As I write this I am in Khartoum, Sudan, having just returned from a week of traveling through Darfur. Although I’ve traveled to eastern Chad to meet with Darfuri refugees who fled the country, this is the first time I’ve actually been to Sudan and Darfur. I applied for a visa in 2004, but only recently did the Sudanese government give me permission to come. I came with my colleagues Mark Lotwis and Sean Brooks.

Visiting Otash camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
The chance to meet with displaced Darfuris inside Darfur, and in general to see firsthand this country that I have read and thought so much about, has been profoundly moving. One of the most striking things in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), as in refugee camps in Chad, is the children – living in the present, as children everywhere are so good at doing, but not totally unaffected by the turmoil that has swirled around them. As we were leaving one camp, a little girl who couldn’t have been more than three and a half feet tall flashed the omnipresent thumbs up sign and chanted, “Bashir is a criminal, the khawaja (foreigner) tells the truth.”
We will be providing more in depth reporting on our trip, which is continuing as we leave to spend several days in southern Sudan. But I wanted to give you a very quick update based on our time so far in Khartoum and Darfur.
Two big points have been reinforced from our time here. First, the issues of Darfur cannot be resolved in isolation from the larger issues of Sudan, and vice-versa. And the most significant issues of Sudan involve marginalization and exclusion. A great danger is that Darfur, seen as an isolated issue, gets ignored in coming months as attention focuses on the referendum on the independence of southern Sudan scheduled for next January. We must view Sudan holistically.
Second, there is an important role for the international community to play in helping to create a space for Sudanese to resolve the issues of Sudan without the use of extreme violence against civilians. It was such violence, used particularly by the government and its allies, that riveted the world’s attention on Sudan. Extreme violence is not happening now, but the potential remains.

Camp leaders meeting in Otash
In that regard, in Darfur we found an uneasy situation – “neither peace, nor war,” we heard a number of times. From IDPs we consistently heard expressions of fear and a pervading sense of insecurity. Clashes between the government and rebels are happening in some areas, but such organized fighting is not widespread. Nor is there systematic violence against civilians. But neither is there a sense of stability, security or peace. Quite simply, nothing is resolved. And a large portion of the civilian population remains extremely vulnerable.
We heard over and over from the IDPs and other Darfuris that they long for peace and security. One of the most poignant comments we heard was from a leader in one of the camps we visited. “Once milk is spilled on the ground,” he said, “it is impossible to get it back in the pail.” This proverb recognizes how challenging it is to create a durable peace and that it is not merely a matter of restoring things as they were. Creating that peace will require a sustained effort by the Sudanese themselves and sustained engagement by the international community.
Stay tuned as over the coming days, we will be reporting more on our assessment of the current situation on the ground.
Thank you for all you do for the people of Darfur and Sudan.
Jerry and the rest of the Save Darfur team in Sudan will be hosting a special
live webcast on Thursday, March 4th, at 2:00 PM to discuss what they saw on their trip.
Please, sign up to watch the webcast and submit a question you’d like our team to answer on the 4th here: http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign/asksavedarfur