June 30, 2008

Darfur Is Dying

Darfur is dying is a viral video game that provides a window into the experiences of the 2.5 milion refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. The game’s design was led by Susana Ruiz, she was inspired to make a game after her nephew told her about a class lesson on the Holocaust that did not mention any modern genocides.

The game begins with the player choosing a member of a Darfuri family that has been displaced by the conflict. The first of the two modes of the game begins with the player controlling the family member, in follow mode, from the camp to a well and back, while dodging patrols of the janjaweed militia. If captured, the player is informed what has happened to their selected character and asked to select another member of the family and try again. If the water is successfully carried back to the camp, the game switches into its second mode – a top down management view of the camp, where the character must use the water for crops and to build huts. When the water runs out the player must return to the water fetching level to progress. The goal is to keep the camp running for seven days.

March 19, 2008

Crisis in Darfur

As part of our film study of ‘Schindler’s List’ we have discussed examples of genocide. One that many of you have mentioned is the present situation in Darfur. As not everyone is aware of the problems in Darfur I have added this overview which was taken from the ‘Responding to Genocide’ website.
Since early 2003, Sudanese government soldiers and their proxy militia, known as the Janjaweed, have fought rebel groups in the western region of Darfur. Initially, the government strategy largely involved systematic assaults against civilians from the same ethnic groups as the rebel forces. The targeted victims have been mostly from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died from violence, disease, and starvation, and thousands of women have been raped. More than 2.5 million civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and property stolen. Thousands of villages have been systematically destroyed and more than 230,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad. But most of those displaced are trapped inside Darfur. Although large-scale government attacks against civilians have declined since 2005, millions remain at risk. Most of the displaced are not returning home for fear that their villages will be attacked again. The Sudanese government still bears primary responsibility for the danger to civilians, but the increasing fragmentation of the rebel groups and their use of violence have contributed to the high level of insecurity.

Darfur is home to more than 30 ethnic groups, all of which are Muslim. The Janjaweed militias-recruited, armed, trained, and supported by the Sudanese government-are drawn from several of the groups in Darfur who identify themselves as Arab. They have used racial and ethnic slurs while attacking and raping the targeted groups.

The Khartoum-based government’s use of ethnically and racially targeted violence in Darfur resembles similar actions in southern Sudan before a tenuous 2005 peace agreement ended conflict there. Government sponsored actions in both regions have included:

INFLAMING ethnic conflict
IMPEDING international humanitarian access, resulting in deadly conditions of life for displaced civilians
BOMBING civilians from aircraft
MURDERING and RAPING civilians

Because of substantial evidence that “acts of genocide or related crimes against humanity were occurring or immediately threatened,” in 2004 the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum declared a Genocide Emergency for Darfur. That same year, the U.S. government determined that genocide had been committed in Darfur. In January 2005, the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that “crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Darfur and may be no less serious and heinous then genocide.” In March 2005, the UN Security Council asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the Darfur situation. The court has issued arrest warrants for a high-ranking Sudanese government official and a militia leader on charges of crimes against humanity.

September 22, 2007

The Crisis in Darfur

As part of their English coursework students in Years 12 and 13 discussed the texts Schindler’s List and Hotel Rwanda and their representations of genocide. When comparisons were made to the situation in Darfur many students had little or no knowledge of the conflict and they wanted to know more. This post will give some information about Darfur as this September the problems in Sudan are being highlighted around the world.

The crisis in Darfur, in western Sudan, has led to some of the worst human rights abuses imaginable, including systematic and widespread murder, rape, abduction and forced displacement. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died as a result of both deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, and more than 2 million civilians have been forced to flee from their homes.

The situation in Darfur is the first genocide of the twenty-first century and it has been going on for over 4 years in the Darfur region of Sudan. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, located just south of Egypt on the eastern edge of the Sahara desert. The country’s major economic resource is oil. But, as in other developing countries with oil, this resource is not being developed for the benefit of the Sudanese people, but instead, for an elite few in the government and society. As much as 70 percent of Sudan’s oil export revenues are used to finance the country’s military.

Darfur, is an area about the size of Texas and it lies in western Sudan and borders Libya, Chad and the Central African Republic. It has only the most basic infrastructure or development. The approximately 6 million inhabitants of Darfur are among the poorest in Africa. They exist largely on either subsistence farming or nomadic herding. Even in good times, the Darfuri people face a very harsh and difficult life.

The current crisis in Darfur began in 2003. After decades of neglect, drought, oppression and small-scale conflicts in Darfur, two rebel groups – the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – mounted a challenge to Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir. These groups represent farmers who are mostly non-Arab black African Muslims from a number of different tribes. President al-Bashir’s response was brutal. In seeking to defeat the rebel movements, the Government of Sudan increased arms and support to local tribal and other militias, which have come to be known as the Janjaweed. Their members are composed mostly of Arab black African Muslims who herd cattle, camels, and other livestock. They have wiped out entire villages, destroyed food and water supplies, and systematically murdered, tortured, and raped hundreds of thousands of Darfuris. These attacks occur with the direct support of the Government of Sudan’s armed forces.

The Janjaweed (“devils on horseback”) aim to systematically destroy the livelihoods of Darfuris by bombing and burning villages, looting any economic resources, and murdering, raping, and torturing innocent civilians. Though government obstruction has prevented the international community from finding concrete statistics on mortality, we know that hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced as a result of the conflict. In just the first few months of 2007, over 140,000 more Darfuris have been displaced according to the United Nations Mission in Sudan. As a result of the massive displacement and violence, refugees have fled en masse to the neighbouring countries of Chad and the Central African Republic, where they face additional sources of violence. The violence has not only been targeting Darfuris but also the humanitarian convoys that have been working tirelessly to try to deliver aid.

Compounding the problem is that the numbers of at-risk civilians continue to increase. The Janjaweed continue to undertake attacks against villages, prey on IDPs, and obstruct aid activities. Many Janjaweed have been integrated into the army and police; no one has been charged with any crime, and their actions are not being challenged. There remains a state of total impunity.

Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement.