Darfur, Did We Fail Them?

In September 2004 U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell said "I concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and that genocide may still be occurring." This statement followed a state department report that stated there was a "consistent and widespread pattern of atrocities committed against non-Arab villagers". At that time an estimated 40,000 people had been killed and an additional 1.2 million had fled their homes as a direct result of the violence. The U.N. was reluctant to use the term genocide to descried the situation in Darfur for one of two possible reasons, (1) the definition of the term genocide used by the U.N. is a government must be found guilty of intent to "destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. (2) The U.N. is legally obligated to take steps to stop genocide when it is identified under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

In 2005 an estimated 70000 had died and the refugee count had climbed to 1.8 million. It may appear to the casual observer that the criteria for genocide had been met long ago. However, a special United Nations commission convened to determine if this was genocide determined that in fact it was not, once again delaying much needed intervention in the region.