Darfur – A Reflection

Refugee Rights News
Volume 2, Number 1
May 2005

We followed the wadi (dry riverbed) for about an hour and then turned off and up into hills. It was dead hot but those on foot did not lessen their gait.

The rattle of the dry seed pods and the roll of stones under the horses’ hooves were broken only by the shouts of our guides.

It was clear when we were nearing the village. Ground ash and scarred brush, occasional trees, blackened and twisted, signaled our approach.

Then, on a hill in the distance, loomed the village, guarded by wordless sentries: the cracked and broken bodies of the tall seed stores which had once anchored the life of the settlement.

There was little else standing on the horizon but these stark survivors of the destruction which had been wrought two months before.

As we peered inside each seed store, the burned husks spoke of the swiftness and surprise of the attack—and of a harvest destroyed.

Barely visible in the sands and charred rubble, were the blackened stubs of the wooden walls of each home. Smashed jars and blackened ash echoes of the households that were.

Those who lived here had left in a hurry. The suddenness of their flight spoke eloquently in the details of what remained scattered in the sands: a child’s lost slipper, a small blue kettle.

Rage had engulfed most of what was could be consumed and not carried off: pottery shards; calcified wooden tools, a mill, furniture.

As we turned to leave, we were told that one mound was a mass grave, the burial place of seven people killed in the raid.

There are few things which echo with incontrovertible meaning, which do not require context or interpretation in order to speak to us with their primary truths.

The orgy of violence here in this village was absolute. It is hard to imagine what happened as anything other than a frenzy of destruction, the product of a desire to obliterate as much as possible of the sophisticated accommodations with nature which had made life pulse in this arid and beautiful place.

Return to this village will take huge courage on the part of those who have fled into exile and the refugees we spoke to were adamant that this is what they want.

The international community has a duty to work to help make this possible. The people of Darfur and Sudan must get the support they need—both financial and political—to rebuild their communities. What is needed urgently is the political will to ensure:

• A peaceful settlement which addresses issues of political and economic disparity,
• Accountability for the mass atrocities carried out and justice for the victims,
• Reparations and compensation for the destruction of life and property,
• Support for the reconstruction of Darfur and the rebuilding of the cultural and social fabric.

This reflection is based on a mission the Darfur Consortium recently carried out to Chad and to Darfur.