The Janjaweed are the armed gunmen posted in Darfur, western Sudan and eastern Chad. The genocide began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in Darfur rebelled and, accused the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese to the benefit of Sudanese Arabs. The genocide in Darfur began unnoticed by many at this time. People were not hearing about this is the news of as a huge global problem yet. Just recently over about the past two years, more and more people have become aware of this problem because it has progressed so much. The victims are primarily the non-Arab or African tribal groups in Darfur. Some of these groups are the Massaleit, the Fur, the Zanghawa, the Tunjur, the Dajo, and the Birgid and other small groups. These people who are being politically and economically limited is only the beginning. Mass numbers of women are being raped everyday and having their babies cut out of them for varies reasons. People are being starved to death and dying of diseases. In recent years, theses people have been attacked by Arab militia and their government has done nothing to stop this. The conflict between Arab and African tribes is immense and continuing to grow.
The government responded to the attacks by mobilizing "self-defense militias" following rebel attacks. Their government is saying that they have had no contact with the Janjaweed and that the president of Darfur, President Omar al-Bashir stated that the Janjaweed are, "thieves and gangsters.” The people who are suffering from the genocide deem that he is just saying this to cover up what he is really doing. They think this because for example, after the government raided a village, the Janjaweed marched right into it and continued to kill people. The people who are witnessing all the killings, stealing’s, murders, raping’s, and abuses, would most likely know best, but of course they do not get to speak their voices because of the situation they are in.
The Janjaweed forced the Darfuris out of their homes. They were commanded to flee to refugee camps near the main towns in the country. These people had to walk there and some were a lot of miles away. Children were forced to do this, some even without their families because they have been killed or are missing. The Janjaweed control these camps and kill or sexually abuse anyone who tries to escape to look for more food are firewood.
The head of the Janjaweed tribe is Musa Hilal according to US researchers. The Sudanese government gets the weapons for the Janjaweed, but they deny it. They use these weapons that they receive to invade these peoples homes and properties. There are many other men who have different duties within the tribe itself. Some examples of these men are; Hussein Tangos, who is the Janjaweed major and Hussein Abdalla Jibril who is the major general and a member of the National Assembly. Hilal proclaims that the Janjaweed are not a racist tribe because some of their villages are mixed between Arabs and Africans. The United Nations have accused the Sudanese government of backing the Janjaweed to help commit the war crimes. The thought of this is found where the weapons are coming from, which is China and other places. China still denies having any part in the conflict as well as the Sudanese government. At the beginning of the conflict the Janjaweed were offering rewards to anyone who took up arms against the rebels. At this point, everyone joined and then soon realized that they would not be receiving any award. Men have received weapons that were from the Sudanese and no one is listening to them so they can prove their point that they are being given weapons by the government and other countries that are secretly helping them fight. Some men have talked about times where government officially have personally come to their homes and handed them weapons that they received from other member of their government to start fighting. This is one of the main reasons why the conflict is very complex and hard for people to understand, so they can take action.
Now today in Darfur, a ton of human rights and advocacy groups are aware of the situation going on in Darfur and have taken action. They have meetings about Darfur at the UN and there are peacekeepers that have been sent there to try to help. Now since the conflict has been going on for a while, more and more people have been becoming aware of the genocide. The US is getting involved by sending clothing and other products that are desperately needed. They are now holding up their promise that this mistake was made once in Rwanda and it will not happen again in Darfur more so than it already has. Even if the people cannot physically get into the refugee camps to deliver the supplies to the Darfuri’s, they have planes that will lower them down to them. These people are desperate for anything because they are living on nothing and in control of an abusive government.
To date in Darfur, the United Nations says that over 300,000 people have died from some aspect of the genocide and war crimes. It is also said that President Bashir has contributed to the death toll of 10,000 innocent Darfuri’s. Despite that these numbers are about the accurate amount of deaths, the Sudanese government is stating that the situation is being over exaggerated. Everyone also thinks that the man person to blame for this is President Bashir. He has lost all respect for his people and they want him out of power for supporting the Janjaweed by supplying them with weapons to kill them. There are genocide charges being put up against him, but prosecutors had to deny it, so he is still in power. If this man can be taken out of power, the Darfuri’s will believe that there is still that bit of faith in the end.
Bibliography
-http://www.sudantribune.com/Genocide-in-Darfur-How-the-Horror,11445
-http://www.thenation.com/article/genocide-darfur
-http://www.slate.com/id/2104210/
-http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_are_the_janjaweed
-http:http://www.google.com/search?- hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=janjaweed&cp=4&qe=amFuag&qesig=vze5x3MghRoM7-zDWr7pZA&pkc=AFgZ2tl5fAniIE5ZBTLLBgBCxMvfND75Kywvsz0A8rXGo4_4wl3UUzx-sCvXzcxR_0SbIg7abGvsHU9GPkJ_8NfOFLI3mY0hnw&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1422&bih=665/www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/08/sudan-deteriorating-situation-darfur
-http://www.darfuraustralia.org/darfur/basics
-http://www.keene.edu/cchs/darfur/Introduction/QA_Darfur.pdf
