Victims of Silence
Brooklyn, NY: Where is the shouting, the grumbling, the Al Gore outburst against the Sudan? Where’s the intellectual-academic-media contingent’s bluster regarding the world’s worst “humanitarian disaster”? Where are the vocal protest marches and Rush Limbaugh’s invective? The media that broadcasts Abu Ghraib photos with such gusto has no space for major atrocities without good footage. As the world averted its eyes from the hacking machetes in Rwanda, it turns its back again on Africa. A half a million Sudanese civilians may die within short months (1) and there’s a notable lack of guest analysts on cable news.
In the last year, the Sudanese government has systematically targeted its own people in Darfur, a California sized region of six million. Ariel bombings, crop destruction, well poisoning and mass executions are thoroughly documented, as is rape, torture, and starvation. The Janjaweed, a government backed militia, roam the Darfur region on horseback pillaging like Genghis Khan. They massacre men, rape women, and torch villages and mosques.
Over a million Darfurians have fled to the edge of the Sahara and into neighboring Chad and need “acute assistance” according to the UN. (2) The Sudanese government has used its administrative powers to block international monitors, aid, medical supplies, and the media. Many kidnapped youngsters have become chattel in the thriving slave trade. Six hundred children were recently rescued by UNICEF, and an estimated 40,000 children remain slaves in government held territories. (3)
Five percent of children under five have died in the last three months, mostly from treatable maladies like starvation, malaria and diarrhea, and 21% of children are already suffering from acute malnutrition.(4) Aid delivery will be extremely difficult with the onset of the monsoon in June. The million will then stand in the rain, starving and unsheltered, and hundreds of thousands will die, mostly women and children, the UN predicts.
The recent peace agreement between the Arab “Islamic” government in the north and southern Christian and animist rebels occurred after heavy US investment in ending the twenty-one year civil war in which two million people have died, and credit is due. In the western Darfur region, the Arab government has been targeting primarily Muslim blacks. The new promise of peace does not reach the Darfur region.
Bureaucratic inertia reigns. With a candidacy sponsored by the African regional group, the Sudan became a member of the United Nations Human Rights Commission last month. Kofi Annan “is following the situation in Darfur closely…and with great concern,” his spokeswoman reports. (5) With great efforts from the US, the Security Council recently passed a resolution strongly condemning “indiscriminate attacks on civilians, sexual violence, forced displacement and acts of violence, especially those with an ethnic dimension….” (6) The Arab League reports itself to be “concerned” by the actions of its member state, the Sudan. Unlike in Bosnia, France is not urging NATO to breach Sudanese sovereignty. The EU has lost its taste for multilateral responsibility as time has nearly run out in this race against the rains.
Considering today’s Victims of a Lethal Regime are Starving, Poor, Black, African, Muslim Women and Children, in theory they should have widespread popular support. Yet, the liberals are not championing these poor and the neocons have no army to spare. Feminists are busy defending Rowe. The Million Moms aren’t tending these children. The Million Men aren’t marching for these brothers. African-Americans aren’t appalled by racial profiling against these blacks. “Never Again” does not apply to these families. CAIR does not express outrage for these Muslims. Perhaps humans have not yet established a collective identity as earthlings, as civilians, and as allies.
September 11th was the first moment of instantaneous global focus. It resulted in a unified statement: billions of parents objected. The connectivity of that moment has been strengthened through the media and internet. The power of public opinion impacts foreign policy internationally as never before.
We thus empowered are more complicit by silence and face a choice. The global war is between the civilians and the terrorists, the civilians and the lethal regimes. As Sudanese children die, our children become more vulnerable. For those interested in more than hand wringing, this internet link, www.iAbolish.com, is helpful. The normal means of civil protest and advocacy remain open to us all as well.
by Jane
Works Cited
1) Sudan.Net http://sudan.net/news/posted/8535.html Carter Dougherty for the Observer 5/30/04 “Empty villages mark trail of Sudan’s hidden war”
2) The New York Times “Rebel’s Sign Pact with Sudanese Government to End 21-Year War” Warren Hoge http://www.nytimes.com./2004/05/27/international/africa/27suda.html?pagewanted=print&…
3) The News: Pakistan. The Jang Group of Newspapers http://jang.com.pk/the news/may2004-daily/05-05-2004/world/w15.htm or http://jang.com.pk/
4) AFP 5/20/04 “Mass Starvation looms in Sudan’s Darfur region: MSF”
Sudan.net http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/8502.html
5) CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/05/27/un.sudan/index.html
6) Sudan.Net UN Security Council Condemns Attacks on Civilians in Sudan’s Darfur Region” UN News Service 5/26/04 http://sudan.net/news/posted/8535.html
