An Up-close view of brutality in Darfur
By Eric Reeves, Christian Science Monitor,
May 12, 2008 — The brutality of the Khartoum regime’s
military actions in the Darfur region of western Sudan continually
forces a question that seems to have no morally intelligible answer: Is
there no act of civilian destruction so cruel, so savage, that the
international community will finally respond vigorously and
unambiguously?
On May 4, at about 4 p.m., a school was bombed in the village of Shegeg
Karo in North Darfur; one classroom was destroyed, killing six students
and injuring others. The village marketplace was also bombed, killing
several people and destroying most of the shops in this vestige of a
shattered agricultural economy.
The plane that dropped the bombs was an Antonov. It’s not a bomber by
design, but a retrofitted Russian cargo plane from which crude,
shrapnel-loaded barrel bombs are simply rolled out the back cargo bay.
There is no bombing guidance system, so Antonovs are useless as true
military weapons. But they are exquisitely suited for their real purpose
in Darfur: civilian terror.
Khartoum refuses to acknowledge or accept responsibility for the
attacks, even as it refused to allow UN personnel to evacuate badly
wounded children. But only Khartoum flies military aircraft in Darfur,
so there can be very little doubt that the attacks were authorized by
the military command of the National Islamic Front. As Human Rights
Watch has conclusively demonstrated, Khartoum’s chain of command –
both military and civilian – is powerfully hierarchical. This was not
the action of a rogue commander, but almost certainly an act of
deliberate civilian destruction countenanced by senior officials.
Highly reliable sources report that the Antonov hovered over Shegeg
Karo for a while before finally dropping its bomb load. There could have
been no mistaking the civilian nature of the target.
This is hardly surprising. We have countless reports of similar bombing
attacks in Darfur as well as during Sudan’s earlier north/south
conflict. Indeed, in southern Sudan, Khartoum repeatedly and
deliberately attacked the sites of humanitarian operations.
This bombing attack, on a conspicuously civilian target, violates not
only international law but a ban on all military flights in Darfur,
nominally imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1591 in March 2005.
Khartoum has shown nothing but contempt for both, and the international
community has watched with nothing but idle words and unctuous
hand-wringing – a fact not lost on the regime’s génocidaires as they
calculate the costs of their continuing campaign of civilian
destruction.
Who are the victims of this international cowardice? Who suffers when
the world refuses to demand justice of those who would deliberately kill
children? Let’s at least grant the dignity of names to the victims of
this most recent barbarism:
? Fatima Suleiman Adam Omar, 3rd grade, 10 years old
? Fatima Ahmad Bashir, 2nd grade, 8 years old
? Mubarak Mohammed Ahmad, 3rd grade, 10 years old
? Yusuf Adam Hamid, kindergarten, 5 years old
? Munira Suleiman Adam, 2nd grade, 7 years old
? Adam Ahmad Yusuf, 4th grade, 11 years old
How would Americans respond if terrorists acting on behalf of another
country deliberately killed, with complete military impunity, six young
children in one of our nation’s schools? Outrage would bring the country
to a halt. It would change the very nature of the presidential campaign.
News coverage would be unending. Washington’s response against the
offending nation would be swift and destructive.
And yet in Darfur, an act all too analogous barely registers here.
Darfur’s victims are people whose lives have long since endured a
ghastly moral discounting. These are not “our children,” these are not
“our problems,” this is not “our responsibility.”
The whole world should respond vigorously to a nation that barbarously
bombs kindergartners such as Yusuf Adam Hamid. Instead, we lamely bow in
deference to Sudan’s “national sovereignty.” Do we have the courage to
accept the stark implications of our refusal to hold accountable those
responsible for his death? The answer is painfully, disgracefully
obvious.
Eric Reeves, a professor of English language and literature at Smith
College, is the author of “A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the
Darfur Genocide”