The reason for the Genocide in Darfur

[formercia]

I think this article is misleading. I suspect that people knew about this water source and how it would increase the value of the land in Darfur once brought to light.

It's all about money.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6904318.stm

Water find 'may end Darfur war'

A huge underground lake has been found in Sudan's Darfur region, scientists say, which they believe could help end the conflict in the arid region.

Some 1,000 wells will be drilled in the region, with the agreement of Sudan's government, the Boston University researchers say.

Analysts say competition for resources between Darfur's Arab nomads and black African farmers is behind the conflict.

More than 200,000 Darfuris have died and 2m fled their homes since 2003.

[dave_p]

1. Crap

You "suspect that people knew about this water source" all along: no evidence, it just fits with your assumption that it's all about some mysterious big money in one of the world's poorest regions.

It's a land war, always was. Tight water means tight land supply. Resource conflict's far likelier when resources are scarce. If they'd known about greater water availability the war would be less, not more likely.

I hope this turns out to be the boon its discoverers imagine. It'll at least put paid to some of this half-baked theorizing.

[formercia]

2. Big Oil and the Sudanese government

are in bed together and water is the new boom.

Bet the blacks don't get squat and big oil and their cronies get a big franchise.

Junior has provided nothing but lip service for the Darfur refugees. He's just covering for his buddies.

[lonestarnot]

3. You check on the water rights to this new discovery yet?

[dave_p]

4. Rights?

As we've seen, rights don't mean a great deal in Darfur at the moment: in fact the whole war's about claiming undocumented title. If this offers even a partial resolution to the crisis, I'm sure Khartoum will go along with a deal to get the "international community" off its back. IntCom's job is to press both sides for an agreement rather than beating the intervention drum on the US right's behalf.

[lonestarnot]

5. So you are saying that the government has authority over the water and is going to

pay the expense for the well drilling, thus saying who can have water and who cannot? I do not profess to know the politics of Darfur.

[formercia]

6. Somebody has to drill those wells

and the water is probably deep. It doesn't take much to convert an oil drilling rig to a water drilling rig. Running pipelines for water is very similar to running pipelines for oil.

It takes a lot of money and rich Arabs and oil companies have it. The black refugees have squat. It's a simple business problem.

Guess who will get the contracts?

It doesn't matter who has the rights. The oil companies are already there drilling oil wells.

[lonestarnot]

7. And are they also being credited with the "discovery."

[formercia]

9. The water was probably discovered while drilling for oil

Oil drilling operations find water all the time but it's usually salty and unfit for consumption. I'm sure they realized the economic implications right away.

[dave_p]

10. Politics, not business

Those keen to send tens of thousands of troops to turn Darfur into an Iraq-style model of liberation can help pay - it's a far cheaper alternative to realizing their bellicose fantasies: their pet drilling-type companies could even do the work, if it makes them any happier.

It's a political, not a business issue: war or water. Western intervention fetishists can actually help out for once, rather than dreaming of some heroic distraction from their murderous failures elsewhere. And everybody wins, even the taxpayer offered another open-ended failed war as an alternative.

[dave_p]

8. Perhaps

I'd say the situation's so fluid that the government and its critics shouldn't have too much difficulty between them coming up with some equitable formula for dividing it up. And those with deeper pockets who profess such concern for the people of Darfur can help foot the bill. Of course it's unlikely that this find will be sufficient to end (even temporarily) the land hunger underlying the conflict. But it may go some way to resolving a war that little over a year seemed on the brink of a settlement.