Rwandan Genocide in Darfur and International Community Theorizes

By Izzadine Abdul Rasoul

September 5, 2010 — On Friday 3rd September 2010, seventy four people were killed and ninety seven others wounded when militiamen loyal to the Sudanese government opened fire on on a crowd in Tebera, a village in the northern part of Jebel Marra. 18 schoolchildren were among the 74 civilians killed during the attack.

This incident is deadliest of its kind since 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
As was expected, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) denied the attack. According to Reuters, SAF’s Military Spokesperson, Al-Sawarmi Khalid said troops belonging to the army were attacked by a group of bandits. He explained that they repelled the attackers, killing 27, but did not elaborate. He further denied any attacks against the village.

How can innocent civilians in a market place and students be described as bandits? This reminds me of the incident that occurred in 1997, when a school full of students in the Nuba Mountains were hit by Sudan Governments’ Russian made Antinov jets. Approximately fifty people were killed and several hundred injured in the attack, including both teachers and students. The statement from SAF on these events claimed that the school was a hide out for SPLM/A rebels. It’s worth to mention that the time, the people of the Nuba Mountains were confronted by the dilemma of either attending Islamic conversion programs or being threatened with death and the destruction of their villages. Meanwhile, people of African origins in Darfur are given one option: leave this land or we will eliminate you from its surface.

It’s regrettable to read in the news published yesterday that African Union – United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) forces in Tawilla, about 15 miles away from Tebra, where the mass killing happened, were not able to intervene because they were waiting for orders from Gambari’s office in Al Fashir, which had to seek permission from the Sudanese authorities. I am wondering, if UNMAID is in Darfur taking orders from the genocidal regime in Khartoum, then who are they? They must be complicit with them.

United Nations Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon said in his latest report to the Security Council on 15 April, covering the period between February and April, that the personnel strength of the UNAMID military component stood at 17,157, representing 87% of the authorized maximum of 19,555. The military component is made up of 16,558 troops, 333 staff officers, 61 liaison officers and 205 military observers. The total number of personnel in the Formed Police Units (FPUs) stands at 1,812, or 68% of the authorized strength of 2,660.
“I am encouraged by the progress that UNAMID has made towards full deployment in Darfur” he concluded.

Mr. General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon; what is the use of this 87% of the authorized maximum of 19,555, if they are impotent – unable to accomplish their duty of protecting the civilians, or even making it there to count the dead and the injured. Also your spokesman for UNAMID, Chris Cycmanick, said that they don’t know who was responsible for attack, and he added that there was fighting between two groups.

Inner City Press released a report that said the Darfur incident in question recalls the rapping atrocity in DRC earlier this month, where twenty miles separated the UN peacekeepers in from the villages where 240 rapes took place. Now, 15 miles separate the UN peacekeepers from the site of 58 killings in Darfur, but a response was delayed.

I think the UN, with its bureaucratic manners, is fooling the global tax payers in the name of humanitarianism. Perhaps my grandfather was right when he told me that politics is synonymous with cheating and hypocrisy, comparing it with the situations in Sudan and other conflicted areas.

With regards to the current situation in Darfur, it’s the UN who should be be blamed for allowing itself to be dragged into the plans of the genocidal regime in Khartoum. The latest of the plans the UN has been dragged into is the dismantling of IDP and refugee camps. Although all the killings that happen today in Darfur, this was a notable display from the regime. The killing of innocent Darfuris is he last choice left for the Islamist regime in Khartoum while they are concentrating on the upcoming referendum of South Sudan which leads the entire country down to road of fragmentation.

The killings in Kalma and Himidiya IDP camps, and the recent killing of 74 innocent civilians including school children and the expulsion of NGO personnel was the latest plan of genocidal regime, declaring to the international community that it is free to do as it likes.

Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Representative and current chair of the UNSC spoke of the need for disarmament in the Kalma IDP camp in his statement last week. How would this impact upon the barbaric killings of innocent civilians in the market place and schools in Tebera? Also, yesterday the Sudan policeforce raided the Hamidia and Khamsa Dagaig IDP camps where six people were killed and dozens injured.

I would like to remind the UN and other international bodies that, these poor people of Darfur who are impotent to protect themselves from the cruel regime, will one day think of committing a retaliatory genocide However, I anticipate that the UN will repeat the same mistakes made in Rwanda.

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