Arab Genocide, Arab Silence
Joseph Britt is a writer in Kennesaw, Ga.

washingtonpost.com Post
Wednesday, July 13, 2005; A21

What responsibility do Arabs have to stop genocide being committed by Arabs?

Genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan, inflicted on mostly Muslim
African tribes people by the nomadic Arab militias called janjaweed with the
enthusiastic assistance of the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, has been
going on for over two years now. In response, nations from western and
central Africa have sent peacekeeping troops; various Western countries,
including the United States, have pledged many millions of dollars in aid.
Western diplomats led by Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick have
worked feverishly to stop the massacres, rapes and forced relocations that
the Sudanese government has employed as its weapons of choice.

Absent from the picture have been the other Arab states. This is exceedingly
strange, and not just because most of Darfur's victims are Muslims. Darfur
is thousands of miles away from any of the Western countries trying to stop
the genocide there; even the African nations sending peacekeepers are
remote. Meanwhile, Egypt, with a huge army, a modern air force and more
contacts within Sudan than every Western country combined, has looked on
while as many as 400,000 people have been slaughtered just beyond its
southern border and has, in effect, done nothing.

It's true that Egypt has put on a show of hosting peace conferences. Perhaps
because Egypt is determined to take no action to which Sudan might object,
these have produced no results (a separate conference sponsored by Nigeria
has made some limited progress). Other Arab countries have not done even
this much. Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states could pay for more aid
out of petty cash than Darfur could use, but Canada, by itself, has pledged
more aid than all the Arab countries combined. The number of Saudi, Kuwaiti
or Syrian relief workers in Darfur is, as best one can tell, precisely zero.
Arab press references to Darfur consist mostly of reprints from Western news
services about official government statements, many of them from the
Sudanese government itself.

One might think this would be a subject worthy of comment or at least
curiosity by the U.S. government and the Western media. One would be wrong.
Virtually without exception, the Western reaction to Arab silence about
genocide being committed by Arabs has been -- silence. The American
government has said nothing about it; Western newspapers can write months of
news stories and editorials about Darfur without mentioning Egypt or other
Arab countries except in passing.

It is as if Egypt and Sudan occupied different planets instead of sharing a
common border. The Egyptian government acting alone could have, at any time
during the past two years, forced Sudan to ground its air force and cease
all other support to the janjaweed. While it was not doing this, and was not
thinking of doing this, Western governments have made diplomatic efforts,
plowing through one forum after another; have conducted aid campaigns; and
have even talked earnestly about whether the United States and Canada should
send troops. And no one appears to think there is anything odd about this
discrepancy. It is a great mystery.

Do we really expect indifference, or worse, from Arabs in the face of mass
murder? Surely the contradictions between that indifference and President
Bush's promotion of democracy and human rights in the Arab world speak for
themselves. More important than what we think, though, is what Arabs think.

We've heard a lot since Sept. 11, 2001, about how Arabs feel humiliated,
ashamed, resentful at being regarded by the West as inferior in some way.
Sometimes we ignore these feelings; sometimes we try to appease them.
Perhaps it is time to say plainly that the way to earn respect is through
deeds worthy of respect.

The shameful course of indifference to the slaughter of the African Muslims
of Darfur out of solidarity with their murderers is not the only one open to
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states. In spite of their support for
Sudan's government, diplomacy led by Nigeria and an aid effort led by the
United States have reduced the level of violence and starvation in Darfur.
Building on this real but exceedingly fragile achievement, and preventing
genocide by Arabs in Darfur from resuming, is a task for the civilized
world, one in which the Arab countries need to join.



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