The holocaust of the 21st-century

[Vanessa]

Some of you may have heard, there is big news in the anti-genocide community: Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan, has been charged with three counts of genocide in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Genocide is defined as “deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group,” or in layman’s terms, trying to kill an entire group of people; the most popular example of this being the Holocaust. The international criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the court was founded in 2002, and has been busy ever since.
But al-Bashir being charged with genocide is not the breaking news it should be, as the situation looks all too familiar. In 2008 the prosecutor of the ICC accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. After more than a year, the court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on 4 March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but ruled that there was just not enough evidence to prosecute him for genocide, despite the hundreds of thousands of reports, 400,000 people dead, 2.5 million people being displaced, and many, many more injured, although it is impossible to say how many.
Al-Bashir was able to somehow sweep those accusations under the rug, remove US and UN activist groups and reporters from the area, and continue as though nothing much was happening, even though Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the ICC as well as the first to be charged with genocide.
This war started in February 2003, and it is now July 2010, it is high time that the ICC, as well as citizens like you and me start noticing this genocide.
This genocide began when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs, at that point, no one could have possibly known that it was just about to get a lot more oppressive.
So, this conflict, like any conflict, consists of two sides:

Number one: the people. Like many areas in Africa, the people are separated into many smaller tribes and groups, and a lot of people in other countries write genocides like this one off as intertribal fighting, that concerns “larger,” “more prosperous,” and “more evolved” countries like us very little. Unfortunately however, the problem is a lot bigger than some tribal squabbling. Two groups of people stood up against the government, to say what they felt was unfair, and the government, rather than fighting a conventional war, decided to simply “cleanse” the area of their tribes.

Number two: the government. Right now, al-Bashir is being charged three counts of genocide. The tribes he is (reportedly) actively trying to wipe out are Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. The government has claimed that the Janjaweed, a group that openly terrorizes civilians, systematically rapes women, and brutally murderous men and children, has nothing to do with them, although there have been many accounts of Janjaweed and the governments own military being in league with each other. When the genocide started in 2003, the government used the Janjaweed as their main counterinsurgency campaign, only stating later that the two groups were not affiliated, despite hundreds of thousands of citizen and government claims that the brutal Janjaweed, and the supposedly democratic government go hand-in-hand.

So why hasn’t our government stepped in? Before a war is officially a “genocide,” another country has to declare it a genocide. And unfortunately, before a war is declared a genocide, other countries have no obligation to step in. In early June of 2005, President George W. Bush declared the “war” a genocide, although he took no further action at the time, despite legal obligation. Financial and logistical assistance was what Bush promised, specifically stating that he did not intend to send US troops to help the situation.
During Pres. Obama’s campaign, he promised to take legitimate action against the genocide in Darfur, although we have yet to see very many real consequences. There have been a few bills, there has been talk, but people are still dying by the hundreds every day. Talk isn’t enough.
If you are interested in doing a little research into the genocide in Darfur, and seeing what you can do to help, here are the websites I would recommend:

STAND- A student run anti-genocide coalition. This organization focuses primarily on college students, but even if you aren’t a college student, they send out very informative newsletters.

The enough Project- The enough Project is informative and interesting for people of all ages, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in getting more heavily involved in the anti-genocide world.

The save Darfur coalition- Another great resource for keeping current on the news in Darfur, as well as many great opportunities to sign petitions, take part in letter writing campaigns, and become more active in the anti-genocide community.

Thank you for caring, the people of Sudan are counting on us.

Author's note:

Hello everyone!

This is an article I just finished writing for a local newspaper, and I thought some of you might enjoy it. It is somewhat more formal than I usually write (and quite a bit less editorial) , but I hope you all enjoyed (and possibly even learned something from it) anyway.

[Vanessa]

Joymoonshoes,

Thank you very much! I’m really glad you enjoyed my writing! I know, there are so many crimes against humanity that are truly appalling. It’s the Holocaust all over again. What ever happened to “never again”?

Elin

Firstly :)
Secondly, thank you! This blog took me a ridiculously long time to write, because I didn’t want to get busted for any incorrect facts. I’m so unbelievably glad that you thought it was written by a professional on in other website! That is so amazingly awesome! I’ve been really into writing lately, and I think I want to pursue writing a little more actively than I have in the past.

Dorothy,

You are absolutely right about how appalling it is! I’ve been to that website before, but it’s extremely frustrating as I am not old enough to vote! I’m really anxious to be able to vote, but in the meantime, I guess I’ll have to devote my time to trying to raise awareness in those who can vote, as well as those who can vote with their time and attention.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the article!

Moose Starr,

Hmmm, I think you posed some really excellent points! A big part of the crisis in Darfur (and I was going to address this, but ran out of time,) is mainstream media simply turning a blind eye. It’s great that everyone has TV and radio, but no one wants to hear about some people in Africa fighting. Everyone is out there to sell something, and news about genocide doesn’t sell. If one person dies in America, (and not to discount one death, because every death is important,) there will be a long and complicated new story about it, however, hundreds die in other countries, and there is no whisper. I think part of the problem might be that we DO have TV, people aren’t as involved in their lives as they used to be, and TV, computers, cell phones and satellite can all serve as a distraction (due to the sheer amount of information available on all), rather than a good thing. When I was doing my research for this article, I typed into Google “When was the war in Darfur….” My intended question was “When was the war in Darfur declared a genocide by President Bush?” But the first answer that popped up, was,“When was the war in Darfur ended.” That indicates a serious problem. That means that most people think the war is over. Hopefully everyone who researches that question discovers that it is not yet over, but since the war is so complicated, articles can often be boring and confusing, and people don’t often read boring and confusing articles.
So all in all, I totally agree that this genocide is unacceptable in the age of modern technology, and although I definitely think that we as a nation, nay, we as a people, need to take personal responsibility for not noticing, the companies that control the media need to take larger responsibility for not telling.

Thank you everyone for reading and commenting! I love to hear all of your feedback!! Feedback is my favorite part of posting!

[Moose Starr]

But al-Bashir being charged with genocide is not the breaking news it should be, as the situation looks all too familiar. In 2008 the prosecutor of the ICC accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. After more than a year, the court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on 4 March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but ruled that there was just not enough evidence to prosecute him for genocide, despite the hundreds of thousands of reports, 400,000 people dead, 2.5 million people being displaced, and many, many more injured, although it is impossible to say how many.

^^ so I dont know how to quote here.
But, whenever I think of the Shoah or, I see movies about it, I always wonder how it could have happened. How it was allowed to happen. After all technology to communicate was reasonably common by then so, how was it just *accepted* that hundreds of thousands of people were forcibly removed from their homes, they were marched to ghettoes or death camps, their possessions were taken and, in the end they were killed. By the millions.
And now it's happening again. One man (and I use that word lightly) has the influence and power to make other people blind to the facts. And, this time there is no excuse. Back in the 1930s/1940s maybe not everyone had a phone or a radio. But, now most everyone in the Western world has TV, radio, cellphones and internet. Governments have satellites. They cant seriously expect us to believe that no one can see what's going on?

[Dorothy]

Vanessa, thanks for posting it! Darfur is still a big issue and it is really horrible what is going on there. Its appalling that so many people are dying and so few people are even caring because as you said the people of Darfur are "not like us". What does that really matter anyways? They are like us, they are human too. They feel pain and sorrow just like the people in more "modern" countries.
For those of us that are of voting age in the US, there is http://www.darfurscores.org/ which rates politicians on how they have been voting and acting on issues that effect Darfur, it might be a useful site to go to before the November elections.

[Elin]

Vanessa? Did you write this? :O Woah, you're good! Thank you for sharing!
Primarily, I thought this was an article that you had copied from another website. It was very informative and very well written. And you're right when you say that your vocabulary is way bigger than most 15-year-olds'. Good job!

[joymoonshoes]

I did enjoy it, especially your writing. The piece is very informative. It's sickening to know that all those people are being killed and uprooted from their homes and no one has stepped in to help out yet.