[Hawkeye_a]

Not much has been said about this conflict and genocide imo. I think its appropriate we discuss it.

Questions to consider:
-What are the different factions ?
-Who are the victims ?
-Who are the perputrators ? and what is their "goal" ?
-Why is there conflict ?

Ive done a little reading on the issue, and i'd like some discussion on the issue. Here's a starting point ... BBC NEWS | Africa | Q&A: Sudan's Darfur conflict

Cheers

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

-What are the different factions ?

Those who don't like cartoons vs everyone else.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

-Who are the victims ?

Everyone else.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

-Who are the perputrators ?

Those who don't like cartoons.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

and what is their "goal" ?

Removal of all cartoons from the planet.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

-Why is there conflict ?

Egde of cartoon-haters' empire.


That a reasonable summary?

[Hawkeye_a]

Hmmm fairly straightforward..... the usual suspects eh ?

[Taliesin]

An interesting and urgent topic.

It is a very complicated issue with many different causes:

1. Darfur was once independent until Britain that colonised Egypt decided to conquer Sudan and Darfur, because Britain feared that Turkey might gain influence in those countries and try to use the influence to get Britain out of Egypt. After Britain conquered Sudan and Darfur, it formed those two into a single country, but chose to concentrate its funds and development-support on the area around the nile, around the capital Khartoum and neglected the outside-areas in the west and south.

2. Darfur is made up of sunni-muslims as well as central-Sudan, on both sides of the conflict they are even radical islamists, but they are ethnically different. Darfur's people are majorly black and speak majorly their own languages, while the people in central sudan are mixed people , ie. half black and half arabic, speaking majorly in the arabic language and they also view themselves as arabs. So, besides the political and historic dimension from number 1, there is also an ethnic dimension to the conflict.
Lybia, in a plan to gain greater influence in the area, propagated an arab-elitist-ideology among the sudanese half-arabic/half-black but arabic speaking people, that further deepened the ethnic side of the conflict.

3. There is also a military dimension: In order to protest against the neglection and divertion of ressources that the central government commited against the darfurans, the people of Darfur built up armed rebel-groups, that started to fight against the sudanese army., and they grew ever more successful at defeating Sudan's regular army using hit-and-run-tactics with fast jeeps, against which Sudan's army found no way of preventing or even countering.
Another problem that Sudan's army had and has in countering the armed rebellion , is that considerable parts of Sudan's army are made up by darfurans, and those parts didn't and don't want to fight against their ethnic brothers, and so Sudan's army was and is paralysed, both because of the inability to prevent and counter rebel-attacks and because of the unwillingness of parts of Sudan's army to fight against their ethnic brothers.
Therefore Sudan's army changed its tactic and started to rely mostly on airial bombardments of rebellion-strongholds, which initially caused great damage among the rebels, but they adapted and became more decentralised, and so Sudan's government opted to fund and arm arabic-speaking militias that should put pressure upon the civilian support of the rebels by using the methods of ethnic cleansing: looting, raping, destruction of villages and crops, massacres...
There is also the possibility that neighbouring countries, espescially Eritrea, are involved in the conflict, supporting the darfurian rebels as a sort of proxy-war.

The UN-SC by the way has voted for a chapter VII resolution, calling for the establishing of a 17,000 men-strong armed UN-force to cool down the conflict and to end the ethnic cleansing.

But until today, Sudan's government has prevented their deployment, and so this is also a test for the UN-SC and its credibility.

Taliesin

[macintologist]

Is there any the US can or should reasonable do? I think it's a sad situation but the US shouldn't get involved because it will just make the problem worse. If you feel strongly about Darfur then send your money to the appropriate organizations involved in relief work, or even better, sign up with an NGO and get yer ass over there.

Otherwise, DONT tempt our dumb politicians into "doing something" about it.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by Taliesin 

An interesting and urgent topic.

It is a very complicated issue with many different causes:

Very nice synopsis; I'm finding literature on the Sudan and the Darfur region in general has been pretty sparse until very recently, so I'm sure more will be coming out as people start studying it in greater depth.

There's also been a climate change cause mentioned, which I find very interesting; specifically a drying of that region of Africa which has thrown traditionally separate groups (ie. farmers and herders) into the same areas. Unfortunately the book I had which mentioned this and got into some details has been loaned to a friend. Would you happen to know anything about that theory?

greg

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

Very nice synopsis; I'm finding literature on the Sudan and the Darfur region in general has been pretty sparse until very recently, so I'm sure more will be coming out as people start studying it in greater depth.

There's also been a climate change cause mentioned, which I find very interesting; specifically a drying of that region of Africa which has thrown traditionally separate groups (ie. farmers and herders) into the same areas. Unfortunately the book I had which mentioned this and got into some details has been loaned to a friend. Would you happen to know anything about that theory?

greg

No, I don't know much about that angle. But I have heard that there were quarrels and conflicts between half-arabic semi-nomads and black farmers in the region, because of the declining area of arable land and dwindling water-ressources.

Unfortunately I don't know the very details.

Taliesin

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

Is there any the US can or should reasonable do? I think it's a sad situation but the US shouldn't get involved because it will just make the problem worse. If you feel strongly about Darfur then send your money to the appropriate organizations involved in relief work, or even better, sign up with an NGO and get yer ass over there.

Otherwise, DONT tempt our dumb politicians into "doing something" about it.

The US should use its diplomatic and political power to get the UNSC-resolution enforced, that calls for the deployment of 17,000 UN-soldiers in the region.

Taliesin