Monty Python’s guide to the Darfur conflict
9 August 2008
The genocide publicised by movie stars is over, says Justin Marozzi. What must now be resolved is a civil war with unlimited breakaway factions — and Hollywood cannot help
Take your pick from SLM-Minni, SLM-Unity, SLM-Mother, SLM-Free Will, SLM-Peace, the United Revolutionary Front, JEM, JEM-Peace, JEM-Unity, to name only the better known. Apart from government versus rebels, the conflict now pits Arab versus Arab, African versus African, rebel versus rebel, bandits versus civilians and aid workers, Janjaweed versus peacekeepers, Sudan versus Chad. In short, the rebels have become a major part of the problem, but Hollywood and the Darfur lobby don’t seem to have caught on. Their story is a lot simpler: nasty government versus good-guy rebels.
Given that we live in an age when information has never been so readily and widely available, the level of misinformation about Darfur in 2008 is little short of extraordinary. When I met the correspondent of a highly respected American newspaper during a three-month stint in Khartoum and Darfur this summer, I was amazed when he told me his editor had asked him blithely to ‘Give us an update on how the genocide is going’. The Save Darfur Coalition homepage includes a button asking ‘Is your mutual fund funding genocide?’ The question is posed by Divest for Darfur, a campaign targeting ‘companies that help fund genocide in Darfur’. No one appears to have told any of these people that the genocide is over. What remains is a highly complicated, extremely brutal, low-intensity civil war.
It is arguable that rather than help end this hideous conflict, groups like the Save Darfur Coalition and GenocideInDarfur.net (‘Learn How YOU Can STOP the Violence Complete Anti-Genocide Directory’) have unwittingly helped prolong it.
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Jackie Bonisteel
September 7th, 2008 3:05pm Report this commentMr. Marozzi acknowledges that UNAMID desperately needs helicopters and 16000 peacekeepers. Yet, rather than suggesting means of securing these necessities, he censures the Darfur lobby for failing to recognize the increasingly complex nature of the conflict. In doing so, he risks shifting focus from the real question: what can we do today to end the suffering?
The aim of the Darfur advocacy community is to pressure those in power to do what is required to end the violence. The majority of us are fully aware that the situation is not one of “good versus evil”. At Stand Canada, our policy recommendations, which include the appointment of a Canadian special envoy to the region, reflect this understanding.
The proper definition of genocide is an academic matter, and our aim is to secure tangible change, not to engage in a scholarly debate. While I disagree with the assessment that the genocide in Darfur is over (the legal definition includes intent to destroy a group), I do not wish to become enwrapped in discussion on this point. Darfur remains in a state of emergency. Calling the crisis “highly complicated, extremely brutal, low-intensity civil war” undermines its immediacy, and provides a sense that international action would be futile. Talk about misinformation!
Those living in refugee camps, like the recently attacked Kalma, may or may not have an opinion on the definition of genocide. What they do know is that murder, destruction, rape and insecurity continue to dominate their lives. Let us focus on how to help them now, and save the semantic debates for a time when the people of Darfur are able to participate.
E Greene
September 10th, 2008 4:03pm Report this commentIt is fine and easy to criticise aspects of the Darfur campaigning. But it would be better if Justin Marozzi were transparent about what his role was in Sudan. I understand that he was working in Sudan on a short assignment for Albany Associates, a public relations firm contracted to do public communications about the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) and the supposed Darfur-Darfur Dialogue for AMIS and then UNAMID. Put simply, during 2006-2008 Albany was contracted to sell the DPA and the idea of the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue. Albany, AMIS and UNAMID have therefore not been impartial on questions about the rebels' conduct: they and other backers of the DPA have clung to the easy but flawed opinion that the primary obstacle to peace in Darfur has been the rebels and their fractiousness. Mr Marozzi merely repeats this view in this article, rather than address more difficult questions, for example about whether it was right for so much effort to be made to sell a peace agreement that was all but dead at the outset in 2006, and which the Sudanese government did so little to implement during 2006-2008.
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