Finding the political will
For some time now, it has seemed that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is the only person in America (and, quite possibly, the world) who is paying any attention whatsoever to the genocidal horrors taking place in Darfur. The systematic policies of ethnic cleansing, gang rape, and torture endorsed and encouraged by the Sudanese government should have caused an outcry of public outrage in the global community long ago. Instead, this horrific situation is barely a blip on the radar, receiving essentially zero coverage in the MSM, and scant attention from Congress or the White House.
As Mr. Kristof notes, "President Bush is acquiescing in the first genocide of the 21st century."
In today's NYT editorial, the columnist specifically details six steps which need to be taken by the Administration, our Washington legislators, and the United Nations to put an end to this inexcusable tragedy. But we cannot simply stop there, with accusatory fingers pointed toward our government officials. Every American bears a share of the responsibility for our national apathy toward the suffering in Darfur - and "We the people" have the moral obligation to raise our voices against the continued barbarity of the Sudanese government. Mr. Kristoff writes:
Similarly, Saddam's acts of genocide, his official "rape rooms", his consistent violations of human rights have been cited as integral motivations for our unprovoked invasion of, and forcible regime change in, Iraq. Why, I wonder, has this similar (if not worse) scenario in Darfur not been addressed in the same way, with the same urgency?
Though I hope against hope to be wrong, I can't help but think that these polar opposites of national reaction have been significantly influenced by an insidious cancer that continues to infect the American soul, one we've seen on recent display in the cause of the Toledo riot, in the popularity and notoriety of the Gaede twins, in continuing sluggish government response to Katrina. Simon Deng, a Sudanese activist living in the U.S., asks:
Let's pledge to be among those "100 people in each Congressional district" that make a noise about the inexcusable atrocities being committed daily in Darfur. Let the House, the Senate, the White House know that we expect them to live up to Mr. Bush's inaugural promise to the downtrodden and abused of the world that "the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors." Each day that we wait another home is burned, another woman is forced to accept an endless cycle of rape and beating, another man or child is murdered for nothing more than the color of his skin.
And that we simply must not allow.
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(NOTE: For those of you who are not yet subscribers to the NYT's "Times Select", Mr. Kristof's article is reprinted in the comments section below. Click "add your opinion" to access the full editorial.
I've also included his preceding op-ed, filed from a refugee camp inside Sudan, which describes in more detail the routine horrors faced by the victims in Darfur.)
As Mr. Kristof notes, "President Bush is acquiescing in the first genocide of the 21st century."
In today's NYT editorial, the columnist specifically details six steps which need to be taken by the Administration, our Washington legislators, and the United Nations to put an end to this inexcusable tragedy. But we cannot simply stop there, with accusatory fingers pointed toward our government officials. Every American bears a share of the responsibility for our national apathy toward the suffering in Darfur - and "We the people" have the moral obligation to raise our voices against the continued barbarity of the Sudanese government. Mr. Kristoff writes:
Ordinary readers can push for all these moves. Before he died, Senator Paul Simon said that if only 100 people in each Congressional district had demanded a stop to the Rwandan genocide, that effort would have generated a determination to stop it. But Americans didn't write such letters to their members of Congress then, and they're not writing them now.One further ugly thought has been troubling me as well, concerning our apparent lack of collective outrage. It's hard to ignore the recent parallels to U.S. involvement in the Balkans, a place in which there also were official policies of ethnic cleansing, torture, gang rape, mass execution. That situation was met with public outcry and swift government action.
Finding the right policy tools to confront genocide is an excruciating challenge, but it's not the biggest problem. The hardest thing to find is the political will.
Similarly, Saddam's acts of genocide, his official "rape rooms", his consistent violations of human rights have been cited as integral motivations for our unprovoked invasion of, and forcible regime change in, Iraq. Why, I wonder, has this similar (if not worse) scenario in Darfur not been addressed in the same way, with the same urgency?
Though I hope against hope to be wrong, I can't help but think that these polar opposites of national reaction have been significantly influenced by an insidious cancer that continues to infect the American soul, one we've seen on recent display in the cause of the Toledo riot, in the popularity and notoriety of the Gaede twins, in continuing sluggish government response to Katrina. Simon Deng, a Sudanese activist living in the U.S., asks:
"Tell me why we have Milosevic and Saddam Hussein on trial for their crimes, but we do nothing in Sudan. When it comes to black people being slaughtered, do we look the other way?"We should all hope that Mr. Deng is wrong - and do something about it today.
Let's pledge to be among those "100 people in each Congressional district" that make a noise about the inexcusable atrocities being committed daily in Darfur. Let the House, the Senate, the White House know that we expect them to live up to Mr. Bush's inaugural promise to the downtrodden and abused of the world that "the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors." Each day that we wait another home is burned, another woman is forced to accept an endless cycle of rape and beating, another man or child is murdered for nothing more than the color of his skin.
And that we simply must not allow.
- - - - -
(NOTE: For those of you who are not yet subscribers to the NYT's "Times Select", Mr. Kristof's article is reprinted in the comments section below. Click "add your opinion" to access the full editorial.
I've also included his preceding op-ed, filed from a refugee camp inside Sudan, which describes in more detail the routine horrors faced by the victims in Darfur.)
posted by Bob P @ 10:15 AM
1 Comments:
WHAT'S TO BE DONE ABOUT DARFUR? PLENTY
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 29, 2005
In 1915, Woodrow Wilson turned a blind eye to the Armenian genocide. In the 1940's, Franklin Roosevelt refused to bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. In 1994, Bill Clinton turned away from the slaughter in Rwanda. And in 2005, President Bush is acquiescing in the first genocide of the 21st century, in Darfur.
Mr. Bush is paralyzed for the same reasons as his predecessors. There is no great public outcry, there are no neat solutions, we already have our hands full, and it all seems rather distant and hopeless.
But Darfur is not hopeless. Here's what we should do.
First, we must pony up for the African Union security force. The single most disgraceful action the U.S. has taken was Congress's decision, with the complicity of the Bush administration, to cut out all $50 million in the current budget to help pay for the African peacekeepers in Darfur. Shame on Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona - and the White House - for facilitating genocide.
Mr. Bush needs to find $50 million fast and get it to the peacekeepers.
Second, the U.S. needs to push for an expanded security force in Darfur. The African Union force is a good start, but it lacks sufficient troops and weaponry. The most practical solution is to "blue hat" the force, making it a U.N. peacekeeping force built around the African Union core. It needs more resources and a more robust mandate, plus contributions from NATO or at least from major countries like Canada, Germany and Japan.
Third, we should impose a no-fly zone. The U.S. should warn Sudan that if it bombs civilians, then afterward we will destroy the airplanes involved.
Fourth, the House should pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. This legislation, which would apply targeted sanctions and pressure Sudan to stop the killing, passed the Senate unanimously but now faces an uphill struggle in the House.
Fifth, Mr. Bush should use the bully pulpit. He should talk about Darfur in his speeches and invite survivors to the Oval Office. He should wear a green "Save Darfur" bracelet - or how about getting a Darfur lawn sign for the White House? (Both are available, along with ideas for action, from www.savedarfur.org.) He can call Hosni Mubarak and other Arab and African leaders and ask them to visit Darfur. He can call on China to stop underwriting this genocide.
Sixth, President Bush and Kofi Annan should jointly appoint a special envoy to negotiate with tribal sheiks. Colin Powell or James Baker III would be ideal in working with the sheiks and other parties to hammer out a peace deal. The envoy would choose a Sudanese chief of staff like Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a leading Sudanese human rights activist who has been pushing just such a plan with the help of Human Rights First.
So far, peace negotiations have failed because they center on two groups that are partly composed of recalcitrant thugs: the government and the increasingly splintered rebels. But Darfur has a traditional system of conflict resolution based on tribal sheiks, and it's crucial to bring those sheiks into the process.
Ordinary readers can push for all these moves. Before he died, Senator Paul Simon said that if only 100 people in each Congressional district had demanded a stop to the Rwandan genocide, that effort would have generated a determination to stop it. But Americans didn't write such letters to their members of Congress then, and they're not writing them now.
Finding the right policy tools to confront genocide is an excruciating challenge, but it's not the biggest problem. The hardest thing to find is the political will.
For all my criticisms of Mr. Bush, he has sent tons of humanitarian aid, and his deputy secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, has traveled to Darfur four times this year. But far more needs to be done.
As Simon Deng, a Sudanese activist living in the U.S., puts it: "Tell me why we have Milosevic and Saddam Hussein on trial for their crimes, but we do nothing in Sudan. Why not just let all the war criminals go. ... When it comes to black people being slaughtered, do we look the other way?"
Put aside for a moment the question of whether Mr. Bush misled the nation on W.M.D. in Iraq. It's just as important to ask whether he was truthful when he declared in his second inaugural address, "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors."
Mr. Bush, so far that has been a ringing falsehood - but, please, make it true.
©2005 The New York Times
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SUDAN'S DEPARTMENT OF GANG RAPE
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 22, 2005
[Kalma Camp, Sudan]
When the Arab men in military uniforms caught Noura Moussa and raped her the other day, they took the trouble to explain themselves.
"We cannot let black people live in this land," she remembers them telling her, and they used racial epithets against blacks, called her a slave, and added: "We can kill any members of African tribes."
Ms. Noura is one of thousands of women and girls to be gang-raped in Darfur, as part of what appears to be a deliberate Sudanese government policy to break the spirit of several African tribes through mass rape.
This policy is shrewd as well as brutal, for the exceptional stigma of rape here often silences victims even as it terrorizes the entire population and forces people to flee.
Ms. Noura, 22, expected to be married soon, and the neighbors said she probably would have received a bride price of 30 cows. These days, they say, she will be lucky to find any husband at all - and will not get a single cow.
This is the first genocide of the 21st century, and we are collectively letting the Sudanese government get away with it. Sudan's leaders appear to have made a calculated decision that some African tribes in the Darfur region are more of a headache than the international protests that result when it depopulates large areas of those tribes. In effect, it is our acquiescence that allows the rapes and murders to continue.
The solution isn't to send American troops. But a starting point is to convey American outrage - loudly and insistently - and demonstrate that Darfur is an American priority.
Ms. Noura's saga began when the Sudanese Army and janjaweed militia burned down her village a year ago and killed her father. She and her family fled here to Kalma, but she is the eldest child and needed money to support her younger brothers and sisters.
So she ventured out of Kalma to cut grass in the nearby fields to sell. That was when the men raped and beat her, leaving her unable to walk home.
Rape leads to particular injuries in Darfur because many girls, as part of female circumcision rites, have their vaginas sewn shut with a wild thorn. The resulting physical trauma from rape also increases the risk of H.I.V. transmission. In addition, the attackers sometimes rape women with sticks or bayonets, causing internal injuries that leave the victims incontinent.
Sudan has backed off a bit in response to protests about the rapes, and it has stopped arresting women who go to foreign aid workers to seek medical treatment. But the rapes themselves are continuing, unabated. The Sudanese police and military are everywhere in the area, but they don't secure the fields outside the camp where the attacks take place.
In just one of eight sectors in Kalma, I found three women who acknowledged on the record that they had been gang-raped this month within a few days of each other.
Arifa Muhammad, 25, told of being caught by 10 men as she planted okra to have a little more food for her three children. One of the men said, "I know you are Zaghawa, so we will rape you." Afterward, they beat her with the butts of their guns.
The very next day, Saida Abdukarim, also 25, was tending her vegetables when three men with guns seized her. She pleaded with them, pointing out that she is eight months' pregnant.
"They said, 'You are black, and so we can rape you,' " she recalled. Then they gang-raped her and beat her with sticks and their guns. She absorbed the beating, trying to protect her unborn baby, and although she was too battered to walk, she has so far not miscarried.
To me, Ms. Noura, Ms. Arifa and Ms. Saida are among the heroes of Darfur. There is no shame in being raped, but plenty of stigma should attach to those who ignore crimes against humanity. In my book, it's the politicians who don't consider genocide a priority who aren't worth a single cow.
These three women have the backbone to stand up and be counted. We in the West have so much less to lose, yet we can't even find our own voices. Let's hope that the courage of these three women may inspire President Bush, Kofi Annan and other world leaders finally to show a little more backbone and stand much more firmly against genocide.
©2005 The New York Times
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(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Hue and Cry has no affiliation with the originator of this article nor is The Hue and Cry endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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