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A great many well-meaning people in the United States and elsewhere have long called upon their governments to "do something about Darfur," citing the promise George W. Bush made to himself in the context of the earlier Ugandan slaughter, "Not on my watch." Many, including the United States government, assert that what has occurred in Darfur is "genocide." In this article, Professor Murphey admonishes that the facts and issues in Darfur are not nearly so simple as such a view thinks them to be. He sees the war in Darfur in the context of a long history of conflict in the Sudan and in Africa. The article will seek to be informative rather than exhortatory, leaving it to readers to form their own conclusions about what, if anything, can be done about "the situation in Darfur."
Key Words: Darfur; Sudan; Genocide; Activism about Darfur; Darfur's History and Culture; National Islamic Front; Janjaweed; Al-Bashir; Al-Turabi; Darfurian Rebels; Causes of War in Darfur; Modem History of Sudan; Sudanese Civil Wars; Sudanese "Arabs;" Northeastern Africa; Peacekeeping Forces in Darfur; Peace Agreements And Talks about Darfur.
Sudan is geographically the largest country in Africa. It is bounded on the north by Egypt; on the northeast by the Red Sea; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; on the southwest by the Central African Republic; on the west by Chad; and on the northwest by Libya. It illustrates Sudan's size that its western province, Darfur, is itself about the size of France.
The war that has raged, and then simmered with occasional flaring, in Darfur since early 2003 has attracted world attention, especially in the United States and Europe where there has been an active campaign among many well-meaning people to "do something about the genocide in Darfur."
A brief overview of the war. Rebels against the Sudanese government in the capital of Khartoum are considered to have started the war in February 2003 when they overran cities in Darfur. (This is somewhat of an arbitrary designation of the beginning, however, since tribal conflict had long been going on, and in February of 2002 the rebels of what was then called the Darfur Liberation Front, which soon changed...