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(FinalCall.com) – The refugees are real. The devastation is undeniable. The murders and rapes are irrevocable. The horrific glimpses of the life on the edge and full of fear in the Darfur region of the Sudan naturally grip one’s conscience with compassion.
Understandably, world governments and the general public do not want to stand by and watch a country’s internal strife escalate into another tragedy of genocide on the earth. Images of Rwanda and Bosnia still haunt the recent collective memory of humanity.
The sensitivity of exploring the issues in Darfur, however, should not overshadow a critical assessment of history; not only the complex dynamics of the ethnicities of the people of Darfur, but also the exaggerated allegations of slavery that were once hurled at the Khartoum government.
Furthermore, the reports from the fact-finding missions of the African Union and the European Commission, as well as a statement from the Arab League, that the situation does not constitute genocide, should not be overlooked or downplayed.
Always under the cover of entering a country to make peace, the U.S. government’s interest of dominance and control of natural resources linger close enough to the surface to be detected. Certainly, the abundance of oil enriching the Sudanese soil has been noted on the Bush administration’s agenda.
But as the Iraqi people struggle to endure the U.S. occupation of their land, and the hunt for non-existent weapons of mass destruction has disappeared behind a magician’s cape, we should be acutely aware of how facts can be bloated beyond recognition, leaving bitter feelings of being tricked. The U.S. government’s history is weaved with her threads of deception of the nations of the world.
While the calls against genocide and clamoring for sanctions and military intervention in Darfur continue to heighten within the borders of the U.S., for the sake of the future of the Sudanese, hopefully balance and true constructive relief can come to the suffering survivors of the ensuing humanitarian crisis.
Guidance from the Holy Qur’an is most appropriate: “If an unrighteous man brings you news, look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what you did.” For in the aftermath of America’s “peacemaking” in a nation, more than an apology will be needed to repair the damage to the self-determination and independence of that nation.
