As i just said, lots and lots of African leaders have done stuff like this. For example, how’s al-Bashir that much worse than, say, Daniel Arap Moi or Kamuzu Banda or Moammar Khadafy or Jerry Rawlings?

Darfur isn’t unique in mass slaughter either, take Amin with Uganda’s Christians and Asians, or the Hutu/Tutsi slaughters in Rwanda.

al-Bashir isn’t “the most vicious African dictator” either. Amin killed more people in a week than al-Bashir has in 20 years

And, of course, most African leaders are still reluctant to intervene in a “sovereign” state, especially when their own hands are none too clean.

We’re numbed, most of us, to horror from Africa; we only tend to get upset
about it any more when it’s particularly dreadful (Rwanda, Sierra Leone) or
when there’s something that makes it seem closer to us (white faces on the victims, such as in Zimbabwe).

I do, however, believe that we have to combat war crimes, human rights violations and genocide. And I do believe that all of the above is happening in Darfur. I think that there are reasonable arguments on all sides about how that can best be accomplished, but I certainly do believe that something has to be done, and that “solving the problems at home” isn’t going to help the millions of displaced people or stop the 300,000 high death toll from climbing any higher.

I am suprised a feminist blog would make the mistake of supporting an interventionist, neo-imperialist movement in Darfur. A commentor above said “Seems like wherever there is no oil, we don’t care if people die.” Sudan, and particularly Darfur, is floating on a giant lake of oil. China and the U.S. both have pipeline projects in the region already. The reason Darfur is in turmoil in the first place is because it’s so rich in resources – resources that are easy for “First World” nations to access when the government and people of the region are weakened by a conflict that leaves them struggling to meet basic survival needs.

And for everyone’s information, the U.N. has refrained from calling Darfur a genocide for a reason: it’s not one. The American media often touts the situation in Darfur as evil “Arabs” killing innocent “Africans” (anti-Arab rhetoric, anyone?), yet there is no discernable difference between these “two groups.” There is a conflict between Northern Darfurians and Southern Darfurians that was created and politically exacerbated by Egyptian and then British colonial rule in the region. Check out the history, it speaks for itself.

Africa’s history of war-entrenchment, poverty, disease, etc. is not a mistake. It is all a direct result of colonialism, the slave trade, and imperial relations with first world governments and their organizations ranging from the World Bank to the United Nations.

Intervening in Darfur and freezing it’s funds does nothing to end the genocide, it merely exacerbates it and increases the incompetency of the government there.

I am not condoning the deaths of innocent people. However it must be noted and acknowledged that these deaths and the corruption of Darfur’s government are the result of the PATRIARCHAL IMPERIALISM of centuries. Continuing intervention in Darfur, in all of Africa, exacerbates this legacy. Our most important work to combat this lies at home. We must work to end imperialism, end resource battles, and end the patriarchy of our own government. Fixing the ills in our government and policies will go a long way to end the current and future turmoil in not only Darfur, but all of the regions of the world struggling and wounded after the era of colonialism.

Fyi, the ENOUGH Project, Save Darfur Coalition, and the Genocide Intervention Network recently released an open letter to President-elect Obama, outlining in very concrete terms what the next executive administration needs to do to bring peace to all of Sudan. Among other things, the time is now to impose targeted multilateral sanctions against Sudan’s genocidaires. Let’s completely freeze their bank assets (among other measures) and make the murderers think twice about continuing their violence.

Highly recommend this analysis. Download it here (PDF link):
http://enoughproject.org/files/reports/sudanpeacesurge_0.pdf

Best, N