Jewish World Watch's Blog
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Have we stopped Genocide?
- Posted on 12.05.08
Written by Jewish World Watch Assistant Director, Naama Haviv
We’re not going to delude ourselves. Our organization, Jewish World Watch, has not stopped genocide. We’re now nearly six years into the Darfur conflict, and 400,000 people have died, millions more have been displaced. Over 300,000 people have been displaced just this year. Humanitarian workers are being attacked, kidnapped, hijacked and killed.
But in taking stock at the end of this year I realize we have actually made a real impact. We have slowed the progress of genocide. In 2004-2005, 10,000 people were dying a month. Now it's 200. It's still genocide, but it's slower. The Sudanese government has had to change its tactics - it can't get away with straight-up bombing villages anymore, and it has found new ways of destroying Darfur - disrupting supply chains, fomenting instability, fragmenting rebel groups. But we've slowed it down.
We've attacked Sudan economically, and even forced China to take some constructive action. And for the first time in 20 years, because of work we've done, because of the work our community and the anti-genocide community as a whole has done, we have built a credible threat against Sudanese President Omar al Bashir that has him scared – prosecution at the International Criminal Court. He's a dictator, responsible for the deaths of millions in southern Sudan and Darfur, and he's scared. Of us. Of the ICC. Of being held accountable worldwide. We did that.
And the refugees? Where would they be without our actions? How many of that 300,000 displaced this year would have been killed instead of driven out of their homes? How many would have died in their refugee and IDP camps if it weren't for the wells we've dug, the medical clinics we've built, the trauma counselors we've sent? How many of those kids could hope for a future outside the camps someday if it wasn't for the education we were helping to support with school supplies and basic hygiene items? If it weren't for our community, and for JWW, where would the women of eastern Chad be? Solar cooking would still not only be doubted in the relief community, but rejected outright - women would still be in search of some sort of alternative energy so that they wouldn't have to risk rape by leaving the camps and looking for firewood.
We did that.
So have we stopped genocide? No. And it's a long road ahead.
But have we made real, important, life-saving change on the ground? Have we positively affected the lives of Darfuri civilians, provided some amount of protection, provided some amount of dignity?
Yes, we have.
This is no time to be modest. With Obama's new administration poised to change the role of the US and redefine American values worldwide, and with the American public more politically active than ever, now is the time to admit the power we have to make this kind of change.
Related causes: Human Rights
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