One reason the fight in Sudan is called a genocide is that it is motivated by skin-color. Though the Janjaweed and the villagers they are massacring are both muslims, the villagers are black and the janjaweed are light-skinned. Of course, it's not just about skin color. The skin color reflects cultural groupings. But there it is.
One positive note. I discovered when I surfed the al-jazeera site that the government had agreed to an AU brokered peace this Sunday. Though the most recent report suggests this peace won't go through, it is hopeful.
Jo Ellen
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]On Behalf Of Yoshie Furuhashi Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 11:32 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: Genocide in Iraq and Sudan Re: [lbo-talk] MPug Rats Out YoshieToCooper
On 5/4/06, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> Yoshie writes:
>
> > If 200,000 dead constitute a genocide, no matter how they died,
> > surely
> > the US war in Iraq is a genocide: "the Coalition forces could be
> > responsible for as many as 200,000 Iraqi civilian deaths or more"
> > (Les
> > Roberts, "Do Iraqi Civilian Casualties Matter?" AlterNet. Posted
> > February 8, 2006, <http://www.alternet.org/story/31508/>).
> >
> > The application of the term "genocide" appears to be completely
> > dependent on politics.
>
> No, I think it's dependent on whether you're working from a valid
> definition of it.
>
> There's no definition that I'm aware of that would come anywhere near
> make it "surely" that the deaths in Iraq were "genocide" since a
> precondition is the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
> ethnic, racial, or religious group. You're welcome to correct me on
> this one.
I agree with you, but is there any evidence that the Sudanese government surely intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as opposed to killing a lot of people and creating conditions that cause deaths of a lot of people in the course of a counter-insurgency campaign? If not, genocides in Iraq and Sudan are comparable -- no, actually, the situation is worse in Iraq (no one can hope to broker peace in Iraq).
To my knowledge, there is no consensus outside the USA that the civil war in Sudan has led to a government-organized genocide, and even in the USA, it may not be agreed upon by American Arabs and Muslims.
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
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