Legal Research

This Time, We Have No Excuse

By pbingham

Genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan began in February of 2003.  Government and Arab Janjaweed militias have systematically engaged in mass killings, executions, the burning of towns and  villages, sexual violence.  To date over 300,000 members of African ethnic groups have been brutally killed and 1.8 million have been displaced, pushed to the edge of survival in settlement camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad.  Starvation and disease are rampant.

Human Rights Watch has said "The response of the international community to the events in Sudan has been nothing short of shameful." 

Web sites like darfurgenocide.org and savedarfur.org/home
ask for awareness and help, offering links to current news.

As Nicholas D. Kristof said in his New York Times editorial: "During past genocides...it was possible to claim that we didn't fully know what was going on.  This time, President Bush, Congress, and the European Parliament have already declared genocide to be under way.  And we have photos.  This time, we have no excuse." 

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on April 05, 2006 (boomark / email).