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Peace Is in Sight, but Is Darfur [Sudan] Too Broken to Fix?
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Issue
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem May 01, 2005 11:51pm |
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| Category | General |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Monday, May 2, 2005 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By MARC LACEY
Published: May 1, 2005
GENEINA, Sudan — The Sudanese soldiers and allied militiamen who destroyed Darfur could empty out an entire village in something like 60 minutes flat.
They would swoop in fast in the early morning hours, their horses and camels sprinting, their trucks racing, their guns blazing. Within the space of that one calamitous hour they would obliterate the settlement, torching, raping and killing with ruthless efficiency.
But now, with some of the first tentative signs of peace settling over the area, the question is how, and even whether, their malign work can be undone.
It will be years before we know the answer. But it is already evident to diplomats and aid workers here that Darfur has been deeply changed by the war in ways that will be difficult to fix. They point to a litany of emerging problems: diminished water supplies; bitter land disputes; inflamed tribal animosities; the psychosocial traumas of rape and displacement; and a significant transfer of wealth in a place that has always been, and still is, desperately poor.
The good news in Darfur is that it has been quieter of late. The war between the government and two Darfur rebel groups - the conflict that sparked the unrest in early 2003 - has calmed down in recent weeks. Negotiations aimed at bringing it to an end are scheduled to restart next month amid growing optimism.
Still, a quieter Darfur is a relative thing. Vicious militiamen continue to rule the lawless hinterlands, and even an end to the violence cannot undo the basic, perhaps unalterable, changes wrought by the war. |
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