Jerry Fowler, who has just returned from the Sudanese refugee camps of Eastern Chad, says in an article in Sunday's Outlook section, In Sudan, Staring Genocide in the Face, that the possibility of genocide taking place in Sudan's Darfur region must be addressed urgently. Fowler went to Chad last month on behalf of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience, which has issued a genocide warning for Sudan.
Fears of genocide, he says, are based on several factors, not least of which is the Sudanese government's refusal to provide international aid groups access to the estimated one million Darfurians who have been displaced from their homes following attacks by the Janjaweed militias, which are backed by the government in Khartoum.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
Fowler was online Monday, June 7 at Noon ET, to discuss his article and mounting concerns about genocide in Sudan.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
________________________________________________
Jerry Fowler: Hello everyone. If you haven't seen it, there is a great house editorial in the Post today on Darfur. I'm glad that increasing attention is being paid to this issue and I'm looking forward to this discussion.
_______________________
washingtonpost.com: 30,000 Deaths Foretold, (Post, June 7)
_______________________
Altura, Minn.:
Why, after 20+ years of the Khartoum government doing what they've been doing in the central and southern provinces with a death toll of nearly three million, is everyone suddenly waking up and taking notice with what is going on in Darfur? People like Eric Reeves have been trying to get the press' attention for years on the genocide there to little or no avail.
Jerry Fowler: To be fair, there have been spurts of coverage in previous years. In particular, one such spurt in 2001 helped lead to a more vigorous U.S. involvement in resolving the conflict in the southern part of the country. A lot of progress has been made there in the last few years, and just two weeks ago the government and the main southern rebel group signed protocols rsolving the remaining issues in that conflict.
The larger problem is that places like Sudan are remote, the conflicts are complex and we, to be honest, all have low attention spans. The press responds to that.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
The recent US-pressured cease-fire in Sudan has been as overlooked in the press as the civil war itself was. Will the cease-fire materially assist efforts to resolve the Darfur situation, or will it simply free up the Sudanese government to increase its oppression?
Jerry Fowler: This is an important question. The optimistic scenario is that resolving all the outstanding issues in the south will allow the U.S., other countries and the UN to devote more attention to Darfur. And to the extent that governments were reticent on Darfur because they did not want to upset the north-south talks (a dubious strategy in my mind), now they will be freed up. Another possibility that has been suggested to me -- also optimistic -- is that this will actually allow those in Khartoum who have been pushing peace with the south to now push for peace in Darfur.
I don't see any cause for optimism myself. I think nothing but unrelenting and widespread pressure on Khartoum will save Darfurian lives.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
How difficult is it to get out to the Darfur region? Is the government blocking access? How have those who have managed to get out there been able to access the area?
Jerry Fowler: It is physically difficult, because it is pretty remote. Added to that difficulty is that the government has restricted access, though they have not blocked it altogether. So a lot of what we know about the current situation there has been from those that the government has actually let in. For example, a delegation from the UN Human Rights Commission was let in in May. They came back and said everything they saw indicated a "reign of terror" in Darfur by the janjaweed and the government.
But the larger problem, and what is going to cause massive loss of life, is the obstacles that the government is putting in the way of humanitarian relief. They have allowed some, but not nearly enough. And as Andrew Natsios, the head of US AID told a donors conference in Geneva last week, it is not progress to remove one barrier only to impose additional ones, which is what Khartoum has been doing.
_______________________
Krakow, Poland:
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has made statements comparing Darfur to Rwanda. Considering how little the U.N. was willing to do to help Rwanda -- and particularly in light of the fact that Mr. Annan was responsible for peacekeeping missions at the time -- do you think these statements indicate that the U.N. is prepared to actively intervene in Darfur? If so, what form do you think that intervention will take?
Thanks!
Jerry Fowler: My concern with SG Annan is that he made these statements on April 7 (the anniversary of the beginning of the Rwanda genocide), then has said almost nothing, and certainly nothing as strong as what he said on April 7. I think that sends the wrong message to Khartoum.
But the "UN" is not just him. It is also the member nations and particularly those who are on the Security Council. The Security Council has been reluctant to do anything. It has received two quite alarming briefings from UN officials like the head of humanitarian affairs and from nongovernmental organizations like Doctors Without Borders. After the second one it issued a statement expressing "grave concern" but not even identifying who is responsible for the massive human rights abuses. It needs to act more formally and mandate unfettered humanitarian access and lay the groundwork for letting the displaced return to their homes in safety.
_______________________
Virginia:
Is travel banned by the State Department? How did you go there?
Jerry Fowler: Just to clarify, I went to Chad, where I met with refugees who'd fled from Darfur. I did not cross over into Sudan. There is not a State Department ban, but a problem would be getting a visa from the Sudanese government.
_______________________
Dortmund, Germany:
Why does the U.S. press (Both The Post and the New York Times, at least) consistently claim that there was barely any pressure on Sudan and Darfur was widely ignored? German MPs have tried to get access to the region weeks and weeks ago, the EU has been discussing the notion of an intervention force with the U.N., but has deferred the issue for the time being to the African Union, which recently established its peace and security procedures and has by now already sent military observers to Darfur. With the EU ready to pay for an all-out AU intervention in the area, it can hardly be claimed the area is ignored. Rather, it can turn out to be the first stepping stone in Africa taking care of its problems itself.
Jerry Fowler: Speaking for myself (and not the U.S. press : ) ), I think there is a strong case for criticising the response of the EU and European governments, as opposed to members of parliament who may have been very active. One indication is, as you say, "deferring the issue for the time being" to the African Union. This crisis, this threat of genocide, where hundreds of thousands may die in the coming months, cannot wait for business as usual.
The AU monitors that you mention, when fully deployed (and nobody knows when that will be), will be 60 to 90 people in an area the size of France. Even assuming that they will be sufficient to create a secure environment (a heroic assumption to say the least), they do nothing to solve the problem of access.
_______________________
New York:
The United States should stay out of this. There is no threat to the U.S., and I think we've all had enough of the U.S. imposing its imperialist vision of the world on everyone. If the U.N. wants to do something, that's fine. But Americans like you need to stop thinking that the rest of the world should abide by your rules. Let the Sudanese come to their own solution.
Jerry Fowler: By way of clarification, the "rules" I've invoked are first and foremost in the UN Genocide Convention, a treaty ratified by some 130 countries from around the world. And the vision I have in my mind is of the young woman I talkd to in Chad who saw her father killed, and her brother killed, and her cousin killed, and whose mother disappeared.
_______________________
Atlanta, Ga.:
Is not part of the problem in press coverage that the faces suffering aren't white? The coverage of various problems in Africa, Haiti and other places seem to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. England and the Continent, on the other hand, and there problems are well known and stay in the press. Is this a fair assessment?
Jerry Fowler: I would not downplay this aspect of it. I think it undeniably is a factor. I would point out, however, that there was also a slowness to respond in Bosnia in the early 90s, where race was not a factor. There, the violence was dismissed as "ancient tribal hatreds."
On closer examination, whether in Africa or elsewhere, mass violence is usually the product of specific choices that are made by specific leaders who think that violence will achieve their goals. It is those choices that ultimately we need to influecne and change.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
I notice that you work for the Holocaust Museum. Does your involvement in the Sudan issue mean that the Museum is looking to also serve in the capacity of genocide prevention?
Jerry Fowler: The Holocaust Museum does seek to promote genocide prevention. Elie Wiesel and the President's Commission on the Holocaust, when they first recommended creation of a national memorial, said that "a memorial unresponsive to the future would violate the memory of the past." More information is available at www.committeeonconscience.org.
_______________________
Jerry Fowler: I think we're at the end of our time. Thanks to Washingtonpost.com for devoting time to this issue and thanks to everyone for participating. JF
_______________________
