Yesterday marked the beginning of Genocide Prevention Month—a month-long call “…on the international community to take meaningful actions […] to mobilize resources to avert or halt such ongoing crises and protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes.” Along with this call to action, GPM also serves to commemorate past atrocities—six of which, from the Holocaust to the Armenian Genocide, coincidentally began in April.
On the first day of GPM, Congressman Jerrold Nadler introduced a statement “Calling for Action on Darfur and to Prevent Genocide” into the congressional record. This statement, signed by “… more than sixty survivor and anti-genocide organizations from around the world” urges “… immediate action to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur.”
In his introduction, Congressman Nadler reminds us that “In April 2009, the slaughter in Darfur will enter its seventh year.” The crisis in Darfur began in April 2003 with a mass displacement of civilians—over the past six years, over 2.5 million civilians have been forced to flee their homes—seeking refuge in IDP camps and finding themselves dependent upon humanitarian organizations for their basic human needs.
Now, as this ongoing atrocity enters its seventh year, the situation for the people of Darfur has gotten worse. The decision by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to expel humanitarian agencies responsible for the life-sustaining care for 4.7 million civilians in Darfur is stunning in its inhumanity. Bashir, having failed to annihilate the people of Darfur with bullets, bombs, and rape has now turned to dehydration, starvation, and disease to finish the job—cutting the humanitarian lifeline to Darfur appears to be Bashir’s “final solution.”
And without pressure from the international community, it is a solution that may prove successful—the people of Darfur, much like Eugenie Mukeshimana, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and GPM participant, are just “[hanging] on one more day, each day, hoping that somebody will get to [them].” The help that Eugenie believed was coming turned out to be just a rumor—this must not be the case in Darfur. The help must be real, it must be proactive, and it must be soon.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
