Darfur
is a region about the size of France located in Western
Sudan. A little over half of the six million people who
live there are black Africans while the rest are Arab. It
is a region that has faced severe underdevelopment and neglect
from the central government.
In
early 2003, two loosely allied rebel groups began a rebellion
in Darfur, Sudan calling for the redress of social and economic
grievances and demanding greater political power. Sudanese
authorities saw the rebellion as a threat to the viability
of the entire country, fearing other neglected regions would
similarly rise up and demand larger degrees of autonomy.
Thus, the government decided to respond by carrying out
a deliberate policy of extermination against the African
tribal peoples of Darfur, Sudan from which the rebels are
drawn.
A
large Arab militia known as the Janjaweed has been the main
group employed by the government to implement this policy
of genocide
in Sudan. They are armed by the government and sent
into various African villages where they proceed to kill
civilians of all ages, burn down houses, destroy crops and
livestock, carry out mass executions, target vital infrastructure,
and commit wide-scale rape. Reports coming out of the region
speak regularly of such brutal acts as men being chained
together and thrown into burning huts, women being raped
in front of their loved ones, and children being kidnapped
from their families. To date, over 400,000 people have died
as a result of the Sudan
genocide campaign and 2.5 million have been internally
displaced.
Despite
the denial of involvement with such crimes by the Sudanese
government, the facts show that high ranking officials are
coordinating the Sudan
genocide. Sudanese intelligence forces are known to
be in close communication with the militias and air force
planes regularly conduct bombing raids on villages and fleeing
civilians prior to Janjaweed invasions. In July of 2004,
Human Rights Watch released a report revealing internal
government documents showing that the central government
both armed and coordinated the Janjaweed to carry out the
Sudan genocide.
In addition, the government has gone to great lengths to
make sure that no news reporters or humanitarian personnel
are allowed into the villages being targeted in Darfur.
The
United States has already officially labeled the crisis
in Darfur, Sudan “genocide” and the United Nations
has called it “the worst humanitarian crisis in the
world today.”
TAKE
ACTION NOW – There is no time to waste. Act now to
stop the Sudan
Genocide and the killing of innocent people in Darfur.
