OpenLine Blog On The DarFur Crisis and Visit To Sudan

Thursday, April 12, 2007

9:00 P.M.: We are getting ready to roll to Sudan to checkout the conditions in Darfur, Sudan, in eastern Africa. The subject of Darfur has been in the newspapers for a couple of years now and, for some reason, it just has not resonated with the black and brown community in America. The so-called crisis in Darfur involves what some international critics of the government of Sudan as systemic “genocide” of the indigenous African tribes of Darfur by Sudanese Arabs called the “Janjawee”. Sudanese critics have suggested that somewhere in the range of 200,000 to 400,000 people have died to date and that 2.2 million people have been displaced by the Janjawee bandits with the “active” participation of the Sudan government and its officials.

Part of what we, James Mtume, Fatiyn Muhammad and myself, are doing on this trip is to see if we can uncover the truth or some part of it on what is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan to the indigenous African tribes of Darfur. To use an Mtume expression: “There is your side, there is my side and somewhere in the middle is the truth”.

On this trip, we will look at the Sudan government’s side, examine the critics’ side (the failure of the government to stop the killing of its citizens) and, hopefully, the truth lies somewhere in the middle ---- hopefully. I must continue to pack for the trip.