June 24, 2007
Hundreds of thousands of people .... dead from violence and disease... claims by most nations of genocide... Darfur, Sudan.
This is brutality, mass murder, genocide going on as we speak, yet most have no idea what I am talking about. I will admit, the situation in Western Sudan is quite confusing to me, but the immensity of it is much more astounding. Since the fighting started in Feb. 2003, it has been calculated (accuracy is as confusing) that between 200,000 to 450,000 people have been killed through violence and disease!!!!! Since October of 2006, that's only 8 months ago, about 2.5 million people have been displaced! What is going on? The players: Sudanese military, along with the Janjaweed VS. various rebel groups (Sudan Liberation Movement, Justice and Equality Movement)
The Janjaweed are militia (primarily recruited from camel-herding nomads). The Sudanese government claims that they do not support these militia, yet they are providing them with financial and other support. Also, it has become apparent that the government has been destroying evidence and tampering with sites of violence, essentially to cover it's actual depth of involvement in all of this.
~~~ DEZ
This week, our focus is this crisis. By the end of the week, I hope that we are all more aware of this dire situation, because by becoming aware, we become armed with the knowledge, and this knowledge will lead to awareness, and awareness will lead to more attention and support to the people of Sudan. IGNORANCE IS NOT ALWAYS BLISS!
want to become active in your local community? http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes