In 2001, after reading a National Security Council memo scrutinizing Bill Clinton’s inaction during the Rwandan genocide, George Bush jotted in the margin of the report: “Not on my watch.” On April 30, the president’s scribble of five years ago became a rallying cry as more than 100,000 people assembled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about the current genocide in Sudan.
A diverse crowd watched a parade of politicians, preachers, actors and human rights leaders take to the podium to share first-hand accounts of the murder and mayhem that has besieged Sudan’s Darfur region, where government-sponsored militias have killed 200,000 people and left millions homeless and on the verge of starvation.
While a partial accord was reached last week between the Sudanese government and the main Darfuri rebel faction, there’s reason for skepticism. Sudan still refuses to allow United Nations’ troops into Darfur to help secure peace. Meanwhile, two smaller rebel factions refused to sign the deal, making the prospects for peace even more tenuous.
Without peace, the United Nations predicts the death toll could reach 100,000 a month. The U.N. Food Agency recently announced it will cut food rations in half for 3 million refugees due to insufficient funding and increased attacks on food agency workers. Meanwhile, the government of Chad is threatening to expel the 200,000 Darfur refugees who have spilled over the border to seek refuge.
As the situation deteriorates in Darfur, it is finally generating more interest in America. Former Marine Capt. Brian Steidle, an observer to the African Union peacekeeping forces inDarfur, has traveled 21,000 miles on a national photo tour sharing his experiences as a witness to genocide. There is also a large student movement to increase awareness on college campuses. And New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently won the Pulitzer Prize for his series of graphic columns describing the atrocities there.
The increased exposure has helped. At least a dozen states have passed legislation to divest from companies doing business with Sudan. At the D.C. rally, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele declared that his state would be the latest to cut off the flow of funding that enables Sudan to slaughter its people. On Monday, President Bush announced that Secretary of State Rice would be dispatched to the U.N. to request a resolution to accelerate the transition from an out-gunned African Union force to a larger, properly mandated U.N. force.
Despite these developments, most Americans remain uninformed about Darfur. A 2005 Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) poll found just 36 percent of Americans had heard about the conflict. This is not surprising considering that in 2004, ABC News aired only 18 minutes about Darfur in its nightly newscasts, the most of any major news network. In June 2005, the Coalition for Darfur reported that CNN, FOX News, NBC/MSNBC, ABC, and CBS ran 50 times as many stories about Michael Jackson as they did about the Darfur genocide. This year, the three major networks have devoted a total of 10 minutes to Darfur.
When the public learns about Darfur, however, a majority wants to help. According to PIPA, 61 percent of Americans favor U.N. military intervention and a majority even supports sending American troops to assist in peacemaking efforts.
Tellingly, every public figure that has visited Darfur — congressmen, ex-generals, entertainers — returns emboldened to help. After his recent visit, actor George Clooney told the Associated Press, “You feel completely overwhelmed. We flew over areas and my father and I would look at each other and go, this is just too much. But then what are we to do? Nothing?” If seeing is believing, then seeing genocide firsthand clearly means believing that inaction is not an option.
At the D.C. rally, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel reminded the crowd that “to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all” to which the crowd responded by chanting, “Not on our watch!” It’s been three years since the bloodbath in Darfur commenced, and nearly two since the United States called it by its rightful name: genocide. It’s time to make “Not on our watch” a reality by moving Darfur out of the margins and into the middle of America’s consciousness.
Daniel Allott is a policy analyst for American Values, a D.C.-area public policy organization.
