Darfur is a Genocide. Still.

2 years ago

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Perhaps you missed it amid the news about Letterman and Palin, Obama and the fly, and the other vital issues of the day. But the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan gave a report Tuesday. And while there are surely many other horrible problems around the world, Darfur is the only place I'm aware of that the U.S. government has declared there was an active genocide going on. What did the report say?
Pretty much what previous reports have said. Here are some highlights from the report that the Special Rapporteur, Sima Samar, gave to the U.N.'s Human Rights Council (You can download the whole report for yourself here):

Arbitrary arrest and detention by the National Intelligence Security Service (NISS), military or police continues to be widespread in all areas of Sudan, and is often linked to other serious violations, such as incommunicado detention, ill-treatment, torture or detention in unofficial places of detention...

In northern Sudan, a particular concern has been an increase in arrests, harassment, intimidation, ill-treatment and alleged torture of human rights defenders and humanitarian workers since the July 2008 application by the ICC Prosecutor for an arrest warrant. In a climate of existing media censorship and intimidation, there has been an increase in restrictions on freedom of expression and association...

Reports continue to be received of violence and sexual abuse against women and children by state, non-state, criminal groups and bandits. Although rapes and sexual violence against women/girls, particularly outside IDP camps and towns, do get reported on a regular basis, the inability of UNMAID human rights officers to access many parts of Darfur, makes it difficult to verify these incidents. Victims of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) often do not file police complaints due to social stigma and lack of confidence in there being effective police action...

Human rights defenders in Darfur have also been specifically targeted following the July 2008 application by the ICC Prosecutor. During the period prior to and following the ICC announcement on 4 March 2009, UNAMID documented sixteen cases of arrests and detention by NISS on grounds of alleged support to the ICC or of providing information to the international community...

SGBV, and in particular patterns of abuse by members of the Chadian Armed Opposition Groups (CAOGs), remains a principal concern in West Darfur. On 13 August 2008, CAOG members attacked two women who were farming on the outskirts of Sibra town, and attempted to rape the younger woman. They physically assaulted her and her three month old baby. Assaults, shootings and rapes or attempted rapes by CAOG members undermine freedom of movement of the civilian population...

And so on and so on. Page after page. What should we do? What should anybody do? If politics can accomplish anything, surely it should be able to address genocide? If religion and morality mean anything, surely they should address genodice? The least we should do is not forget it's happening. You are now reminded.

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