has worsened.
There are reports of more attacks and blocking of aid. As
a result, 10,000 are dying each month from disease and malnutrition,
according to aid agencies.
A
new U.N. resolution backed an expanded African Union forces,
but regional
leaders
say they needed more funding and logistical support for the
extra
troops.
Since
the conflict began in February 2003, 500,000 are reported killed
and
another
1.4 million have been displaced from their homes and are living
in crowded
makeshift
squalid camps, dependent on numerous humanitarian agencies
for
food,
shelter, medical care and even hope.
Is
Dafur becoming another Rwanda?
Contact Charles Jackson at jackson2@stanford.edu
