Final Paper Part 1

Part I: Background
This part focuses on what parties are involved in the issue and its historical backdrop; length should be about 400 words.

NEVER AGAIN

Some ugly aspects of war have, over time, simply numbed people into naturally turning an eye away from a dire situation. Darfur is a place where, since February 2003, the national government of Sudan has allowed the systematic murder of over 400,000 innocent civilians, the displacement of over 2.5 million, and cruelty and brutalities against hundreds of thousands. All of this, similar to the past genocide in Rwanda, can be quickly and relatively easily stopped, with simple commitment from the right people. The Presidential administration of America, the United Nations, and the African Union all have an obligation, both morally and politically, to do what we can to effectively put an end to the genocide, something the United Nations promised after the Holocaust they would never allow to happen again.
Sudan is the largest country in Africa, an area about the size of Texas, located south of Egypt on the eastern side of the Sahara Desert. The countries main economic resource is oil, but despite this, the approximately 6 million inhabitants are still among the poorest in Africa. Seventy percent of the countries oil revenues go directly to funding the military. The current crisis in Darfur began seven years ago. The genocide began when, after decades of oppression, neglect, and various small-scale conflicts, two rebel groups known as the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality movement (JEM) mounted an insurgency against the government. These rebel groups are formed mainly from non-Arab black Africans. The government responded brutally to this outburst, increasing arms and support to local militias, known as the Janjaweed. “The word “Janjaweed” is an Arabic colloquialism from the region, and generally means "a man (a devil) on a horse." These members are made up of Arab black African Muslims. The Janjaweed has proceeded to wipe out entire villages, and systematically murder, rape, and torture thousands of innocent Darfurian civilians. In the past, during more minor conflicts, the Sudanese government has previously supported the tactic of using militia to attack the civilian populations that are believed to support these insurgencies. Few have been spared from this torture. According to a report of the United Nations, through violence, disease, and starvation, already approximately 400,000 lives have been claimed. About 2.5 million Darfurians have fled their communities and are now living either in refugee camps in the neighboring country of Chad, or in a network of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Darfur. The Sudanese government paints their military aircraft white, the same color as U.N. humanitarian aircraft. This is a violation of international humanitarian law, but that does not stop the villagers from knowing, when a plane approaches, if it is there to help them or to bomb them. There are still 1 million more Darfurians still living in their villages, living in constant fear of bombings, raids, murder, rape and torture.
The refugee and IDP camps are both entirely dependent on the United Nations (UN) and other such humanitarian organizations for basic needs. The conditions of these camps are dire. The survival of these people is remarkable, as the overwhelming hard ships they must endure, and the lack of resolution or progress towards the cause of all of this. The 13,000 aid workers in about 100 camps throughout Darfur are also at constant risk due to government harassment. Both the UN and non-governmental humanitarian agencies have warned that because of this, “their ability to sustain operations is at risk”. Without the continue of humanitarian aid, UN officials say the death rate could raise as high as 100,000 people per month.

Source:

Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur
To the United Nations Secretary-General
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_02_05drafur_report.pdf

Explaining Darfur: four lectures on the ongoing genocide / by Salih, Mohamed Abdel Rahim M,