Genocide in Darfur Over?
A Sudanese woman riding past an African Union peacekeeping patrol in Sudan’s Darfur region, where violence has abated (nytimes.com)
The front page of the New York Times today declared, “After Years of Mass Killings, Fragile Calm Holds in Darfur”.
“There is no doubt that violence has diminished significantly in the past two or three years — and many, including myself, have been slow to recognize how significant this reduction has been,” said Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College and one of the leading academic voices on Darfur.
How did we get here?
I think the efforts of groups like ours, Save Darfur, Enough, GI-Net (and many others) all combined to make this issue more prominent with our leaders. The horrifying violence in the Congo, Uganda, North Korea, Burma was certainly no less, yet Darfur got relatively more coverage in the media. Our presence certainly added additional pressure and changed the dynamic of the situation.
Did all our efforts pay off? Have we gotten all that we wanted? Certainly not. The innocent victims of this genocide still continue to suffer, “the anger, frustration and despair simply cannot be overstated.” All of us need to keep up the vigilance and hold our leaders accountable. Sudan will be holding elections later this year. The international community, all of us need to make sure that they are fair. The situation is far from resolved, the suffering still continues…
For now, I am simply grateful for this piece of ‘good’ news.
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