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June 26, 2004, Saturday LEADER: THE WORLD AVERTS ITS EYES FROM THE TRAGEDY OF DARFUR HOMELESS, hungry, hopeless. The people of Darfur, those whose skin is the wrong colour for their government's liking, huddle in makeshift camps, driven out of their villages, many driven from their own country. They have run from the death squads and they have cowered as the bombs exploded around them. They wait for the world to help them. And the world looks away. After all, there are football matches to watch, Big Brother contestants to gossip about. There is violence in the Middle East, and Henmania at Wimbledon. And is it not the case that there is always another African disaster looming? It is such a busy world. Who has time to spare for another tragedy? Many, though, are going to die. Those faces looking into the camera; they are the faces of people who will no longer be alive this time next year. Already, it is too late for some. In some of the refugee camps inside Darfur, almost half of the women and children are already suffering from malnutrition. The rains have started, cutting off the camps. The United Nations' world food programme only has food for 500,000 of the 800,000 it planned to help. Even that figure bears little relation to the true number affected. The US Agency for International Development has warned that time is running out to get aid to Darfur. It talks of a death toll of 350,000 people as "conservative". Ten years ago, the UN's reluctance to act allowed the Rwandan genocide to proceed unchecked. Hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. This is the UN's opportunity to make amends. Yet still, it seems, there is no sense of urgency. The Scotsman has tried to play a part in highlighting this unfolding tragedy. Gethin Chamberlain and photographer Ian Rutherford travelled to the border between Sudan and Chad to speak to those who had experienced the murderous attacks of the Janjaweed militias and the Sudanese government forces. It is a story that too many have chosen to ignore. We trusted that our readers would share our concern. The response has been heartening. Donations for the UNICEF appeal that we ran in conjunction with the coverage have poured in. UNICEF says that such an appeal in a single newspaper would normally be expected to raise no more than GBP 10,000. The Scotsman's readers have already donated in excess of GBP 33,000, and the figure is rising by the day. Decent people are not prepared to stand idly by while others suffer. But such generosity is not enough if those with the political power do not act quickly to stem the killing. The aid agencies need to be able to get into Darfur to use the money that has been donated. Instead, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, will not even accept that what is happening in Darfur is genocide or ethnic cleansing. He will only say that it is "a tragic humanitarian situation". A report issued by the UN in May describes the situation in Darfur as "an ethnically based rebellion which has been met with an ethnically based response, building in large part on long-standing but largely hitherto contained tribal rivalries". The Sudanese government has set out to destroy a people. It has backed one ethnic group against another, determined to wipe out the black African population of Darfur, leaving only Arabs behind. If that is not genocide, what is? Mr Annan and Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, intend to visit Khartoum next week to speak to the Sudanese government. It is to be hoped that they do not pull their punches, though in the case of Mr Annan, it may be a vain hope. He has previously stated that there may need to be military intervention to resolve the crisis. But he will not risk upsetting members of the UN Security Council. And the council is hopelessly split. Despite finally approving the use of UN peacekeepers for the long-running conflict in southern Sudan, some council members continue to block a resolution to enable the UN to act in Darfur. Algeria and Pakistan do not like the idea of interfering with the sovereignty of a fellow Muslim state. France and China have oil interests in Sudan which they are loathe to jeopardise. It creates the obscene possibility that UN forces will be present where genocide is taking place, unable, yet again, to intervene. THE solution is not complicated. The Sudanese government must open up the Darfur region to aid agencies immediately. It must disarm and cease to fund the Janjaweed militias who it has used to do its dirty work. The rest of the world should dispense with platitudes and face down the Sudanese government. Those responsible for this slaughter must be identified and brought to book. The militias must be disarmed and the Sudanese airforce grounded, by no-fly zones if necessary. A swift and explicit UN Security Council resolution is the starting point; action to back it up must follow. And it would be helpful if those with commercial interests in Sudan could rediscover the moral certainty they felt over Iraq and stop prevaricating. But what is needed, more than anything, is for ordinary people, not just the politicians, to start taking notice; to say that, in 2004, it is no longer acceptable for hundreds of thousands of people to die because they are the wrong colour, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The Scotsman has done its best to help bring this tragedy to the attention of those who can make a difference. Our readers have shown, through their generosity, that they care deeply. It is the time for the rest of the civilised world, to stand up, be counted and demand action from political leaders.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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