Just to give some background information the Darfur Genocide began in 2003 and still continues today. The genocide started because the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement started attacking government targets. They accused Khartoum of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs. The people that are driving out the black African farmers are the Arab Janjaweed militia. This is basically a genocide where the Arabs kill and drive out African farmers from the Fur, Massaleet and Zagawa ethnic groups.
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| This is a Janjaweed soldier. |
The Janjaweed are known as the Arab tribesmen. When Janjaweed is translated from Arabic to English it means “a man with a gun on a horse.” They are nomads and they have had troubles with desertification in the past. The Janjaweed were armed and recruited by the Sudanese government. The Janjaweed have killed, raped, stole money and burned down thousands of village houses.
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| This is a picture of Musa Hilal. |
Musa Hilal is a man that is expected to be one of the leaders of the Janjaweed. He denies the fact that this is genocide and he says that the deaths in Darfur were just simply “repercussions” of the war. He constantly says along with the rest of the people that support the Janjaweed, which the westerners (i.e. the U.S.) are exaggerating the whole story and making it seem like more than it actually is. Hilal also has the strong belief that the Janjaweed did not start the war and that it all began because the Sudan Liberation Army started the conflict. Hilal says “The rebels started this war. They started burning and destroying many of the villages. They started destroying our villages first.”
In the genocide the Janjaweed are playing the part of being the people that are causing the genocide even though they may not admit it. The Janjaweed are the Arab men that are attacking the darker skinned African farmers. During these attacks the Janjaweed who are armed by the Sudanese government are attacking people but they are mostly just driving people out of their homes. This battle is also slightly religious because Mr. Idres admits to leading a campaign of 5,000 soldiers on horse to attack black southerners because they did not share the same religion.
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| Rebels in East Chad, where refugees flee to. |
Mr. Idres was a key commander for the Janjaweed between 2003 and 2007. He admits to many things that the Janjaweed have done over an interview. He admits that his troops have killed and raped old people and children. The people that he attacked had no weapons and were defenseless against him. Mr. Idres has given himself a reputation that scares people from just when they look at him. When he first began in 2003 he had a secret meeting about recruiting northerners to invade with, but after the meeting a government figure told him that they didn’t care about the people and that they only wanted land. He led killing sprees against the poorest people in Darfur and also on Earth. He now believes that the Sudanese government doesn’t want him anymore and that they are going to kill him because he knows too much and he is a potential threat against the government. He has fled to an east African location and he is now hiding while trying to make a deal with international prosecutors which could keep him alive.
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| This a African village burning after a Janjaweed attack. |
The Janjaweed surprisingly even have a certain way of attacking the Africans. The Janjaweed will have the Sudanese government drop bombs onto the area that they are attacking and after the bombs are dropped they go into the villages and pick people off. Children are included in their victims that they pick up. While they are doing this they also loot the town and steal anything that could be valuable. Then once they have dropped the bomb and gone into the village to take people and cause terror, they light the village on fire and let it all burn down. In 2004 it was estimated that more than 400 African villages have been burned down. The Sudanese government says that they bombed the villages only to put down a regional uprising for the Sudan Liberation Army rebels, but the survivors say that this is not true.
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| This is Kalima. |
African refugees who used to live in Kidinyir, one of the many villages that burned down, say that the government planes five times and each time that they bombed them the Janjaweed were surrounding the village ready to attack. The refugees say that as people tried to escape from the village to safety the Janjaweed moved in, set all of the houses on fire and then they killed anything that moved. One of the surviving villagers named Hawa said “They attacked is in the early hours of the morning as usual they attacked with planes, vehicles, camels and horses. People were running in all directions.” Another fellow survivor of Hawa named Kalima said “Bombs were dropping from the planes. When I heard the men I told the children to run from the house, but men with horses and cars had already entered the village. I was shouting to my husband to also het out of the house.”
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| This is the school after the Janjaweed attack. |
A teacher had also survived the attack. She said that as she was about to start the class she heard gunfire and the planes. Then students started to jump out of the windows and run away and some tried to hide inside. When the Janjaweed came in the shot kids in the classroom and shot at the kids that were trying to runaway.
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| This is a cartoon that shows the rest of the world pressuring Darfur to get help while the government denies all of the claims. |
A BBC article from 2004 says that after having pressure from the rest of the world to stop the genocide the government promises to disarm the Janjaweed. The question in this situation is whether or not they will actually do this or not considering that the government is the one that armed the Janjaweed in the first place. We know that this doesn’t happen considering that it is 2011 now and the Janjaweed have not been disarmed and the genocide continues today, but this shows that there is hope that the government can disarm the Janjaweed and will possibly in the future. The African tribes’ people provide the Sudanese government with troops for their forces, so the Janjaweed are working for the government while disrupting the government at the same time. In 2004 ten Janjaweed men had been sentenced to having one hand and one foot amputated from their body. This gave the Africans hope that change could happen.
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| This is a victim of the Darfur Genocide. |
The Janjaweed continue to attack, kill, rape and ruin black Africans’ lives in Darfur today. The Janjaweed are vicious people that need to be stopped and cannot be allowed to do these things to innocent people in Darfur just because of racial/religious differences. They go into the villages that do not belong to them and they destroy them. There have been over 500,000 people killed since 2003 all because of this dispute that the Janjaweed have caused. This dispute is believed to not be genocide, but it is obvious that what the Janjaweed are doing is genocide.
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I really liked this blog on Darfur. I have heard of the genocide in Darfur many times through fundraisers at school and such but I never knew what was really going on. What struck me the most in this whole story was that the people that are in the position where it is easiest to stop this manslaughter are, in fact, the ones making it possible. Again I am surprised that countries like the US do not do more to help the targeted Africans, even though this has been going on for eight years now.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job!
Nice job all throughout the blog. Id like to mention that i think you are the only person in our class to use a cartoon to illustrate your topic.
ReplyDelete-Donald-
This is crazy, and that guy from the Janjaweed who was denying that the war is their fault is talking such bullll. I didn't know how serious this thing actually was and it is very depressing too. I think the UN should really get involved in this because these people are really not gonna solve their own problems easily. -Ramzi
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