Genocide In Darfur

‘The war in Darfur” is an armed conflict in the Sudan Darfur region that began in 2003 and is still ongoing, and in 2005 it was later declared as a civil war against Chad and Central African Republic.

Hearing about genocide was nothing new to many people, but because of the new upbringing of the internet and availability of news broadcasts, the entire world was able to see it for the first time. It was always well known that the Rwandan population is very one-sided. The majority of the people living there are Sunni Muslims or "Hutus" whereas the minority consists of Shia Muslims, or "Tutsi". According to Sarah Hymowitz and Amelia Parker, Tutsi are said to be of higher class because they are more white, and the Hutus are common people of middle class. Although the distrust and hatred between the two groups of people was always slightly present, nobody had any clue about what would be the outcome. Following the establishment of the Hutu led government in 1961, the oppression of the Tutsi followed not far behind. Although many Tutsi fled in fear of imprisonment into neighboring Uganda, those of the Tutsi who were still in Rwanda (probably due to family or marriage ties) were seen as lesser beings by the new Hutu Government. At the time, and for two decades it seemed like the situation was under control. When the Rwandan Patiotic front (RPF) was formed in 1985, tensions escalated. The RPF was a group of Tutsi exiles who demanded that they be granted the right to return to their homeland and end the long period of discrimination against the Tutsi. The RPF rebels invaded Rwanda in October 1990, re-igniting Tutsi hatred throughout Rwanda. It was this act of Tutsi aggression,

Genocide occurs in several nations and causes millions of lives to be lost. The slaughter of innocent men, women, and children continue daily, and will happen until the world and its people grow tired of the unnecessary loss of life and work to aid those in need. Darfurians are a prime example of what can happen when ones lives are not valued because of the difference in beliefs.

The United Nations has described it as "the world's worst humanitarian crisis". As of 2003, the Darfur genocide is being carried out by the Sudanese armed forces and funded Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. These militias are historic rivals of the rebel groups known as the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Darfur is a region in western Sudan on the border of Chad, Libya, and the Central African Republic. Darfur is estimated to have about 6 million people living there. The conflict started in 2003 and has continued through today. The Janjaweed were accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The Janjaweed are destroying Darfurians by burning villages, polluting water, murdering, raping

Concerning the ethnic minorities of Burma, I believe that we are in a period where carefully analyzed humanitarian input can have a successful impact. Unlike the genocide in Darfur, we’re aware of a developing situation where large-scale genocide has not taken place yet. History further lends a hand in paralleling the cordoning in society of minorities such as the Rohingya with that of the black African minorities in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. Lessons gained in the events in Sudan should be considered in defending the minorities of Burma who are facing human rights violation.

Lisa Parks discusses the use of satellite to represent conflicts throughout the world. With mass media we now have access to the world in our hands Parks brings awareness to the importance satellites imagery may have by allowing viewers to witness conflicts on a global scale. Parks further explains this by stating “I set out to show that high- resolution satellite images, initially designed for military intelligence purposes, could become useful to world citizens in their efforts to understand the complexities of world conflicts and political violence, and in some cases, to contest the claims of those in power and insist upon alternate interpretation” (245). Using satellites to show viewers around the world destruction that is occurring allows

From June 7 to July of 1994, a kind of terrifying violence overcame small East-African country, Rwanda. Close to a million lost their lives in just a span of one hundred days. Neighbors killing neighbors, streets riddled with dead bodies and blood-thirsty rebels waiting to strike, and the near- extermination of an entire population became an everyday reality for helpless Rwandans. The same questions perplexed horrified people all around the world: What inspired such hate? And why did this hate suddenly lead to such a gruesome course of action? The assassination of Rwanda’s president may have been the final catalyst that began the genocide, but it was far from being the only catalyst. Rwanda’s colonial history resulted in a clear schism between

The world is not a safe place. In our minds we know this, but in our hearts we like to believe we can change it. The world itself is complex, there are many good memories in life; the birth of a child, achieving a goal, and the feeling of victory. The world is also filled with plenty of bad memories; war, terrorism, and death. Most recently, in 2003, there was a genocide in Darfur, killing 300,000 people. Sense then there have been many more genocides and current ones happening today, history keeps repeating itself and innocent people continue to die. One thing that keeps people safe at night is knowing the bad guys, who fill us with these bad memories, are locked away (Holly). The government made the first prison in 1790 (Prison), since then

The UN currently has no ability to send troops to a region that has an active government denying access (Petrou, Savage), which makes international help impossible in situation like Darfur. Countries with monetary links to regions experiencing genocides are also currently able to veto sanctions against regions (Dias, Rayman), and even when a sanction is passed, the UN has no power to enforce it. The International Criminal Court, like the UN, has no military power with which to force criminals into trial (Sikainga), making in ineffective against ongoing events. For genocides to be truly stopped, the US would likely need to create a new peacemaking military division (O'Hanlon), and funds would need to be raised for the funding of native troops and rebels (Amnesty International). The global environment will also need to be regulated and supported, to avoid shortages in resources that cause conflicts, particularly in non-industrial regions like

By early July, the RPF had control of the majority of the country. Fearing reprisal killings, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled the country. To think that people would have that much disrespect for human life is unbelievable. Instead of taking the initiative to put an end to the brutality, the international community ignored the crisis. While the United States created a ton of excuses regarding the lack of intervention. The genocide was distorted and incompletely portrayed by the international community for months due to a lack of interest in the country of Rwanda. Even today, large governments choose not to intervene in circumstances of human rights violations when those countries are not part of the Western world. If the international community had given more help to the people in Rwanda instead of focusing on their own national interests, the genocide’s effects possibly could have been minimized or even

There is widespread concern about this deliberate mass extermination of human beings. Many U.S citizens, raging from A-list celebrities to everyday Americans have urged our government to take steps to help end genocide in Darfur. Other ways to help are by promoting social awareness through clubs and groups at school or work to help get the word out. By making the communities aware of the issue, volunteering and encouraging others to volunteer, while building close ties to social activists are great ways to raise awarness for this unknown and neglected cause.

Coming from the greek word ¨genos¨ meaning race or tribe and the latin word ¨cide¨ meaning to kill we have defined the most grave crime against humanity, genocide. This is the mass extermination of a people, an attempt to remove a group from the earth entirely. Article two of the UN genocide convention defines it as ¨any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group, Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, Forcibly

The RPF may have found that their invasion of Rwanda in 1990 to be the prime opportunity because in 1989, “the international coffee price plunged by over 50 per cent,” leaving the Rwandan economy in a vulnerable position and any national army would be weaker if the economy was suffering (Pottier 21). It was, however, found that “towards the end of 1990, just after the RPF invasion, extremist elements of the Hutu government began planning mass murder of Tutsi,” and the international community was aware of these dangers (Clark 24). Johan Pottier was blunt when he states that “preparations for genocide, invariably dressed up as self-defense against the Rwandese Patriotic Front, an organization ethnicised as ‘the Tutsi invader’, had started some two years before the actual slaughter” (30-31). There had been known killings of human rights activists and journalists, as well as orders from prominent officials for the Hutu majority to prepare for the killings and even organizing death squads to thoroughly eradicate the Tutsi (Pottier 22, 30). All of these conditions, once mixed together with encouragement from the RPF and the Rwandan government, spelt disaster for civilians and hundreds of thousands of people would lose their lives over something that could have been prevented had the international

The Republic of Sudan, or Sudan as it more commonly known, is currently in a state of crisis. Darfur, in western Sudan, is in the middle of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world right now. They are on the brink of genocide, the deliberate killing of a very large number of people from a particular ethnic group or background.

From April to June 1994, in a mere 100 days, approximately 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered during the Rwandan genocide (Destexhe, 1994). The international community failed to prevent or stop this slaughter. Considering the horrific nature of this genocide and the vast number of victims, there is a question whether the international community is culpable for the Rwandan genocide; specifically, the role of its key players, the US, the UN, France and Belgium. I will argue that the international community is culpable and focus on three reasons for this inaction.