Brutality continues for people of Jebel Marra, Darfur
* Article
* Comments (0)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
By Anne Bartlett
June 3, 2011 — Today, Darfur is old news. Complex, seemingly
irresolvable problems, fractured armed movements and the failure of
the uprising against the government have silenced the outcry over what
is happening in the region. Even today, the arrest of Ratko Mladi?,
the architect of the Srebrenica massacre seems to generate little
reflection about what power can do to innocent people, when in the
hands of an amoral maniac. In Jebel Marra people do not need to be
told. They know. They know today and have known for the last ten years
what it means to be on the receiving end of an amoral government and
the self-interested behavior of the international community.
This of course begs a question: What is happening in Darfur? The
answer is that for many people in Darfur, they are in a much worse
situation today than at the height of crisis in 2004. Today, however
there is no hue and cry. Today, few seem to care. Why? As a start, a
blind eye has been turned to the behavior of the Government of Sudan
in the Jebel Marra, since this fits with the current agenda of the
international community. In the ensuing media blackout, a bombing
campaign that was started in January 2010 continues daily in eastern
Jebel Marra with endless carnage. At this point however, bombs are not
the only concern. Saddiya, as we will call her, died recently in Nyala
hospital from the toxic outflow from the bombs. Equally deadly, yet
much more difficult to see, she was rendered more and more weak over
time from the toxic cocktail that she was exposed to. Brought down the
mountain to an under-resourced hospital in Nyala, it simply wasn’t
possible to diagnose what was ailing her. She therefore died a long
and painful death, aged 36. Her four children lost their mother to
this silent killer; they had already lost their father a few years ago
at the hands of the Janjawiid.
In the Jebel Marra, her mother, struggles on. She is now close to
close to 70. She was bombed out of her village in the mountains last
year and forced to run for her life. Her cows, which she had tended
over many years either perished, or those that were left had to be
sold. The money she got for them allowed her to buy some dried
tomatoes which she tried to sell in the market in Nyala. Before she
could get there she was robbed by the bandits that have been brought
in from West Africa to occupy the land that once belonged to her and
her family. Today, after farming all her life and bringing up ten
children, this old lady does not have enough food. For her, life is
its own form of torture. Today, life is almost too much to bear.
Her son also knows about torture. He experiences it every day.
Arrested a month ago in Nyala University compound for complaining
about what was happening to his family, he now spends his days in
Nyala’s NISS headquarters. His life is a living nightmare. Allowed to
visit the bathroom only once every 24 hours, he is beaten if he is
forced to urinate outside of this time. Starved of sufficient food,
denied the ability to wash – even to wash himself in order to say his
prayers – he is guarded by people who call themselves Muslim. Musa
Kasha, the Governor of South Darfur sits on his hands, pretending that
he has no control over what these people have been subjected to, when
he himself is deeply responsible. In the vastly overcrowded prison,
unshaven men sit talking to themselves in 50 degree heat. Many of them
are losing their minds. Mental breakdowns are the norm for the people
of Jebel Marra since there is no reason to hope.
This is but a snap-shot of one family from Jebel Marra, Darfur. What
did they do to deserve this living hell? They were born in Darfur.
They were born in a time when people talk about genocide, but do
little else. They had the misfortune to be forcibly assimilated to a
nation, Sudan, that neither cares about their rights nor what happens
to them.
The question today, is what we are all prepared to do to help these
people? Are we prepared to allow Darfur to be wiped clean of its
people; to have them herded into camps like cattle; to have their
aggressors now police them while living off their land? Is Britain
prepared to ignore its historical responsibility for creating this
situation in the first place? Is the international community prepared
to accept its responsibility for standing by and doing next to
nothing? These questions and their answers require more than soul
searching from all of us. On this day when a genocidaire from the
Balkans is finally held to account, the question is what are we all
going to do to bring the Sudanese government to account and to end the
agony of the people of Darfur?
Anne Bartlett is a Professor of Sociology and International Studies at
the University of San Francisco. She may be reached at
[email protected]
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
