Darfur was never the simplistic morality tale purveyed by the news media and humanitarian organizations. The region's blacks, painted as long-suffering victims, actually were the oppressors less than two decades ago — denying Arab nomads access to grazing areas essential to their survival. Violence was initiated not by Arab militias but by the black rebels who in 2003 attacked police and military installations.
I have seen this idea repeated in several places and so I just wanted to try and set the record straight.
According to both 'Darfur: A Short History of a Long War' by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, and 'Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide' by Gerard Prunier, low-level insurgency - much of it stoked by the southern SPLA/M - and Janjaweed attacks have plagued Darfur for years, if not decades. But more importantly, the emergence of the JEM and the SLA were, at least in part, a response to government repression and ongoing Janjaweed attacks. "
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment