ROBERT MeNARD is secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, an
organization that defends press freedoms. STEPHEN SMITH writes on African
affairs from Paris.
"Darfur, Sudan: African Muslim vs.
African Muslim," The Wisdom Fund, April 3, 2004
Enver Masud, "Sudan, Oil, and the
Darfur Crisis," The Wisdom Fund, August 7, 2004
David Leigh and David Pallister, "The New Scramble For Africa,"
Guardian, June 1, 2005
Colum Lynch, "Sudan To Allow U.N. Force In Darfur: Peacekeepers
Will Aid African Union," Washington Post, April 17, 2007
[If it was ever as simple to describe the conflict as a "genocide" of black
Africans by an Arab government - and few analysts in Sudan believe it was -
it certainly is not now.
Sudan's government is arming any group that is prepared to attack anyone
connected with the rebels, be they African or Arab.--Steve Bloomfield in
Jebel Marra, "Darfur: War without end," Independent, April 30, 2007]
[The reality is that the war in Darfur was begun, and is being continued, by
some of Sudan's neighbours, and larger powers behind them, to maintain
pressure on the Khartoum regime. It is not a coincidence that the Darfur
conflict escalated as the conflict in the south of Sudan was settling
down.--Iqbal Siddiqui, "Darfur: a by-word for
tragedy and hypocrisy," muslimedia.com, May 11, 2007]
[Messinger fundraises for lobbying-oriented humanitarian aid through the
American Jewish World Service in New York, which is collecting money for
"Save Darfur." Last year she raised approximately $31 million of which
Darfur was to receive approximately $3 million. Most of the money donated
for relief and development in Sudan was channeled back into Jewish lobbying
efforts, Messinger admitted with very little shame, adding that AJWS has no
real way to do anything for Sudan. She urged Jewish students to participate
in "Save Darfur" as a way to get connected and create a "presence" in world
"humanitarianism," which would engage in a coordinated Jewish effort of
organizing, electing and legislating.--Tom True (UNVERIFIED SOURCE), "'Save
Darfur' Warmongers Scam," indymedia.org, May 16, 2007]
Roger Howard, "Where
anti-Arab prejudice and oil make the difference," Guardian, May 16,
2007
[VIDEO: The only group in a position to estimate how many people have died in
Darfur is UNICEF, because UNICEF is the only one that did a comprehensive
survey in 2005 in Darfur. Everybody else only knows the piece of ground on
which they work and will then extrapolate from it, like any other NGO, like
Oxfam or Medecins Sans Frontieres or World Food Program. The WFP estimate
was 200,000. Out of these 200,000, the WPF report tells you that roughly
about 20% died of actually being killed, of violence, and 80% died mainly
from starvation and from diseases. . . .
Darfur is also the place which has been hit hard by global warming. The UN
commission which sat on global warming very recently spoke of Darfur as the
first major crisis of global warming. In other words, from the late 1970s
you have had a significant desertification, and you've been having in the
north of Darfur basically a situation where people's simply entire
livelihoods are destroyed, and which has been one of the elements, because
it has driven the nomadic population in the north down into the south. So
how many people are dying from desertification? How many people are dying
from the violence that has been unleashed through this civil war in Darfur?
Second element in this is that there's a civil war going on in Darfur. There
are two rebel movements, and both rebel movements were born in the aftermath
of the peace in the south.--Mahmood Mamdani, "The
Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency,"
democracynow.org, June 4, 2007]
"Climate change behind Darfur killing: UN's
Ban," AFP, June 16, 2007
Lydia Polgreen, "Sudan
and U.N. Reach New Peacekeeping Deal for Darfur," New
York Times, June 18, 2007
[Sudan's President, Omar El-Bashir . . . said international coverage of the
crisis in Darfur was oversimplifying the issue, which he said is largely
driven by local conflicts over land and other resources. The Sudanese
president also said the U.S. was behind much of the false information
regarding the Sudanese government's role in Darfur and that it was supplying
Darfurian rebels with arms, in addition to slowing Sudan's development
through sanctions. "They [the Americans] want to make the same mistakes in
Sudan as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan."--Robert Nolan, " Africa: Civil
Society Groups Discuss Darfur, Zimbabwe at AU Summit,"
allafrica.com, July 2, 2007]
[Analysts say competition for resources between Darfur's Arab nomads and
black African farmers is behind the conflict.
Last month, the UN Environmental Programme (Unep) said there was little
prospect of peace in Darfur unless the issues of environmental destruction
were addressed.--"Water find 'may end
Darfur war'," BBC News, July 18, 2007]
[But it retained references to Chapter 7, under which the UN can authorise
the use of force, for self-defence, to ensure the free movement of
humanitarian workers and to protect civilians.--Mark Turner and Jean
Eaglesham, "UN
to send 26,000-strong force to Darfur," Financial Times, July 31, 2007]
Xan Rice, "Key
Darfur rebel chief boycotts peace talks," Observer, August 5, 2007
Vijay Prashad, "Destination
Darfur: A New Cold War Over Oil," counterpunch.org, August 5, 2007
Jeffrey Gettleman, "Chaos
in Darfur on Rise as Arabs Fight With Arabs," New York Times, September 3, 2007
[The Sudanese government declared a unilateral cease-fire at the opening
ceremony of peace talks on Darfur on Saturday, but because crucial rebel
leaders were boycotting, it was not clear if the talks would be a
breakthrough moment to end the world's worst humanitarian crisis or yet
another lost opportunity.--Jeffrey Gettleman, "Sudan
Declares Cease-Fire at Darfur Peace Talks," New York Times, October
28, 2007]
[The so-called Save
Darfur Coalition, which has gained prominence in the bourgeois
media as the vanguard of a "humanitarian" movement, is in fact made up of
right-wing U.S. Christian evangelicals and Zionists, such as the Christian
National Association of Evangelicals and the American Jewish World Service.
. . .
The same capitalist press that throws around numbers of "200,000 dead" and
"2 million displaced" in Sudan ignores the fact that U.S. policies in Iraq
have killed over 2 million Iraqis since 1990. Four million Iraqis are
refugees due to the 2003 invasion alone.--David Feldman, "Congress signs Sudan
divestment bill," pslweb.org, December 28, 2007]
[The offensives are aimed at retaking ground gained by a rebel group, the
Justice and Equality Movement, which has been gathering strength and has
close ties to the government of neighboring Chad.--Lydia Polgreen, "Scorched-earth
strategy returns to Darfur," International Herald Tribune, March 2, 2008]
[French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday told the world's biggest carbon
polluters that global warming was becoming a driver of hunger, unrest and
conflict, with the war in Darfur a concrete example.--Jeffrey Gettleman, "France warns climate change
driving war, hunger," AFP, April 18, 2008]
[Ninety per cent of the deaths occurred four to five years ago and the
government and its militia proxies were the main culprits. . . .
The rebels started the recent offensives - notably the attack on the
capital, Khartoum - some Arabs have switched sides, and Chadians have
plunged in on both sides.--Alex de Waal, "Why Darfur
intervention is a mistake," BBC News, May 21, 2008]
["The problem is between Darfurians and the government - this is not
between Arabs and Africans," said Abdel Majid Ibrahim Mohamed, a prominent
leader of the ethnically African Fur tribe, among the most heavily targeted
by the government.--Stephanie McCrummen, "A Revival of Tribal
Tradition to Help Repair Darfur," Washington Post, July 5, 2008]
[Save Darfur movement . . . spends its annual
budget of $15 million not on assisting victims but on spreading the message.
. . . One part of the group emerged out of solidarity with the struggle in
south Sudan and believes that Darfur is another version of south Sudan. Most
have no idea of the difference between the two situations. Another wing is
what I understand to be neoconservatives who want to incorporate Darfur into
the war on terror. Both groups reinforce the racialization of the conflict
and the demonization of the Arabs.--Anna Mundow, "Politics and
humanitarianism," boston.com, March 22, 2009]