From the Salmon

It’s September 9, which means that it has been one year.

One year ago today, President Bush made this statement:

President’s Statement on Violence in Darfur, Sudan

September 9, 2004

The United States is appalled by the violence in Darfur, Sudan. Our government has led the international effort to end the suffering there by speaking clearly about the crisis and sending assistance to the suffering. We have provided more than $211 million in aid and humanitarian relief, and we will provide an additional $250 million. To end the conflict, we helped broker a cease-fire and worked closely with the African Union to deploy monitors and soldiers to investigate violations.

I sent Secretary of State Powell to Darfur and Khartoum to demand that the Sudanese Government act to end the violence. We sponsored a strong Security Council Resolution, which passed on July 30. This resolution called on the Government to disarm the Jinjaweed militias which have terrorized the people of Darfur, and bring their leaders to justice. Secretary Powell later sent a team of investigators into the refugee camps to interview the victims of atrocities. As a result of these investigations and other information, we have concluded that genocide has taken place in Darfur. We urge the international community to work with us to prevent and suppress acts of genocide. We call on the United Nations to undertake a full investigation of the genocide and other crimes in Darfur.

The Government of Sudan has not complied with UN Security Council resolutions, and has not respected the cease-fire which it signed. The rebels are also guilty of cease-fire violations and failing to carry out past commitments. It is clear that only outside action can stop the killing. My government is seeking a new Security Council Resolution to authorize an expanded African Union security force to prevent further bloodshed. We will also seek to ban flights by Sudanese military aircraft in Darfur.

The world cannot ignore the suffering of more than one million people. The U.S. will continue to help relieve suffering, as we demand that the Jinjaweed disarm, and that the Government, Jinjaweed, and Darfur rebels end the violence. (Emphasis mine.)

One year later, has much changed?

Well, certainly some things have. In that year, the international community was able to broker a peace agreement ending the decades-long civil war between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in the south. The African Union has sent a few thousand troops to serve as peacekeepers and protectors for the two to three million Sudanese who have been displaced by marauding genocidal militias. And the United States and others have provided logistical support for those AU troops.

But has the genocide stopped?

No.

The character of the genocide has changed, to be sure. The violence from the Janjaweed, while still ongoing and still a threat, is less than it was a year ago. As the New York Times reported in July, much of that may be attributable to the sickening fact that the militias are running out of victims. Instead of a violent genocide, we are now starting to see a genocide by attrition. Even with the AU troops, it is not safe for Darfurians to return to what little may be left of their homes and their farms. They are wholly reliant on international humanitarian aid. And while aid workers are performing truly heroic roles in keeping many people alive, the death toll continues to rise.

One year ago, our president called the situation in Darfur by its proper name: genocide. And it must be said that by doing so, he took a markedly progressive stance in relationship to the rest of the world. For all of the criticism that the Bush administration gets for its policies in Africa (much of it deserved), they took a stand.

But one year later, I think we have to ask: was that enough?

Have we done enough to prevent that which we were bold enough to name?

In some ways, we’ve already answered that question. The genocide continues. As Eric Reeves writes this week, the African Union troops are simply not enough to guarantee security. Without security, lives and livelihoods cannot be rebuilt. Reeves and others believe that nothing short of NATO involvement will be enough. And as much as I am able to understand the forces at play, I have to agree.

A little while ago, I finally joined the Coalition for Darfur, a group of bloggers who have joined together to write regularly about Sudan and genocide. We’re encouraged to write weekly, but I haven’t quite been able to keep up my end of that. So from time to time, I might repost a post or two from the Coalition site.

This week at the Coalition site, Eugene Oregon takes a look at media coverage of Darfur and discovers something particularly distressing about the past year. A survey of major newspapers for articles that contained at least two mentions of “Darfur” reveals that since August of last year, there has been an eightfold decrease in coverage.

As the media goes silent, we forget. As we forget, the killing continues.

Yesterday in the Post Gazette, Romeo Dallaire, the head of UN peacekeeping troops during the Rwanda genocide ten years ago had this to say about the relationship between the media and the killing in Rwanda:

It was like there was some cabal between governments and the media and CNN. It could have had a massive impact. Editors decided to keep it at a low profile and not bring it to the attention of the international community.

The western press’s coverage contributed to the genocide itself.

Obviously, attention in the US is focused inward at our own tragedy on the gulf coast. And by all means, we should continue to help those who need it and ask tough questions about whether our initial response to Katrina was all it should have been. But we shouldn’t forget Darfur.

Genocide isn’t something that we should put on the back burner.

When we forget, we contribute.

For one thing, a lackluster response to genocide only emboldens other tyrants. Just look south to Zimbabwe to see that this is true. Passion of the Present points to an article in New Zimbabwe by Kevin Engle, an independent researcher, and Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch. Engle and Stanton write:

Make no mistake, what we are currently witnessing in Zimbabwe — even now, Operation Murambatsvina continues to unfold — constitutes nothing less than the first stages of a centrally organized program of mass murder on a scale of the genocides of Rwanda and Darfur.

[...]

What remains is for the world’s governments to decide whether they want to look back on this time in pride at having acted to avert another humanitarian disaster, a “tsunami,” as its victims have named it, a program of mass murder, to call it what it is, or in shame, at their collective complicity in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The dying has already begun in Zimbabwe. Will the “Never again,” invoked piously after Rwanda, again translate into “again and again”?

I’ve encouraged you before and I will continue to encourage you to learn more about what is going on in Sudan and Zimbabwe. Check out the resources I’ve posted on my sidebar. Visit the Spotlight on Darfur 1. Do some research and find an organization that you might want to support. Talk to your friends and family. Join the Coalition for Darfur. And put pressure on the media.

One year ago today, President Bush declared the killing in Sudan to be genocide. SaveDarfur.org suggests that we commemorate this anniversary by calling the White House at (202) 456-1111 and requesting that our government takes further action to protect the civilians of Darfur.

It’s a small thing. But I think this is important.

Some anniversaries we shouldn’t forget.