Jennefer Cardenas
Research Paper
Due Nov. 26, 2007
PS 203
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 was a horrific event that astonished the world; yet again we are encountering a similar situation with Darfur. What is the reasoning behind the genocide of the Darfurians. In order to fully understand the situation one must change perspectives to try to view the different angles to this crisis, in order for this to take place one must try to understand its background and history first.
More than three centuries ago Darfur use to be a strong independent monarchy. Darfur is home to many ethnic and Arabs immigrants. The Darfurians live a lifestyle of nomadic pastrolist and agriculture. Up until the territory of Darfur got intergraded with the Republic of Sudan, the power shifted to a different group of people. The same people still hold power up to this day. With the shift of power the way people lived shifted also. The government of Sudan failed to support its economic growth, its lifestyle of agriculture and educational resources. With the tension of scarce resources tensions began between Arab tribes and non-Arab tribes, arising small wars between states or civil wars. Some Darfurian groups were used by the government as proxy militias against southern enemies. These groups hired by the government have been known as the janjaweed.
The national government has had share of involvement in the war. The government has directly supported various attacks done by the janjaweed. The government of Sudan increased arms and support to the janjaweed. The janjaweed has destroyed villages and harmed many people with the support coming directly from the government. They have attacked in many ways, through rape, torture, violence and through trickery. Planes have attacked disguised as planes from the United Nations tricking civilians into the trap. The national government is ran by the president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir since 1989.
There has been some work done by the government to try to stop this madness but the peace attempts have failed. To this day nothing has been done to stop the genocide in Darfur. The peace attempt that failed was the Comprehensive Peace agreement in 2003 and the Darfur Peace agreement in 2006.
We have reviewed the history, the government and yet we have no answer to why this genocide is taking place. The answer lies between the levels of analysis. There are 4 levels of analysis: individual, domestic, international and global; in order to find our answer we must delineate each level. In the individual level the Sudanese want power, this is why the genocide occurred. The larger more powerful state wants to govern the smaller less powerful state. This level simply identifies the perceptions, choices, and actions of individual human beings or in this situation the Sudanese. They chose to action and attack the Darfurians causing a drastic situation.
The Domestic level is more complicated but basically it is Sudan vs. Darfur. This event has occurred because two states are fighting each other for something they both believe they want. In this case Sudan wants more power while Darfur wants its freedom back. This level is the most complicated to me because the government is in Sudan, making the power disproportionate in Darfur. This can explain why so many people have been killed and harmed in Darfur, if the government is also involved. Darfur has no support from anyone, no one in power is on their side.
The global level explains this situation as a global trend. There have been other situations that have ended up in genocide in the past that can explain why this is happening today in Africa. The crisis in Rwandafor example is a crisis that happened not so long ago. 800,000 people died in this disastrous event in history. This event only took 4 months for this to happen. The people that were mostly killed were a minority group From Tutsi. Chechnya is also a place that is in alert for genocide; there is much violence that is intended for Chechnya people. The geonocide occurred because this is a trend that everyone is doing globally. So why is it not okay for Sudan to do an ethnic cleansing in Darfur if so many events have already taken place that are similar to this one?
The level that best explains the situation in Darfur is the Domestic level. The problem being caused is being done between two different places in the same state(Sudan and Darfur) Sudan has the power and support from the government to overthrow Darfur and is going to do so if something is not done. The power difference in Sudan is superior to that in Darfur and there is evidence of this. The killings are just one evidence of this superiority.
The other levels do not satisfy this explanation because the individual level does not address the other side of the situation which is Darfur. It also does not involve the Sudanese government which is a main contributor to this situation. The individual level just addresses the fact that the Sudanese want power and that is only part of the situation. The global level of analysis does not support this explanation because this has been happening in other places but this should not be an excuse to kill people. Other states have had disagreements and had arguments and it has not been an option to go and try to kill everyone. Even though some places have had genocides this does not mean that this is the number one way to deal with situations and this should not even be an option.