[Mb-civic] No Respite in Africa - Jerry Fowler and John Heffernan - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

No Respite in Africa

By Jerry Fowler and John Heffernan
Thursday, August 25, 2005; Page A19

Last month, in the middle of a hot, dusty refugee camp in eastern Chad, 
we witnessed hundreds of men from Darfur, clad in immaculate white 
robes, crowding around a small generator-powered television. They were 
watching the news about a new member of Sudan's leadership: John Garang, 
longtime leader of the country's southern rebellion against its northern 
government. Now he was being sworn in as first vice president in a new 
"government of national unity" meant to end Sudan's long civil war.

To be sure, few of the refugees really knew much about "Dr. John," 
except that he was not a member of the Khartoum-based Arab elite that 
has orchestrated a campaign of murder and rape to drive them and more 
than 2 million other non-Arabs from their homes in Sudan's western 
region of Darfur. But given their desperation to return home and reclaim 
their former lives, his swearing-in was enough to create palpable 
excitement. For many of the estimated 200,000 Darfurian refugees in 
Chad, the new government represents hope of returning home.

We feared then that they were grasping at straws; with the death of John 
Garang in a helicopter crash a few weeks ago, our fear may have become 
reality.

It's been more than a year now since we witnessed some of the bleakest 
sights we'd ever seen in Chad. Thousands of refugees were scattered over 
the barren landscape, huddled under straggly trees that offered no 
protection from the furnace-like heat and unforgiving desert winds. The 
few animals they had brought with them were dying from lack of water and 
fodder, the carcasses being burnt in large heaps to avoid the spread of 
disease. Even the refugees in U.N.-sponsored camps suffered from 
inadequate water supplies and inconsistent food distribution as relief 
workers struggled to catch up with this man-made emergency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082401832.html
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