Sudan: Rape as a weapon of war in Darfur

[gottaB]

Amnesty International has issued a new report on systematic rape in Darfur, Sudan.

The press release is here: Sudan: Rape as a weapon of war in Darfur

Girls as young as eight are being raped in Darfur, Sudan, and used as sex slaves. The mass rapes ongoing in Darfur are war crimes and crimes against humanity but the international community is doing very little to stop it, Amnesty International said, launching the report Rape as a weapon of war.

Despite the regional and international focus on Darfur and promises by the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjawid militia there is still no protection for women and girls.

The report, based on hundreds of testimonies, reveals how women and girls are being raped, abducted and forced into sexual slavery by the Janjawid. In almost all attacks on villages recorded by Amnesty International, the government's army were either directly involved or direct witnesses.

"The suffering and abuse endured by these women goes far beyond the actual rape. Rape has a devastating and ongoing impact on the health of women and girls and survivors now face a lifetime of stigma and marginalisation from their own families and communities," said Amnesty International.

Rape as a weapon of war in Darfur....

The full report is here: Darfur: Rape as a weapon of war: sexual violence and its consequences

[acmavm]

1. And this is about the only place on the planet earth bush* hasn't spoke

about in terms of rape rooms and sex trade, etc. Wouldn't you know it? The frigging moron has two of the worst sex scandals in memory on his hands, Iraq prisons and the Sudan, and he doesn't say a word about either one. Oh hell, he complained about Saddam and the rape rooms, but not a peep about this crap. What a complete frigging disaster of a human being.

[jdj]

4. There is something to this Bush connection

I have it on disk, that the Saudi Bush connection is responsible for influencing what is going on in Darfur. It's political ties all the way, so of course he isn't going to say anything. It's the last paragraph in an article someone put on LBN about 2 months ago. The Khartoum people are buddies of his, or they know people who know people who know him or something. Sorry I can't remember more.

[InkAddict]

17. In this regard, can you help me figure this out?

http://www.inshuti.org/eir.htm

An EIR team probing the causes behind the genocidal wars that have been ravaging East and Central Africa over the last four years, has uncovered a covert arms and logistical supply network run out of the U.S. State Department, which mirrors precisely the notorious Iran-Contra arms supply operation of the 1980s. As in the case of then-Vice President George Bush and Col. Oliver North's covert Iran-Contra operations, the arms and logistical supply to marauding forces in East and Central Africa is being organized "off the books", and in direct violation of the official, public policy of the United States government toward the conflicts involved.

http://www.peacemagazine.org/archive/v04n6p11.htm
THE ACTIONS OF EDWIN WILSON ARE TYPICAL of the mirror images that reflect the reality of world politics. A former CIA agent, Wilson is currently in prison for his Libyan dealings. He trained Libyan would-be terrorists while American policy denounced the Libyan terrorist network. His recruits staffed and trained the air force of Libya leader Col. Ghaddafi, and he supplied planes, men and weapons for Ghaddafi's military forays into Chad and Sudan. Such weapons sales were likely financed by the CIA-connected Nugan Hand Bank. While Wilson's escapades often have been seen as that of a traitor, they constantly had the approval of top covert warfare planner Theodore Shackley, as Jonathan Kwitny points out in The Crimes of Patriots.

During the moderate era of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Wilson was jailed and Theodore Shackley, as well as some 800 other CIA covert operations agents, were fired. Before his imprisonment, Wilson, along with Clines, organized assistance to the Contras via Israel, who were Somoza's arms suppliers. Carter's attempts to isolate Iran were frustrated in a similar manner by the same strange alliance of extremist former covert agents and Israel. Even during the holding of the hostages, abruptly ending after the installation of Ronald Reagan as President, Israel supplied arms to the Khomeini regime. These included spare parts for U.S.-made tanks and F-4 Phantom jets, as Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter show in The Iran Contra Connection.

AGENTS FIRED BY Carter were employed in the Reagan election campaign, turning their covert tactics on the incumbent President, Reagan's campaign chairman, veteran intelligence agent William Casey, openly boasted of running an "intelligence operation" against Democrats. Later, investigations by a congressional committee showed Reagan forces had infiltrated their opponents with spies, and had even managed to acquire the "debate book" of President Carter, a briefing book used for his television debate with Reagan.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/interviews/baroness_cox_stokes_the_flames_o.htm

The modus operandi of Baroness Cox is easily summarized: She personally oversaw the process by which two political opposition parties, the Umma and Democratic Unionist Party, came together and agreed to acknowledge John Garang, the remaining rebel leader of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), as their military arm. The resulting umbrella grouping is known as the National Democratic Alliance. After Cox created it in the Eritrean capital of Asmara in June 1995, she organized political recognition for it by inviting its leaders to a strategic planning session at the House of Lords. At that meeting, on Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 1995, the House of Lords endorsed the Asmara declaration, which had called openly for expanding the war in southern Sudan to a nation-wide effort, and overthrowing the current government of Gen. Omar al Bashir by force. To this end, Cox also negotiated support for the "rebels" from the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. Her noble colleague, former Minister for Overseas Development, Lady Lynda Chalker, was responsible for Uganda's participation. Now, although the government has signed for peace, the war is being kept going artificially, by military aggression against Sudan, from the three "front-line" states.

Coupled with this political organizing, Cox has led the psychological warfare effort as well. To generate support from circles in the United States, particularly targeting leaders in the African American community who would tend to defend peace in a country like Sudan, she has orchestrated a lobbying and media campaign, charging that the Khartoum government persecutes Christians; specifically, that government-backed Muslim militias raid southern Christian or animist tribes, and enslave their people. To make her case, she has traveled over ten times to Sudan, often in the company of British intelligence-linked media outlets (BBC, NBC, etc.), to stage the purchase of would-be slaves, "buying" them their freedom. In every case, according to testimony she herself has presented on behalf of CSI on various occasions to Congressional hearings, she has entered the country illegally and traveled to those areas held by rebel forces. Whatever she may have "documented," or, better, fabricated, has taken place in areas, by her own admission, not under government control. Yet, her charge is that Khartoum is responsible.

Read more about (No)Lady Cox here - A study of when right goes wrong?

http://www.acinc.org.uk/baroness_cox_risks_her_life.htm

[InkAddict]

18. DUPE - Sorry

http://www.inshuti.org/eir.htm

An EIR team probing the causes behind the genocidal wars that have been ravaging East and Central Africa over the last four years, has uncovered a covert arms and logistical supply network run out of the U.S. State Department, which mirrors precisely the notorious Iran-Contra arms supply operation of the 1980s. As in the case of then-Vice President George Bush and Col. Oliver North's covert Iran-Contra operations, the arms and logistical supply to marauding forces in East and Central Africa is being organized "off the books", and in direct violation of the official, public policy of the United States government toward the conflicts involved.

The parallel to the Bush-North operations is precise: Incontrovertible evidence accumulated by EIR demonstrates that the same extra-governmental "assets" used by North in widespread illegal narcotics- and arms-trafficking, are channelling arms and military aid into Central Africa. In this new "Central African" supply operation, standing in for the drug-smuggling gangsters of the Nicaraguan Contra operation, are the African "rebels" fighting the governments of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and any other Central African nation targetted by British intelligence's leading warlord in the region, Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni.

http://www.peacemagazine.org/archive/v04n6p11.htm

THE ACTIONS OF EDWIN WILSON ARE TYPICAL of the mirror images that reflect the reality of world politics. A former CIA agent, Wilson is currently in prison for his Libyan dealings. He trained Libyan would-be terrorists while American policy denounced the Libyan terrorist network. His recruits staffed and trained the air force of Libya leader Col. Ghaddafi, and he supplied planes, men and weapons for Ghaddafi's military forays into Chad and Sudan. Such weapons sales were likely financed by the CIA-connected Nugan Hand Bank. While Wilson's escapades often have been seen as that of a traitor, they constantly had the approval of top covert warfare planner Theodore Shackley, as Jonathan Kwitny points out in The Crimes of Patriots.

During the moderate era of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Wilson was jailed and Theodore Shackley, as well as some 800 other CIA covert operations agents, were fired. Before his imprisonment, Wilson, along with Clines, organized assistance to the Contras via Israel, who were Somoza's arms suppliers. Carter's attempts to isolate Iran were frustrated in a similar manner by the same strange alliance of extremist former covert agents and Israel. Even during the holding of the hostages, abruptly ending after the installation of Ronald Reagan as President, Israel supplied arms to the Khomeini regime. These included spare parts for U.S.-made tanks and F-4 Phantom jets, as Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter show in The Iran Contra Connection.

AGENTS FIRED BY Carter were employed in the Reagan election campaign, turning their covert tactics on the incumbent President, Reagan's campaign chairman, veteran intelligence agent William Casey, openly boasted of running an "intelligence operation" against Democrats. Later, investigations by a congressional committee showed Reagan forces had infiltrated their opponents with spies, and had even managed to acquire the "debate book" of President Carter, a briefing book used for his television debate with Reagan.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/interviews/baroness_cox_stokes_the_flames_o.htm
But, just as the Lady is, indeed, no lady, so the CSI is anything but Christian. Beneath the veneer of humanitarian concern for the oppressed, is one of the most important tools of British Intelligence. Its actual function, as the documented record shows, is to implement a policy dubbed the "Clash of Civilizations" by another operative of British Intelligence, Bernard Lewis, and popularized by yet another of their stripe, Samuel Huntington. Through political operations, which often include intelligence and military activities, CSI has been in the forefront of efforts to foment conflict between Christians and non-Christians, most specifically, Muslims. The war in Sudan is a case in point, and perhaps a showcase of CSI methods.

The Sudanese civil war was created over 40 years ago, just prior to the British withdrawal from its former colony, and has continued, except for a respite between 1972 and 1983, to the present. CSI, and Lady Cox in person, have been crucial to maintaining hostilities, even though the Sudanese government signed in April of this year an official peace treaty with military and political leaders representing well over 80% of the southern population which was at war. In fact, it was to sabotage the peace process, begun over a year earlier, that Cox and CSI went into high gear in Sudan.

The modus operandi of Baroness Cox is easily summarized: She personally oversaw the process by which two political opposition parties, the Umma and Democratic Unionist Party, came together and agreed to acknowledge John Garang, the remaining rebel leader of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), as their military arm. The resulting umbrella grouping is known as the National Democratic Alliance. After Cox created it in the Eritrean capital of Asmara in June 1995, she organized political recognition for it by inviting its leaders to a strategic planning session at the House of Lords. At that meeting, on Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 1995, the House of Lords endorsed the Asmara declaration, which had called openly for expanding the war in southern Sudan to a nation-wide effort, and overthrowing the current government of Gen. Omar al Bashir by force. To this end, Cox also negotiated support for the "rebels" from the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. Her noble colleague, former Minister for Overseas Development, Lady Lynda Chalker, was responsible for Uganda's participation. Now, although the government has signed for peace, the war is being kept going artificially, by military aggression against Sudan, from the three "front-line" states.

Coupled with this political organizing, Cox has led the psychological warfare effort as well. To generate support from circles in the United States, particularly targeting leaders in the African American community who would tend to defend peace in a country like Sudan, she has orchestrated a lobbying and media campaign, charging that the Khartoum government persecutes Christians; specifically, that government-backed Muslim militias raid southern Christian or animist tribes, and enslave their people. To make her case, she has traveled over ten times to Sudan, often in the company of British intelligence-linked media outlets (BBC, NBC, etc.), to stage the purchase of would-be slaves, "buying" them their freedom. In every case, according to testimony she herself has presented on behalf of CSI on various occasions to Congressional hearings, she has entered the country illegally and traveled to those areas held by rebel forces. Whatever she may have "documented," or, better, fabricated, has taken place in areas, by her own admission, not under government control. Yet, her charge is that Khartoum is responsible.

Read more about (no)Lady Cox here. Is this a case of "right" gone "wrong?" Obviously, more of the Empire builders fundamentalism at work, no?

http://www.acinc.org.uk/baroness_cox_risks_her_life.htm

[Matilda]

2. Funny how the Coalitionof the Willing don't seem motivated to invade.

Yet the tragedy in Darfur is shaping up to be one of the worst
human atrocities in the past decade.

No oil?

[mark414]

3. that or,

their skin is just a little too dark for bush's tastes

[Redhead488]

7. Lots of oil

Americans just don't care about Africa. Witness how we let 800K+ get butchered in Ruwanda and Brundi, but it was a matter of national import to stop the "genocide" in Kosovo.

[oldcoot]

14. Ignorance is part of the problem

I wonder if many Americans are even aware of what is occurring in Africa. If you turn on the television, you are more likely to hear about Laci Peterson than you are to hear about Sudan.

[Redhead488]

9. See? This post is dying...

[gottaB]

10. oil is part of the mix

The role of oil in the civil war with the South is better understood, but surely oil has impacted decision-making with respect to Darfur, both in Khartoum and in the international community.

A recent story: Arab Sources Say Oil Discovered in Darfur

Reports on oil and the civil war with the South:

• Sudan, Oil and Human Rights, from Human Rights Watch. Probably the best report of its kind.
  
  
• Winning Oil, Losing Peace, from Amnesty International.
  
  
• God, Oil and Country: Changing the Logic of War in Sudan, from the International Crisis Group.
  
  
• Peace First: Oil Fuels War in Sudan, a press announcement from Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, a Danish human rights group.
  
  
• Documentation on the Impact of Oil on Sudan, also from Mellemfolkeligt Samvirk. (The report is in English.)
  
  
• The Sudanese Oil Industry, from The European Sudanese Affairs Council. Their slogan is "Working for Peace in Sudan" but from my point of view "Working to Whitewash Atrocities Committed by the Government of Sudan" would be more apt. Anyway, it is a point of view.
  
  

To my way of thinking, the Government of Sudan's campaign in Darfur shows that many previous attempts to explain the conflict have failed to adequately grapple with the root of the problem. The conflict is being carried over from the civil war, and may be considered to be a Western extension of it. It is not primarily about religion, although that has been a factor. It is not primarily about resources, such as oil or water, although fighting over resources has contribitued to it. The cruel and massive violations of human rights in Sudan are best understood as an expression of a racist political culture, under the leadership of a military regime with no genuine legitimacy among the people.

Gamal Nkrumah of Al-Ahram Weekly, who has occaisionally covered the Darfur crisis, has interviewed the exiled Sadig Al-Mahdi, who says, sagely, "Dictatorship and military intervention in the political arena have been the curse of the country" (Sadig Al-Mahdi: The comeback king). Last week, Nkrumah summarized Al-Mahdi's views on the conflict in Darfur:

The Sudanese government felt that it was losing face over the Sudanese peace talks in Kenya; that it was seen to be caving in to the demands of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the country's most influential southern-based armed opposition group. The western Sudanese had to be made an example of.

According to Al-Mahdi, the Sudanese regime miscalculated and didn't properly assess what international reaction to the Darfur crisis would be. "They felt that the West sympathises with the southern Sudanese people because they are predominantly Christian. They could not foresee that the West would also sympathise with the Darfur cause even though the inhabitants of Darfur are overwhelmingly Muslim. The people in the West sympathised with the Darfur cause on humanitarian grounds."

Al-Mahdi said that what started as a political problem and ethnic tensions in Darfur later became a political crisis. "Now," Al-Mahdi warned, "the crisis has developed into a full-blown catastrophe."

The Horrors of Darfur....

Well, there's kind of a hidden assumption in this summation. What underlies the equation that "making an example" of Darfur balances out making concessions to the SPLA? Oil? I think it has rather to do with race.

Having said that, I don't believe racist ideology by itself sufficiently explains genocidal campaigns. Oil wealth and energy dependence are definitely powerful forces in the current geopolitical configuration--as are militarism and religious belief. It's worth discussing.

That's my view.

[gottaB]

5. My reading of the report

Overall, the report seemed rather cautious. Notably, Amnesty didn't have access to Sudan, but conducted interviews with refugees in Chad. The report argued that the intent behind the rapes was typically to humiliate and terrorize. Amnesty didn't conclusively confirm the worst suspicions about the rapes, that they were a genocidal attempt to destroy an ethnic group or race, although it did touch on the issue.

One testimony indicates that the Janjawid killed a pregnant woman because she was bearing the child of an "enemy" (p.12). In this particular case, the woman appeared to have been killed because she was symbolising the "enemy" community and the reproductive capacity of her community.

and a little further in it concludes,

Racial insults have often occurred alongside sexual violence according to the testimonies collected by Amnesty International. This suggests that women have been targeted for violence not only because of their gender, but also because they are from a particular ethnic group. In some cases certain women have repeatedly been raped, others gang raped. This may suggest an intention by attackers to forcibly impregnate women of particular ethnic groups. Some of the women have been repeatedly raped or gang-raped while they were held in Janjawid camps; while some were forced to cook food for their captors, others had limbs broken in the apparent attempt to prevent them from escaping. IDP camps outside large villages or towns in Darfur have been described as "virtual prisons". These acts may suggest that the Janjawid have attempted to confine women they have forcibly made pregnant through rape. Amnesty International does not at present have sufficient evidence to prove such intention, nor to state whether it may be widespread or systematic. However, the perpetrators of rape should anticipate that rape can lead to pregnancy. Because many of the perpetrators are from the same society as the people they attack, they cannot ignore the social stigma associated to survivors of rape, children borne out of rape, and the social and psychological consequences on the communities of the victims.

The horrific nature and scale of the violence inflicted on entire groups in Darfur appears to be a form of collective punishment of a population whose members have taken up arms against the central government. It may be interpreted as a warning to other groups and regions of what could happen to the local population if certain groups decided to rebel against Khartoum. Amnesty International characterised systematic and massive human rights violations committed in Darfur as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Although some of the human rights abuses committed could be interpreted as acts aimed at destroying ethnic groups, the evidence remains inconclusive. The widespread destruction of houses and villages in combination with the looting and forced displacement appear to have as an objective to destroy livelihoods. Rape has been widespread and, at least sometimes systematic (for instance during Janjawid attacks on Tawila at the end of February 2004) with possibly an intention to destroy the social structures and community of specific ethnical groups. Mass summary executions took place, for instance in and around Kutum in July and August 2003 and in Deleij at the beginning of March 2004. Amnesty International believes that there was certainly intent to collectively "punish" the civilian populations, perceived of being associated or linked with the armed political groups. However the organization is not in a position to confirm or prove that the punishment had as an objective to destroy specific ethnical groups. Amnesty International has not been in a position to date to conclude that there was genocide or that there was "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

The report briefly examined the gender disparity in the refugee populations (if you've noticed from photos of the camps, women make up the large majority of the refugees). One explanation for that is that the men have been systematically slain, and together with the systematic rapes (where such are documented), this strongly suggests a genocidal intent. The report didn't support that conclusion, and instead explained the gender disparity as owing to a mix of factors, arguing that to some extent the disparity existed prior to the attacks, as the men normally sought work away from the villages, and that since the conflict began men had been leaving to join the armed resistence. Of course there are documented cases of men and boys being rounded up and executed, and the report made a note of that.

On balance, I thought their treatment of race (section 5.1) was rather brief. The testimony they did cite (e.g. "Omar al Bashir told us that we should kill all the Nubas. There is no place here for the Negroes any more") resonates what others have reported, for instance Human Rights Watch. That deserved more discussion. Also, if they translated "zurgas" as "Negroes" they may be guilty of presenting a euphemized version of what was said. So in sum, I am not satisfied with their investigation, because it could support the opinion that the Janjaweed are merely gangs of cattle thieves who happen to have been enlisted by the government to suppress a rebellion and punish civilians, any old civilians, and who also happen to be rapists, and happen to be racists, and happen to be mass murderers, and happen to destroy food stores and poison wells. To the extent that the rapes are part of a systematic, orchestrated campaign of violence against the non-Arab population of Darfur, they most certainly are genocidal. Amnesty's failure to see the systematic nature of the rapes, and their weighting of the evidence make this a weak report.

Despite my criticisms, I still find the report informative and important. One topic that jumped out at me was the lack of safety in Darfur's IDP camps. Many rapes are occuring in and around the camps, and several refugees decribed being in those camps as a kind of imprisonment. Again, though, if one assumes there's a systematic attempt to exterminate non-Arabs in Darfur, the implications are horrific. And if one doesn't make that assumption, it's still a far cry from all right.

According to reports by independent sources and satellite photos(29) from the region, it appears that most of the rural villages inhabited by the farming population of Darfur have been burnt to the ground and their populations forcibly displaced. But attacks on civilians, in particular on the population internally displaced by the conflict, are continuing. The IDP population, who have largely gathered at the periphery of the towns and large villages of the region, are restricted in their movement by Janjawid groups who patrol outside the camps and settlements. Men do not leave the settlements for fear of being killed; women who have ventured outside the camps in order to fetch desperately needed wood, food or water, have been raped and harassed. Some of the IDPs who have spoken out against abuses during visits by foreign UN or government officials were killed by the Janjawid or arrested and held incommunicado by the government national security forces or the military intelligence. The internally displaced population is consequently being held in what amount to virtual prisons, and is effectively being denied the right to freedom of movement. Such violence against civilians not only breaches international human rights standards but also often appears to be an intentional attempt to humiliate and destroy the social fabric of the communities attacked.

[Matilda]

8. Human Rights Watch is certainly more outspoken in its condemnation

of the abuses by the Janjawid, and refers outright to ethnic
cleansing, in a report that is more extensive in its coverage than
that of Amnesty International.

"Human Rights Watch spent twenty-five days in and on the edges of
West Darfur, documenting abuses in rural areas that were previously
well-populated with Masalit and Fur farmers. Ssince August 2003,
wide swathes of their homelands, among the most fertile in the
region, have been burned and depopulated. With rare exceptions,
the countryside is now emptied of its original Masalit and Fur
inhabitants. Everything that can sustain and succour life -
livestock, food stores, wells and pumps, blankets and clothing -
has been looted or destroyed. Villages have been torched not
randomly, but systematically - often not once, but twice.

(snip)

"Despite international calls for investigations into allegations of
gross human rights abuses, the government has responded by denying
any abuses while attempting to manipulate and stem information
leaks.

(snip)

"The government has promised unhindered humanitarian access, but has
failed to deliver. Instead, recent reports of government tampering
with mass graves and other evidence suggest the government is fully
aware of the immensity of its crimes and is now attempting to cover
up any record."

More here:

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/darfur/index.htm

Why, why, why do our governments always react with too little, too
late? Saddam the monster carried out his worst crimes nor just
with the knowledge, but virtually with the blessing of the western
powers supplying him with arms and chemical weapons. Now we are
seeing yet another holocaust, but our leaders are busily engaged
elsewhere. Another tragedy in a long line of tragedies, and when
it's all over, our governments will wring their hands and promise
"never again".

[gottaB]

15. Why the terminology matters

The term "genocide" has legal meaning, whereas "ethnic cleansing" or "scorched earth," afaik, does not. To recognize the crisis as a genocide or even a potential genocide would demand that concrete action be taken to prevent it.

If Darfur is genocide, then the countries that have signed the UN Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide are required under Chapter VII of the UN charter to use armed force to put an immediate end to the conflict.

Is the brutality in Sudan genocide?

Therein lies the problem for the international community. The reluctance to intervene may be due less to apathy than a recognition of the profundity of the disruption to the world order such a intervention would represent. Imagine sending troops to prevent a genocide, threatening the soveriegnty of a UN member state, only to find that the situation is actually one of civilians being embroiled in a civil conflict the root causes of which are poorly understood, and, when they are discernable, are distorted by layers of propaganda and rhetorical posturing. What good could come of that?

Humanitarians will argue that perhaps a million people could be saved in Sudan. Certainly that's something. At any cost? International law provides a stringent definition of genocide and sets a high burden of proof because the consequences of being wrong could be catastrophic. And yet, the consequences of doing nothing in the face of genocide are equally horrendous.

In many respects the bulk of our human rights laws are built upon the lessons learned in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the horrors of fascism. It's hard to concieve of a war crimes trial without thinking of Nuremburg. Ironically, the criminals who masterminded the mass murder of European Jews were not convicted of genocide. You won't even find the word used at the trials, although it was coined in 1943. The possibility exists, therefore, to bring people to justice for war crimes or crimes against humanity without charging them with genocide (although since the Rwandan massacres people have been tried and convicted for the crime of genocide).

Which leaves us where? Assume that there is such a thing as genocide, that it's a crime against humanity of a particular sort, and that we are obliged to prevent it from occuring. Do we fulfill our obligations by prosecutions, punishing the guilty after the fact? Perhaps it's too soon to tell, but it strikes me that our collective understanding of genocide remains underdeveloped.

Some of the arguments that are being put forward speak of gross ignorance. For instance, the caveat that not every victim in Darfur belongs to the same ethnic group or race. Yet we know that not everybody killed by the Nazis was a Jew: Roma, Slavs, communists, homosexuals, the mentally ill, Jehovah's Witnesses, Afro-Germans--all murdered. That doesn't mean there wasn't a systematic plan to exterminate European Jews. The systematicity is important for legal purposes, but we should recognize as well that the Nazi ideology of racial supremacy and national struggle gave meaning to the endeavor to purify the Folk of all inferior and corrupting influences. That's a different level of systematicity.

The world may never again see that particular combination of eugenics, militarism, corporate power and propoganda. One should hope. However, many of these forces and ideas are still very much part of the global system, and crimes against humanity continue to be planned and executed.

Problematically, many of these elements of atrocity have become normalized, hegemonically embedded in the way people see the world, affecting their relations to others, their realities. For instance, in the opinion piece cited above, the author claims that "the racial distinctions are not rooted in physical or religious differences," an argument which is often repeated, and just as often misleading. The question to ask when probing genocidal intent is not whether people look the same or different to third parties, or even population geneticists, but rather how the perpetrators indentify themselves and their victims.

Is there color consciousness in Sudanese society? Assuredly. And, I would argue, sytematic racial oppression. The government also has a policy agenda of Arabization, which may not be racist in the sense that Adolf Hitler embraced the concept of race, but is clearly racist in the context of Sudanese politics. These facts are in evidence all throughout Sudan, from the remotest villages of Darfur, to the streets of Khartoum.

Are these elements of a crime? Genocide?

When Mukesh Kapila, who had been the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Darfur, told the world last March that "This is more than just a conflict. It is an organized attempt to do away with a group of people," alarm bells went off. Normally, I suppose, a country is allowed to be racist and even brutal to a degree--granted, some people do work to effect change. But when credible witnesses step forward with statements like these, shouldn't we be obligated to at least investigate the racial politics and ideology of the people who are organizing the violence?

And just who is organizing the violence? The government of Sudan is at the very least complicit. Amnesty argued that investigating the chain of command to determine whether a genocide had occurred was a task for the UN. That's an approach that could well yield convictions, but will it save lives? Will it prevent genocide? Is it just? At this very moment, is it just?

--My brain's slowing to a crawl--time for a nap.

Peace.

[Matilda]

16. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Can we recognise a policy of genocide before most of the targeted
people are dead? This is one of those times when one feels totally
frustrated with the U.N. and its legal niceties.

Well, Mr Anan, with respect, we don't know whether this is genocide,
but we do know that people have been drive from their villages, and
from their country, in their tens of thousands. They have been
raped and beaten, their homes destroyed, their crops devastated,
they and their children are starving - those of them that are still
breathing - and maybe it is time for the U.N. to stop debating and
do something to help. Otherwise we may discover too late that it
was genocide, and once again we'll be asking the question: Is the
U.N. relevant?

[gottaB]

21. HRW: Ties Between Government and Janjaweed Militias Confirmed

New Darfur Documents

[Matilda]

25. Thanks for posting these documents. - how can there be any doubt?

This is calculated ethnic cleansing of one group of people by its
own government.

The U.N.'s own staff in Darfur and U.N. commissioners have been
urging the Security Council to act since the beginning of this year,
with no result.

Link: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/darfur8811.htm

I know there are protocols to be followed, but you can't ask people
to hold off dying while you go through official red tape to make
sure all the right bits of paper are filled out first. There have
been so many lessons to learn from in Africa over the past couple
of decades - why are they still not getting it right?

It's hard to sit here feeling useless and helpless when the people
who could do something about it are busy attending meetings and
writing their endless reports.

[gottaB]

26. At least John Kerry has come around to calling it what it is

Another entry from the John Kerry blog:

http://blog.johnkerry.com/blog/archives/002154.html#002154

And this one actually contains a few ontopic comments.

As for the UN and international community more generally, I'm coming to believe that loss of US credibility under the Bush* administration is not only weakening our own position in the world, but retarding global progress towards democracy, open society, and human rights. It's a sad state of affairs.

[Matilda]

31. It would be good if he could start saying it often and loudly in speeches.

Unfortunately, he makes reference to the democratic hopes of people
in Africa, Haiti and the Caribbean, which rather sticks in the craw,
given that he approves of the removal of the democractic government
in Haiti.

But that's another story.

[Greedy Oil Puritan]

6. Pat Robertson claims to be with the Christians and Animists...

But I bet he's profiteering off this cruelty like he did in Liberia.

[dArKeR]

11. Sudan: 'Rape as weapon of war'

London - The Sudanese government is directly responsible for crimes against humanity in its strife-torn western region of Darfur, including the widespread rape of women, rights group Amnesty International charged on Monday.

Refugees from Darfur had described a pattern of "systematic and unlawful attacks" against civilians by both a government-sponsored Arab militia and the Sudanese military forces, the London-based group said.

Much of this was directed at women, with rape and other forms of sexual violence endemic, said the 35-page report, titled "Sudan, rape as a weapon of war".

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1559628,00.html

[Wacahootaman]

12. Didnt Sec of State Powell bluntly warn Sudan about this?

Donno if anything happened because of it yet though.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/9042786.htm?1c

[gottaB]

29. In Powell's own words

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1264982,00.html

I don't think the Sudanese really believed him. Fischer visited Khartoum too, but I think his warnings also fell on deaf ears.

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=9427

[bobbieinok]

13. during the Bosnian war, MS mag had a long article about

Serbian gang-rapes of Bosnian women and girls

there was an attempt by international women's groups to have raped declared a war crime then but I don't know what became of the attempt

victors' soldiers' rapes of defeated women (and sometimes men) has apparently 'always been a perk of war'

I was surprised from the MS that rape had not been declared a war crime.......parallels with Abu G?????

[cantwealljustgetalong]

19. Arab women singers complicit in rape, says Amnesty report...

While African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy, according to an Amnesty International report published yesterday. The songs of the Hakama, or the "Janjaweed women" as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities committed by the militiamen.

The women singers stirred up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said.

" appear to be the communicators during the attacks. They are reportedly not actively involved in attacks on people, but participate in acts of looting."

Amnesty International collected several testimonies mentioning the presence of Hakama while women were raped by the Janjaweed. The report said:"Hakama appear to have directly harassed the women assaulted, and verbally attacked them."

During an attack on the village of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang songs praising the government and scorning the black villagers.

According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: "The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be in their land. The power of al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God."

The chief said that the Arab women also racially insulted women from the village: "You are gorillas, you are black, and you are badly dressed."

The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1264901,00.html

[Jim Sagle]

20. Where are the UN and the EU?

[cantwealljustgetalong]

23. they have more important things to deal with than real atrocities...

they're busy trying to tear down the Jew protector fence...

[Jim Sagle]

24. I know. I was being rhetorical.

[Kool Kitty]

22. Didn't Powell go over there last week?

Why isn't anything being done about this? The only thing I remember hearing is that Powell was not calling it genocide. If this isn't genocide, what the hell is?

[havocmom]

28. It is genocide. But if he calls it that, he has to do something

The Nation online has a page to send him a message. Please take a moment and use this handy page.
http://capwiz.com/thenation/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6074336

good links for info here:
http://www.thenation.com/actnow/index.mhtml?bid=4

DU has led many a charges up the hill to battle media resistance to getting stories out. This is another hill we need to take. Please talk this story up and get legs under it.

[Kool Kitty]

30. Thanks for the links.

I'm going there right now. :)

[havocmom]

27. If the bushistas don't want people to know this, we need to get it out !

Please keep it kicked and think about this. This can and SHOULD be stopped.

Please keep this kicked. DUers have done so much to get stories into the mainstream. Please help get this one some legs. It is a chance to save a lot of people and to restore some of what is good about America.

If the bushistas don't want this story to be noticed, we had best be getting it noticed, don't you think?

There is a young man my family knows who walked out of the Sudan years ago. He is trying to save his people. He knows time = lives. Lives lost or lives saved depends on what WE do. Please write Congress and media about this. Flood them with mail.

Let them know We The People found out about this even tho they don't seem to want us to know. Let them know we are America and that America stands for justice. Let them know we are going to help these people!. It is what we do and it is what we stand for.

The policies atrocities made by bushco have given America much shame. Time to work on that problem. The people of the Sudan are worthy or our help. Demand that our leaders give it!

[struggle4progress]

32. kick

:kick: