| Genocide in Darfur |
During 100 days in 1994, over 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda as the world stood by and watched. "Never again" has become "once again" in Darfur, the Western region of Sudan. The genocide in Darfur has been called the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world today” by the United Nations. The violence continues, and it is estimated that as many as 2 million people have been displaced and over 300,000 killed. An additional untold number of non-Arab Darfurians have been beaten, raped, or wounded. Over two thousands traditional villages have been attacked and destroyed, completely burned to the ground. Some 200,000 Darfurians are living in refugee camps in Chad. Another 1.2 million are living as "Internally Displaced Persons" in Darfur. The massive genocidal assault on the non-Arab Darfurian population by the Government of Sudan and their proxy militia, the Janjaweed, includes the sweeping destruction of entire communities–homes, marketplaces, schools, mosques, wells, crops, livestock, and personal assets. Thousands of Fur, Masalit, and Zawaga people have been driven into a hostile environment where survival is not possible without outside assistance. Two and a half years after the United States Government declared the situation in Darfur to be genocide, the atrocities continue. Contrary to common misperceptions caused by "media fatigue" with the issue, civilians are still being raped, starved, and killed in Darfur. All cohorts of Darfurian society have been afflicted–men, women, and children–while the crisis spills into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. Thirteen United Nations organizations recently came together to state that humanitarian access is now worse than it was back in 2004. Last month the European Parliament passed a resolution that asks for sanctions, action to protect the Darfur population with humanitarian corridors, the EU to help implement a no-fly zone, and insists the UN to set a date for peacekeeping deployment with or without the consent of the Sudanese Government. California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, Maine, New Jersey, and Connecticut have all divested from companies that have been identified as engaging in activities that substantially support the Sudanese government's genocidal activities. The Swiss power giant and the German electronics company, Siemens, have suspended all non-humanitarian activity in Sudan. Even Barclay's Global and Northern Trust are marketing Sudan-free investment funds. The University of California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, Stanford, Cornell, Georgetown, Princeton, Columbia, and dozens of other educational institutions have divested comprehensively from Sudan. People, organizations, companies, universities, cities, states, countries, and continents are taking action. So should Harvard. |
