Agree

by Keiron Audain

Created on: September 22, 2009   Last Updated: September 25, 2009

The aftermath of the Tsunami tragedy touched the very depths of the human soul, and the generosity of the British public was overwhelming. The kindness of warm-hearted citizens should be acknowledged, for it proved that it is possible to make a difference in the lives of people less fortunate.

It is probably near unthinkable for anyone in the civilised world not to be aware of the Tsunami. It went from television footage, to website links, to information "pop-ups" on your desktop. Eventually, anyone with any form of compassion felt compelled to donate to the catastrophe, and as a result, Britain donated more than 200 million. The donation campaign was even downscaled Britain due to the amount of money that was raised.

While browsing through a business magazine around April 2004, I came across a picture of what appeared to be a war stricken African country.

As tear dropping as the picture seemed, it was not surprising to me. As far back as I can recollect, I have been exposed to pictures of a starving Africa, an Africa of famine, poverty, and death.

The article went on to describe a situation related to "ethnic cleansing", where the dark-skinned peoples of Sudan were being driven off their land, and being raped and killed in the process.

Assuming that these events were relatively recent, it shocked me to discover that fighting in Sudan had been ongoing since February 2003, and was only a spark from the flame of a 21-year civil war.

It seems that Sudan has always had political problems regarding Islamic rule, and the forcing of the doctrine upon non-Muslims. During this civil war, more that 2 million people have been killed, and over 4 million displaced.

The information of the situation in Sudan soon became widely distributed, and the public, as well as government officials were bombarded with images and footage of the horrendous acts of inhumanities done to the Sudanese people. It reminded me of a grisly historic film, or one of those biblical stories telling of entire nations being invaded, and the people either enslaved or killed.

Yet despite all this media attention, the quantity of aid being donated to Sudan remained unreported. What did make the news was the fact that the E.U had been finally trying to unlock approximately 400 million Euros, which was caught up in a 14-year development aid freeze, and the UK's plan to sort out Sudan's $26 billion US debt had somehow been delayed.

Being the largest country in Africa, Sudan is slightly more than a quarter the size of the United States, its boundaries determined by Britain who ruled Sudan until its independence in 1956.

Sudan can boast of possessing vast natural resources such as petroleum, iron ore, copper, silver, gold, and hydropower. Its geography indicates, that the river Nile runs through Sudan, and separates into the White and Blue Nile. It is both popular scientific and religious belief that the birthplace of civilisation is located somewhere along this river, which also runs through Egypt and Ethiopia.

Yet a nation with such immense potential has been subjected to the worst types of torture from Islamic leaders who have also been linked to Osama Bin Laden, and the Al Qaeda. In 2004, news reports stated that a peace treaty was signed between the opposing sides in Sudan, but Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the fighting was far from over. The U.S proposed that the UN designate 10,000 troops to make sure the terms of the treaty were implemented. However, the U.N denied this request, claiming that the situation in Sudan was not genocide. This decision came only days after the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

So what really is genocide? Apparently, according to Article 2 of the 1948 genocide convention, genocide is described as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group".

All in all, due to technicalities and a lack of enthusiasm, the Sudanese people were still being slaughtered by the thousands. The situation in Sudan didn't get nearly as much media attention as the Tsunami tragedy, which took primetime spotlight for several months. As was the case with the coverage of the Iraq war, it didn't mean that the people weren't still suffering and dying on mass; it was just the end of one series and the beginning of another; after all, it is television.

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