December 10th: Merry Human Rights Day

On 10 December 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inadvertently marking the date as Human Rights Day for future generations. This was a moment in time which represented "the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want", three years since the atomic bomb slaughtered and saved thousands, since human beings had celebrated the end of what was to have been the last 'great' war, since what has become the world's most recognized genocide was ended. Article 1 of the Declaration states, point blank, that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", without conditions or pretenses. Article 19 declares that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression": everyone, no acceptions. And Article 28 says that "Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized": everyone, yet again. Everyone.

Yet every day we forget. We forget, don't we, that 'everyone' is not limited to the people we know personally, to the people in our neighborhoods, to our city, or even to our country and hemisphere. Appropriately, NASA's space shuttle Discovery launched earlier this night, sending seven human beings into the majesty of space, to further the operation of a beatiful craft dubbed the International Space Station. Humanity is an amazing thing: the resiliency of our species, the creativity, the passion, the potential for such wonderful empathy and such terrifying lack...

There should be no need to declare a 'Human Rigts Day'. Much like that day that seems merely to fill a holiday-void in mid-February (let's face it - we'd all be a lot happier if we treated every day like Love Day), declaring a day in honor of human rights should be extremely redundant.

December 10th. Human Rights Day. Live it every day.

Sudan Wins Prize for Highest HIV Infection Rate in North Africa and the Middle East

The UN has recently reported that Sudan is now the leader in HIV infections in any North African or Middle Eastern country. The western region of Darfur is particularly susceptible, not only because of the massive rape campaigns being carried out by the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias, but also because of commercial sex and no protection. Not only is the number of people with HIV in Sudan growing at a disturbing pace, but there is hardly any medical treatment for cholera or superficial bullet wounds, let alone for the highly regimented routine that is required when taking HIV medications. Further, the 21 year long civil war between the North and South of Sudan cut off the southern regions from access to HIV/AIDS treatment on any level for years. Now that the civil war is flaring up again, the situation is only becoming worse. (http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56655&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN)

Central African Republic Dying With Darfur

The World Food Program has declared that the terror that exists in Darfur is no longer confined to Darfur and Chad: it has long been felt in the northwestern region of the Central African Republic, which borders with south eastern Darfur. Over 150,000 people living in that region of the small and troubled nation live from day to day off of whatever wild food they may have the fortune of coming across. Although 50,000 people have been forced across the border to Chad from CAR in the last four years (as a direct result of the Darfur conflict), the WFP says it's more concerned with those left behind, fending for themselves in a region that is normally the 'breadbasket' of the country. The violence of mass starvation from the Darfur genocide has now spilled into Chad and the Central African Republic, and the world remains silent. (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20844&Cr=car&Cr1=)

Chad and Darfur: Cannot Mention One Without the Other

A few short months ago, the relatively safe place to be in order to gather documentation and witness reports from the genocide in Darfur was the border with Chad. Permission to enter Darfur is extremely difficult to obtain from the Sudanese government, so Chad was the place for journalists to be. Darfuri refugees camps in Chad were easy to come across, and relatively safe from physical attack.

Today, 150 kilometers away from its border with Darfur, Chad is as unstable as Darfur itself. The genocide has broken its way through to another country, and the Janjaweed have followed their Sudanese victims into Chad, now attacking Chadian "blacks" as well. The following is an excerpt from a recent Amnesty International report on the situation, to be found at http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAFR200132006 :

"'Five men who tried to run away were captured by the Janjawid.(...) They tied ropes around their necks and then to their horses and then rode their horses back and forth dragging their bodies for about five to ten minutes. Blood was pouring out of their mouths and noses. They even whipped them on their heads and bodies with their reins, until they were completely covered in blood.'"
Testimony of Abdelrahman Sinoussi, describing the killing of five villagers from Koloye."

What is required is swift and decisive international action in the form of deploying a UN peacekeeping force into the affected region, without the permission of the Sudanese government. Peacekeepers must be sent to Chad, as well, and Sudanese President al-Bashir can say nothing about that. Certainly, there must be a peace established to be kept by these peacekeepers, and al-Bashir has made it clear with his repeated and vehement proclamations against the UN that he is not to be negotiated with. He and his cohorts must be arrested and taken to the International Criminal Court, where Louis Moreno-Ocampo (chief prosecutor at the ICC) is almost ready to state his case against the war criminals in Sudan.

The one problem with Moreno-Ocampo's case is that the charges (though they have not been formally made) do not include the crime of genocide. What is occurring in Darfur and Chad is as much a genocide as what occurred in Europe during World War Two and has since occurred in Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq, and Rwanda, and it must be treated as such by the the International Criminal Court and by the world at large.

Cholera Outbreak Imminent in South Sudan

9 January 2005 marked the paper-work ending of a 21 year old civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan that stole over 2 million lives. Almost two years later, the UN fears that cholera will soon break out in Southern Sudan, due to water contamination in the Nile River. The contamination is coming from human corpses, floating in the river after the people were killed in fighting in Malakal, South Sudan. The fighting, which killed over 150 people and wounded hundreds more, according to UN estimates, broke out between Khartoum and SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) rebel forces last week. The SPLA accused Khartoum's Sudan Armed Forces of an attempt on the life of an SPLA commander, which led to retaliatory fighting that left over two dozens civilians among the dead.

The fighting did not occur in Darfur, but the intense and intricate conflicts between the North and South of Sudan have ripple effects throughout the whole country, and this is far from the last story that will emerge from Sudan about the deteriorating situation in the South.

You Want the UN's Support, Mr. Bashir? You've Got It.

Less than 9,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict during the last three years, according to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. To quell the little violence that does occur, President Bashir has proposed before the television screens of eight different nations that the UN provide the funding for a completely ineffective African Union force, which has no mandate or means with which to save any lives in the region. (The fact that its limited mission in Darfur has been extended to 31 June 2007 is almost inconsequential, as the troops have not been given stronger mandates or any significant means with which to achieve any real purpose.)

In response to Bashir's two and a half hour press release in which he made the above claims, Sudan's Popular Congress Party's Bashir Adam Rahman said that "When [al-Bashir] denies the sun in the middle of the day that means either he is not serious or he thinks people are fools" (Reuters).

Mr. Rahman's point is well taken, as over 300,000 people have perished in the almost four year old genocide. Over 10,000 people are being killed each month, according the the World Health Organization, let alone in the last three and a half years. This monthly human toll is bound to be on the rise, as the violence continues to engulf neighboring Chad.

The recently formed UN Human Rights Council has subtly declared that President Bashir has the support he has requested. On November 28th, the Council rejected a European Union proposal "to highlight what they said was the special responsibilty of the Sudan government to rein in rights violations and bring those involved to justice" (Reuters). (The rejection was made by a vote of 22-20, with 4 members abstaining.)An African proposal made to "call for an end to violations in Darfur but without criticizing Khartoum" passed, however, indicating the UN's apparent willingness to condemn war crimes, systematic rape, and starvation used as a weapon of war without following up their condemnations with life-saving action. Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN has been very outspoken about halting the slaughters, and his efforts are to be commended. The absent action of his organization at large, however, is a disgrace to humanity. Not only is this a humanitarian issue to be immediately dealt with, but Chapter VII of the UN's own Charter mandates that war crimes be halted using "action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security" (Article 42). For those who refuse to see the serious implications for international security that the refugee problems in Darfur and Chad will soon become, see my earlier posting, Proof of Genocide and the Future of Terrorism. Chad has now become fully immersed in the genocide, providing both additional victims and perpetrators for the Sudanese government.