Darfur Crisis

Background

Darfur situated in western Sudan, and for its 6 million people (a fifth of the Sudan population) living in region, geographically isolated and neglected by central government in Khartoum, had been adversely affected by conflicts since the early 1980s. The relatively peaceful equilibrium between its ethnic groups has been destroyed by environmental degradation - the spread of the desert and the effects of the Sahel drought - coupled with the divide-and-rule tactics of central government and the influx of modern weaponry.

Darfur was an independent sultanate until 1916, when it was the last region to be incorporated into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The Arabic word Dar roughly means homeland, and its population of nearly 6 million is divided into several Dars; not only of the Fur people, as its name suggests, but also of several other communities, determined by livelihood as much as ethnicity. These ecological and social distinctions are more meaningful than the administrative divisions imposed by the central government.
Starting in February 2003 two rebel groups rose against the Government of Khartoum in the region of Darfur, accusing the government of failing to protect the African population from the continuous attacks by Arab militia (known as Janjaweed). According to the UN, since the start of the conflict in Darfur, at least 7-thousand people have been killed and the internally displaced are estimated to be around a million.

According to Amnesty International last report There is compelling evidence that the Sudanese government is largely responsible for the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Darfur in the western Sudan
"At the very least the Sudanese government has totally failed in its obligation to protect its own people," said Amnesty International. "The testimonies of scores of refugees describing attacks on rural communities by militias which included members of the armed forces or other security forces has led us to the bleak conclusion that at least some elements in the army are encouraging this devastation."

Since April some 500,000 refugees fleeing from the attack by (Al-Janjaweed), have flooded into towns in Darfur with little capacity to cope with the crisis. Within Darfur itself, the rural areas are reported to be devastated. Thousands of refugees have crossed the border to Chad.
After the collapse of the last peace talk between the government and the rebel in December 2003, the government mounted intensive military attack using aircraft to bombs indiscriminately killing innocent civilians.

What they Say?

"There are no international mobilizations. It's a scandal," said Peter Casaer, from Medicine San Frontier.

The UNHCR spoke of the region's "forgotten emergency."
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We the signatories hereunder express our deepest concern about the current situation in Darfur and the systematic liquidation of civilians and the gross violation of Human rights in the region.
Therefore we request the following from the international community:

1. Call for International protection of civilians in Darfur.
2. Urgent call for unrestricted humanitarian access to Darfur.
3. Release of all political detainees from Darfur.
4. Call for formation of impartial International Fact-Finding Mission into human rights abuses in Darfur.