We Cannot Say We Did Not Know
by: Richard Land - May 1, 2006 - comments: 3
Since 2003, government forces and government-backed militias from Arab tribes, “janjaweed,” have engaged in a modern-day pogrom targeting African Muslim civilians in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The “janjaweed” militias—some twenty thousand strong—receive government support to clear civilians from areas considered disloyal to the Sudanese government—burning villages, poisoning water sources, destroying crops and livestock. Janjaweed is Arabic slang for “devils on horseback.”
In what the Sudan Tribune has called the “first genocidal rampage of the 21st century,” the litany of horror is nearly incomprehensible: at least 400,000 people have been murdered; countless others have been tortured, raped, and abducted; and entire villages, crops, and livestock in the region have been destroyed. A reported 3.5 million people are now hungry and 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence—the equivalent of driving out the residents of Dallas and San Diego.
In early 2004, as negotiations for a peaceful resolution to a separate ongoing conflict between North and South Sudan took place, Khartoum was unfolding its campaign of mayhem and destruction upon citizens in Darfur.
In November 2005, I was on panel discussing human rights at Georgetown University when Senator Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.), also a panelist, said in listing the humanitarian crises in the world, Darfur was among the “top five worst places to wake up in the morning.” Since last November, the incidences of death and destruction in this area of the world have only increased.
Nicholas D. Kristof, an acclaimed columnist with the New York Times, has written extensively and with firsthand knowledge about conditions in Darfur. “‘They took the cattle and horses, killed the men, raped the women, and then they burned the village,’ said Abubakr Ahmed Abdallah, a 60-year-old refugee who escaped to Toukoultoukouli in Chad. ‘They want to exterminate us blacks,’ said Halime Ali Souf. Her husband was killed, and she fled into Chad with her infant,” he reported in a March 24, 2004 New York Times column.
“I saw villages of up to 20,000 people burned to the ground. I saw government looting, burning,” said Brian Steidle, a former U.S. Marine who is on a nationwide tour to speak about his experiences as a U.S. representative to the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Darfur. “I saw people who had their ears cut off, their eyes plucked out, simply because of who they are.”
The ethnic cleansing directed against black tribes in Darfur easily could surpass the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed 500,000 lives.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, of which I am a member, reports the “conflict in Darfur is yet another illustration of Sudan’s broader political pattern of deliberate marginalization and resource-deprivation of all of Sudan’s regions with non-Arab or non-Muslim populations.”
“The janjaweed militias do not act alone,” wrote Steidle in the Washington Post. “I have seen clear evidence that the atrocities committed in Darfur are the direct result of the Sudanese government’s military collaboration with the militias. Attacks are well coordinated by Sudanese government officials and Arab militias, who attack villages together. Before these attacks occur, the cell phone systems are shut down by the government so that villagers cannot warn each other. Whenever we lost our phone service, we would scramble to identify the impending threat. We knew that somewhere, another reign of terror was about to begin.”
Most of the refugees are in very remote, inaccessible locations, encumbering relief efforts. As if geography isn’t enough of a problem, the Sudanese government has a history of interfering with humanitarian efforts.
Human mortality in the region has become “more a function of malnutrition and disease than violent destruction,” says a column in the Sudan Tribune. National borders are not a defense against these marauders, as the janjaweed launch attacks on the refugees from Darfur in Chad, a neighboring country where they have fled.
While there is hope the peace treaty brokered recently by representatives of the African Union, United States, Britain, the European Union, and the Arab League between the rebels and the Sudanese government will not crumble like prior attempts to bring an end to the bloodshed, the ravages of these attacks on innocents will not be soon overcome.
As a Christian, I know the Bible speaks of God’s command and our responsibility to speak up on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves. Every human being is endowed with the right to life and endowed with the right to liberty, and it is our responsibility to ensure those rights of basic human dignity.
The Bible speaks clearly of God’s concern for all humanity, and of our responsibility to rescue those who are oppressed: every human life is sacred (Gen. 1:27); God hears the cry of the oppressed (Gen. 4:10); and He expects the strong to protect the weak (Zech. 7:8-10).
We can no longer ignore the great crisis facing humanity, which consists of government’s committing genocidal and barbaric acts against their own people. To do anything other than to come to the aid of the millions of our Darfurian brothers and sisters who are suffering under a cruel and murderous “thugocracy” of a regime masquerading as a legitimate government is to deny the humanity of those helpless people and to deny the commands of our Lord and our God.
We must act in the name of common humanity. We must stand for and with the oppressed of Darfur. We must call on the United Nations to act; if the United Nations doesn’t act, then we must call on the African Union; if the African Union doesn’t act, then we must call on NATO; if NATO doesn’t act, then we must act.
The United States must act, alone if necessary, in the name of all that defines who we have been, who we are, and whoever or whatever we hope to be in the future.
We cannot say we did not know! We know!
If not this, what?
If not now, when?
If not us, who?
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Human Rights, Persecution
comments (post your own) feed
1 On Jul 10th, 2006, at 9:17am, don patterson wrote:
I am grieved over this situation in Sudan. I want to know if we have missionaries who are able to distribute food and other medical needs tothe refugees in these areas of Sudan and Chad. Who should i contact to find avenues to help? Don Patterson
2 On Jul 14th, 2006, at 9:41am, Cathryn Paton wrote:
In what specific ways and in what areas can we help?
3 On Jul 14th, 2006, at 1:50pm, Staff wrote:
We recommend contacting one or both of the following groups currently working in Darfur…
The International Mission Board
SaveDarfur.org