 | Nicholas Kristof said that the United States' failure to address the genocide in Darfur follows a historical pattern, noting that the nation was not quick to take action during the Holocaust or in Bosnia and Rwanda. |
During one visit last year to Darfur in the western Sudan, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof encountered a group of some 30,000 African Sudanese refugees sheltering themselves from the sun under trees in an oasis, where they congregated for safety from slaughter.
In his Feb. 15 talk in Luce Hall, Kristof described how he had approached separate families under the four trees nearest to him, wanting to hear their personal stories of flight.
Under one tree were two brothers, one of whom had been shot in the neck and jaw and left for dead. His brother, who had been shot in the foot, nevertheless managed to carry him on his back for 49 days to reach the oasis. Under another tree was a woman whose parents had been shot and stuffed in a well; her husband, too, had been killed.
Under the third tree was a four-year-old girl carrying her year-old baby brother on her back. The two became orphans when their parents were shot and killed. Then Kristof encountered a woman under the fourth tree who told him how -- after her husband and baby had been killed -- she and her two sisters were gang raped. Her sisters were killed, and she had been mutilated to permanently stigmatize her as a victim of rape, a social disgrace in her culture.
"These were just the first four trees," said Kristof in his talk, the 13th annual Coca-Cola World Fund at Yale Lecture. "Everywhere, in every direction I could look, there were more trees, more families -- all of whom had stories to tell just like these."
The acts of violence, Kristof noted, were carried out by the Janjaweed, militias made up of nomadic Arab tribes who, with the backing of the Sudanese government, have attacked or murdered hundreds of thousands of tribal African Darfurians since 2003. While the death toll is uncertain, estimates range from 100,000 to 400,000 people, and the violence in the Sudan has created over one million refugees.
Kristof described his own personal experiences in Darfur and offered a history of the conflict in his talk, titled "The First Genocide of the 21st Century: Reporting from Darfur." His audience for the event filled the Luce Hall auditorium and two second-floor classrooms, where the talk was simulcast. Coincidentally, the journalist's campus speaking engagement took place on the same day that the University announced it was divesting of its stock in companies with ties to the Sudanese government (see related story).
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist asserted that characterizing the conflict in Darfur as "a tribal war," as some have done, is inaccurate, although tribal tensions have contributed to it, he said. He described historic tensions between the lighter-skinned Arab tribes, who tend to be nomadic herdsmen, and the darker-skinned African tribes, traditionally settled farmers, and said that a shortage of resources in the desert region intensified these tensions. Non-Arab groups staged an uprising in 2003. In response, the Sudanese authorities, Kristof told his audience, "decided that the best way to deal with the problem was to depopulate the people of these tribes staging the rebellion." What ensued, he added, "absolutely" fits the definition of genocide.
While international relief organizations have attempted to assist the displaced and injured Africans by supplying food and medical care, world governments have not adequately responded by "providing security or standing up" to this government-sponsored genocide, the journalist said.
"It's great to provide relief but unless you stand up to the atrocities, it's woefully insufficient," he commented.
He compared the Bush administration's failure to address the genocide to those of previous U.S. administrations who did the same in their time: Woodrow Wilson ignoring the slaughter of Armenians in 1915, Franklin D. Roosevelt's lack of action during the Holocaust, and the Clinton administration's refusal to intervene in Rwanda.
"We have a long, bipartisan and consistent record on genocide," said Kristof.
He acknowledged that there was a period when Darfur seemed to be on the international radar and said that among U.S. officials, former Secretary of State Colin Powell was very concerned with what was happening in Sudan. However, after the tsunami in 2004, he said, Darfur faded from attention. Kristof said that international focus did, in fact, result in fewer killings, and claimed that the slaughter increased again after the tsunami.
The journalist also faulted the U.S. media for failing to bring the atrocities to the attention of the public.
"We need photos and above all television," he said, adding that television news networks have "dropped the ball" by not covering the genocide. Kristof joked that he had wished that the Michael Jackson trial, which got extensive coverage, could have been moved to Darfur to draw the media there, and likewise, that the Georgia woman who was dubbed "the runaway bride" for disappearing last year just days before her wedding could have turned up in Darfur.
Even his own newspaper, The New York Times, has not had the best record for reporting on genocide, Kristof acknowledged, noting that of the 24,000 front-page stories it printed during the Holocaust, only six were about the Nazi genocide.
Kristof admitted that covering the situation is difficult because journalists are generally not allowed in unless they are traveling with a public official or sneak in through Chad.
He said several factors have contributed to the lack of political response by the United States, including fears that putting pressure on the Sudanese government would re-incite the country's 20-year civil war, and that priority has been given to fighting terrorism. Sudan, Kristof said, has been cooperative in providing intelligence that assists in the war on terror.
Many people also believe, Kristof said, that the problems in Darfur are common in Africa, which they view as a region that is "a mess and hopeless," where there "are no good solutions" and where "policies are difficult."
"They're right, it is difficult," the journalist told his audience.
Kristof said that the outrage of American citizens over Darfur's struggle could make a difference if it is voiced.
"The government will respond only when the public does," he commented. "If you want to know what to do -- make noise, bellow."
The New York Times columnist emphasized that sending U.S. ground troops to Darfur is not the answer, but said that a United Nations force should be sent. He also suggested that having U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan send Colin Powell as a special envoy to lead talks between the sheiks from the different tribes is "surely worthy a try."
Kristof said that rather than putting up museums and monuments, the best way to honor those who have died from genocide in the past is to refuse to allow it happen again. He told the story of one woman whose husband was killed, and who was gang raped. Focused solely on the question "How do I keep my children alive?" she set out "across the desert on a long odyssey" to get to the biggest refugee camp in Africa, only to be refused admittance because of a ban on new arrivals. Her infant child subsequently died.
"Think of [her] and think of the 200,000 more like her whose lives are in our hands," Kristof urged his audience.
A videotape of Kristof's talk is available at www.yale.edu/ycias/news/kristof.htm.
-- By Susan Gonzalez
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