Chris .T
Humanities 10C
A Death Season in Darfur
Throughout history there had been moments in our world that we have done things that impacted our society and it can really mess up who we are as humans and we are responsible for the things we do. In history there were times when people end lives of millions because of their background and that they’re different from others and those are known as a genocide. There had been genocides throughout history that really affected people and their way of life for instance the holocaust and the rwandan genocide both impacted society and we as a community do everything we can to resolve that issue. Unfortunatley, we haven’t necessarily ended that issue because today in Darfur, Sudan millions of people are being murdered. Unlike Rwanda, this genocide happens to continue to this day and many lives are being ended everyday and not many people around the world know that this is happening.
The main cause of the genocide was that the sudanese liberation army took arms against the sudanese government and the government responded by unleashing a deadly force known as the janjaweed, a militia supported by the government and their mission is to kill a huge mass of people including young children. In Darfur it’s mostly a muslim society and there were many tribal and economic differences in that area. The government of Sudan saw the muslim society as pure dominant than the other african tribes and this is what also unleashed the Arab janjaweed to target the non arab people because they weren’t as good as them. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 lives were lost in Darfur and ever since the SLA took arms against the government, more than 2.6 million people had been displaced because of the violence.
Very little is done to stop the genocide and not much of the international community is responding to this madness, similar to the Rwandan genocide back in 1994 but some are beginning to take action. In 2004 The United States government declared it as a genocide under the united nations genocide convention. There are currently UN presence in Darfur and they have been trying to stop the genocide and helping the people of Darfur to escape and take refuge, but unfortunately it cannot be stopped.(In March 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for directing a campaign of mass killing, rape and pillage against civilians in Darfur, ) The international community also issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al Bashir for being the man behind the genocide and sending out the janjaweed to massacre millions of innocent people and destroying their villages.
In the book Darfur Diaries By Adam Shapiro, he goes on a journey to the Darfur region along with other independent film makers Aisha Bain and Jen Marlowe to interview the refugees and survivors that escaped the violence in Darfur. They all hear the different stories from each refugee and they discovered that their family had been killed or missing during the violence and the film also learn how their villages in Darfur had been attacked by government forces of Sudan and the deadly janjaweed militia. Also many children dont have an education due to the government destroying schools. As quoted " The government bombed and destroyed our school, killing people." (45) This was said by a refuge who was being interviewed by the filmmakers and told his experiences. This shows how much the genocide impacts people and their lives have been ruined.
Today this deadly genocide happens to still occurr at this moment as we speak and it's been the worst since the Jewish holocaust during WWII. We as nations of this earth should come together and take action to stop this from continuing. As of now we all know about the UN presence im Darfur and they have assited the darfurians in provding them with food and shelter and health aid. The United nations is not the only organization thats providing help. There are organizations that are not only helping in Darfur, also they are spreading awareness throughout the world.Organizations such as Save Darfur (http://www.savedarfur.org/ )are spreading awareness everywhere around the globe. Their main task is to get the communitys attention and to encourage everyone to take action and to provide aid for the people of Darfur. This organization provides info on how to get involved and steps to take action. They are telling us that we as a society can take action and help stop this from happening.
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