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| October 28, 2010 |
THE WORLD has grown weary of Darfur- the incessant, intractable, and dispiriting spectacle of human suffering and destruction with no end in sight. News organizations are increasingly constrained by lack of access and Khartoum's brutal repression of domestic opposition voices, Darfuri and other. The diplomatic community has lost heart in dealing with the fractious rebel groups that no longer represent the people on whose behalf they claim to fight, even as Khartoum has made no real effort to encourage engagement. Human rights organizations only sporadically speak out about Khartoum's endless commission of atrocity crimes and its supplying weapons to militia allies; a total lack of access to Darfur has effectively silenced these critical voices. Only a few observers note <http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/de/publications/by-type/sudan-hsba/sudan-working-papers.html> the regime's continuing recruitment from Arab tribes, many of which have now been manipulated and turned against one another as they compete for abandoned lands and Khartoum's political favor.The regime- not for the first time- has shown an uncanny ability to outmaneuver and finally outwait the international community. Observing the continuing lurch of virtually all diplomatic activity toward securing the southern referenda, these brutal men have grown confident that they can have their way with Darfur.
But if we turn away from Darfur, if we allow only its darkness to remain visible, we will be indulging a cruel moral solipsism. Henry James famously insisted that "the world as it stands is no narrow illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of the night; we wake up to it, forever and ever; and we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it." Darfuris may be forgiven for wondering what place they have in the "world as it stands."
Dissent Magazine (on-line), October 26,2010http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=297