No doubt you've heard it countless times before. The world has gotten smaller. We speak in terms of the globe. News of the world reaches the world as it happens. All of this is true, of course, unless no one cares.
In the western Darfur region of Sudan, a wasteland of sand and shrubs marking the southeastern corner of the Sahara, some of the most vicious ethnic cleansing of modern times is being carried out by Sudan's Arab rulers against its African people.
Approximately 700,000 black Sudanese have fled their homes since this latest outbreak of hostilities, yet another low point in a 20-year civil war the government has been fighting against the rebellious black African south. In this latest episode, the government has armed the Janjaweed, teams of light-skinned Arab raiders who burn villages, rape women, pillage, kill and drive out villagers.
Of the 700,000 escapees, 600,000 are dispersed around Sudan, desperately poor and suffering from malnutrition. Humanitarian aid to the region has been blocked since November, preventing villagers' access to food and medicine.
The remaining refugees are slightly better off, having fled into neighboring Chad. Still, the Janjaweed make occasional raids across the border. The only source of water near the Chadian border is the riverbed that marks the boundary line between the two nations. The Janjaweed use this to their advantage, regularly shooting men who go there to gather water or sticks.
There is some question as to whether this is a genuine case of ethnic cleansing. Genocide on the scale of that in Rwanda in 1994 is not present. Though to date, approximately 3,000 unarmed civilians have been killed in raids. It is clear, however, that the Khartoum-based Sudanese government does not want any Africans left in Darfur.
The situation in Sudan hasn't gone wholly unchecked. In October of 2002 President George Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act, which threatens sanctions against the government of Sudan if they do not keep up peaceable negotiations with the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (the rebel group associated with southern, African Christians).
Sadly, it may have been merely an idle threat. Nothing has been done by any western government in response to the recent fighting. So it goes. Yet another horrific humanitarian crisis slips by, under the radar, somehow not a part of this great shrinking globe.
What troubles me is not just that this situation exists, but that it continues so utterly ignored by the rest of the world.
We were justifiably horrified when the bombs ripped through the Spanish capital's metro on March 11. Why is there no similar outcry for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Sudanese?
Western and African governments cannot sit by and let the atrocities continue without impediment.
The metro bombings were tragic, but by our continued indifference in regards to Africa, we are telling the world that right now Spanish, or even western death is more important and newsworthy than Sudanese death. And that is a tragedy.
Katie Kelberlau is a history and religious studies junior. Reach her at katie.kelberlau@asu.edu.
