Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
Have you heard the rumblings this week about how far fewer people may have died in Congo over the past decade than all of us thought? The statistics dispute spurred a heated back and forth between the International Rescue Committee (who led many of the initial studies to determine the death toll of Congo’s wars) and the authors of the 2009 Human Security Report published by Canada’s Simon Fraser University. The best overview of this controversy, and debunking of the new report, comes from longtime Congo watcher Jason Stearns.
Once again, the latest edition of the podcast series Voices on Genocide Prevention doesn’t disappoint. Host Bridget Conley-Zilkic interviews Jimmy Mulla from the coalition Voices for Sudan. The coalition draws together Sudanese organizations from all over the United States, and in Mulla’s words, “bring all Sudanese together, and so we can all sit down and then discuss how best we can integrate to resolve the conflict in Sudan.”
Don’t miss this excellent op-ed by Peter Daou on U.N. Dispatch questioning why the broad popular concern about the destruction in Haiti doesn’t translate into public fury over some of the world’s other horrific humanitarian situations. Here’s the gist:
“The world’s response to Haiti is fully warranted – anything less would be reprehensible. But one thing about it frustrates me: why can’t we muster the same sense of urgency, the same focus, the same acceptance that other lesser activities must be temporarily set aside; why can’t we mobilize as quickly and react as fiercely and forcefully when it comes to similar calamities across the globe? Say, for instance, the monstrous sexual violence in Congo?”
Posted on his blog, Sudan expert Eric Reeves offers a (very) detailed look at the current situation in Darfur, opening with a discussion of why we’re hearing so much less about Darfur at the moment. The piece is also interesting in light of the fact that Reeves was recently quoted by the New York Times in a controversial piece suggesting that the a “fragile calm” has come to Darfur. Make no mistake, Reeves is unequivocal in his belief that the war is Darfur is far from over.
As President Obama passed his one-year mark, PRI’s The World ran this reflection on his policies toward Africa in a report from Accra, Ghana. The reviews are mixed, ranging from:
“Certainly Bush didn’t say much, but he did a lot more. Obama is saying much; a lot more is expected of him, but there’s very little to go on.”
To…
“You want to build a road, [African leaders] go for aid; you want to build a hospital, they go for aid; you want to do anything serious, they go for aid. Now they are thinking maybe we should look inward a bit more. […] I can assure you that [Obama’s call for self-reliance] made civil society voices stronger, and that will ultimately, hopefully, lead to physical changes on the ground.”