May 2009
Genocide
10 years after Rwanda,it unfolds again in Darfur
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Five Facts on Darfur
Darfur Holocaust?
Table of Contents
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Darfur Holocaust?
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Take Action Five Facts on Darfur
13
Genocide
An overview of vulnerabilities particular to genocide’s youngest victims
Chil d ren Within
Darfur’s
Holocaust“ by
Eric
Reeves
Dec 23, 2005
those over five (1/day/10,000). Malnutrition levels for children under five also tend to be remorselessly good indicators of global malnutrition, which is why rates for both Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) are often represented for both under-five and over-five populations.Attention to vaccination rates is also a commonly cited statistical barometer, and so (less often) are the rates of those receiving some form of education during their entire life.
accounts for differences in both mortality rates and the likelihood of malnutrition. The deaths of Darfur’s children, of those least responsible for the evil that animates genocidal violence, bequeath to us a special opprobrium, a disgrace for which there can be no expiation. This analysis attempts to distill something of the peculiar suffering and destruction that has marked the experience of children in Darfur.
The suffering and destruction of children in Darfur is an obscenity beyond reckoning, beyond redemption, beyond forgiveness. During the course of this genocidal conflict, the number of children who have been killed, raped, wounded, displaced, traumatized, or endured the loss of parents A very recent “Child Alert” for and famiDarfur from UNICEF (the UN lies is well children’s fund) has done someover 1 milthing to elevate the profile of lion. Most children in Darfur, and for this of these children have suffered deserves commendation. But multiple forms of violence, loss, the report is too brief, and freand deprivation. Moreover, quently too superficial, to oftheir futures are bleak in ways But there is a terrible distinct- fer any real insight into the exwe can only now begin to dis- ness in the suffering of children, periences of children in Darfur; cern, though that bleakness even as their characteristic vul- there are also signs that the will come into steadily sharper nerability in times of distress text was poorly reviewed prior relief as humanitarian organizations slowly withdraw their Starving children suffering in Darfur. financial support for current efforts on the ground in Darfur.
“ Most of these children have suffered multiple forms of violence, loss, and deprivation throughout their life. ”
Statistical assessments of suffering and destruction in Darfur, as is often the case in vast human cataclysms, tend toward aggregation, with only partial disaggregating of data that bear directly on populations under 18 years of age. There are exceptions: a common humanitarian metric is the emergency mortality threshold for children under five years of age, 2/day/10,000 of populations---twice the threshold for
to publication. Little from the section on “Continuing Violence and Trauma” represents either new findings or prescient summary of the data and findings currently available. Nonetheless, an overview statement from this section is a useful point of departure: “Humanitarian workers describe a kind of mass trauma in the camps [for displaced persons]. While the protective structure of the family is crucial to recovery [for children], parents feel hopeless and powerless, prompting a widespread sense of fatalism about a future they cannot control.
women, or the protection that would allow families to return to their villages and land in order to resume agriculturally productive lives. Many of these women have been in camps for two years or longer---and have seen that the impunity of the Janjaweed militia, as well as Khartoum’s regular military forces, is boundless. Few have heard of UN Security Council Resolution 1556 (July 30, 2004), “demanding” that the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum disarm the Janjaweed. Those who have must feel only contempt for a world body that allows the very men who have killed, raped, and pilChildren talk about the violent laged to roam free---indeed, to events they witnessed and their be incorporated in many cases continuing fear of armed men on into the “security” forces for the horseback [the Janjaweed], who camps these women inhabit. often remain on the outskirts of camps and settlements. Since The sheer difficulty of parenting many men have either died or are without fathers, and often for mobilized in rural areas, tens of many more than one’s own chilthousands of women are raising dren, has been exhausting over their children alone, and often the long months in these exthose of deceased family mem- ceedingly difficult circumstancbers as well. The daily stress es---particularly with no relief in for these sight. That mothers children can seriand adults ously impair have both their ability been trauto care for matized their chil(“humanidren. Ext a r i a n hausted and depressed, they workers describe a kind of mass despair about their future and trauma in these serious camps”) that of their offspring.” Despair is difficult to resist when the in- only makes the task of caretakternational community is unwill- ing that much more demanding to provide security for these ing, that much more exhausting.
Children talk of the violent events they witnessed and their continuing fear of armed men on horseback
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To be sure, the UNICEF report celebrates what it reports as “340,000 children ages 6 to 13 attending class;” but this number seems inflated in the context of other humanitarian reports, and we may legitimately wonder what counts as “attendance.” Even accepting at face value the UNICEF claim, the report goes on to note that this “still only represents about 28% of school-age children in Darfur, and there is no guarantee how long emergency funding for education will last.” In fact, a
number of humanitarian orga nizations are already reducing funding for Darfur, and education is one of the first areas that will be cut. We have only to look forward six months, or a year, and we have only to look forward six months, these or a year, and camps---which continue to grow in size---will almost certainly be operating on much reduced budgets. They will become human “warehouses” as the rural areas remain too insecure for returns to begin, and the international community refuses to provide the means for real civilian and humanitarian protection. There is likely to be a “consolidation” or “concentration” of camps, with the more remote and unprotected camps coalescing (likely chaotically) with larger camps closer to the major towns, el-Fasher and Nyala in particular. This will take place as both camp residents and humanitarian workers increasingly fear for their safety amidst what Kofi Annan warns in his November 2005 report to the UN Security Council is “the looming threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy [in Darfur].” For children, their futures in the camps hold only the prospect of meaningless days defined by efforts to supplement what will be increasingly meager humanitarian supplies. The chances for sustained, meaningful education are remote. Many boys will drift towards urban areas in Dar-
fur, Kordofan, even Khartoum in search of employment; they will be part of a very large pool of unskilled labor, much of it unemployed or underemployed. Girls will also be tempted to seek means of augmenting income for food, shelter, and critical “nonfood items” (NFI) that will be in increasingly short supply. The relatively large salaries of the African Union force in Darfur have already produced what is for these devout Muslim communities an entirely uncharacteristic social problem, prostitution.’ The sheer difficulty of parenting without fathers, and often for many more than one’s own children, has been exhausting over the long months in these exceedingly difficult circumstances---particularly with no relief in sight. That children and adults have both been traumatized (“humanitarian workers describe a kind of mass trauma in the camps”) only makes the task of caretaking that much more demanding, that much more exhausting. To be sure, the UNICEF report celebrates what it reports as “340,000 children ages 6 to 13 attending class” (page 13); but this number seems inflated in the context of other humanitarian reports, and we may legitimately wonder what counts as “attendance.” Even accepting at face value the UNICEF claim, the report goes on to note that this “still only represents about 28% of school-age children in Darfur, and there is no
guarantee how long emergency funding for education will last In fact, a number of humanitarian organizations are already reducing funding for Darfur, and edu cation is one of the first areas that will be cut. We have only to look forward six months, or a year, and these camps---which continue to grow in size---will almost certainly be operating on much reduced budgets. They will become human “warehous
Their futures in the camps hold only the prospect of meaningless days es” as the rural areas remain too insecure for returns to begin, and the international community refuses to provide the means for real civilian and humanitarian protection. There is likely to be a “consolidation” or “concentration” of camps, with the more remote and unprotected camps coalescing (likely chaotically) with larger camps closer to the major towns, el-Fasher and Nyala in particular. This will
take place as both camp residents and humanitarian workers increasingly fear for their safety amidst what Kofi Annan warns in his November 2005 report to the UN Security Council is “the looming threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy [in Darfur].” For children, their futures in the camps hold only the prospect of meaningless days defined by efforts to supplement what will be increasingly mea-
ger humanitarian supplies. The chances for sustained, meaningful education are remote. Many boys will drift towards urban areas in Darfur, Kordofan, For children, their futures in the camps hold only the prospect of useless days defined by efforts to supplement what will be increasingly meager humanitarian supplies. The chances for sustained, meaningful education are remote. Many boys will drift
brighten morning Yourwith ALl towards urban areas in Darfur, Kordofan, even Khartoum in search of employment; they will be part of a very large pool of unskilled labor, much of it unemployed or underemployed. Girls will also be tempted to seek means of augmenting income for food, shelter, and critical “non-food items” that will be in increasingly short supply. The relatively large salaries of the African Union force in Darfur have already produced what is for these devout Muslim communities an entirely uncharac-
teristic social problem, prostitution. Until the people now in the camps, young and old, can return to their homes, villages, and culture. Do what you can to help support the suffering people throughout Darfur. Moreover, the number of conflictaffected persons (50% of whom are Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs], according to DHP 20) stands at a staggering 3.5 million, and continues to grow.
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Genocide In
Five Facts On Darfur
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¤ËºÇ ɽº ŶÈÉ IJ˺ κ¶ÇÈ over 400,000 Darfurian civilians have been killed.
Darfur
A
s the conflict in Darfur enters its sixth year, conditions continue to deteriorate for civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, even by the most conservative estimates. The United Nations puts the death toll at roughly 300,000, while the former U.N. undersecretary-general puts the number at no less than 400,000. Up to 2.5 million Darfuris have fled their homes and continue to live in camps throughout Darfur, or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. Based on Sudan’s behavior over the past five years, it is clear that unless the international community imposes additional political costs for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s intransigence, his government will continue to buy time by accepting initiatives only to backtrack later or impose new conditions that render them useless. Humanitarian assistance in Darfur continues to be at risk of collapse, in part because of sustained harassment by the Sudanese government, and in part because of the government’s militia allies and common criminals. In September 2006, the United Nations estimated that such a collapse would
cause up to 100,000 civilian deaths every month. Troublesome developments suggest that such a failure is becoming more likely: the World Food Program’s Humanitarian Air Service received no funding in the first three months of 2008. Last-minute donations totaling six million dollars funded it through the beginning of May.. In the second half of 2007, the Sudanese government’s divide-and-conquer strategy, described by Human Rights Watch as “chaos by design,” caused an increasingly frenzied free-for-all in Darfur. Rebel groups fragmented further and criminal activity as well as intertribal fighting increased exponentially. Still, the effects of tribal fighting should not be overemphasized. Of the eight largest displacements between January and November 2007, seven resulted from government or Janjaweed attacks. Only one was the result of intertribal fighting. In early 2008, deaths and displacements from military operations by the government, its allied militias and rebels were even more common relative to those caused by tribal conflicts.
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150,000 people have died directly from acts of violence in Darfur.
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80 infants die each day in Darfur due to a lack of proper nutrition
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90% of the villages of Darfurís targeted ethnic groups have been destroyed.
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2.8 million people have been displaced within Sudan.
HELP violence ENDagainst women
IN DARFUR