Social Science Research Council

Posted on behalf of Julie Flint.
Six days after the aerial attack on Shigeg Karo, UNAMID has finally spoken out, in a press release that raises more questions than it answers. A verification team visited Shigeg Karo on Thursday—a full four days after the bombing, taking nothing to assist the wounded still remaining there—and confirmed the [...]

Posted on behalf of Julie Flint.
At 2 pm on Sunday 4 May, a single Antonov bomber targeted the village of Shegeg Karo in North Darfur, destroying the market and hitting the village school during classes. At least 11 people were killed outright, six of them children between the ages of five and eleven. More [...]

In her posting yesterday, Mia Farrow identifies the success of the "genocide Olympics" campaign—which she was instrumental in starting—as a "defining moment." She is right. For the first time, an international activist movement has compelled the Chinese government to recognize that it has global human rights responsibilities. Beijing’s rebuttal of Stephen Spielberg’s charges is the [...]

Editor’s note: Mia Farrow and Ronan Farrow, who were instrumental in starting up the "genocide Olympics" campaign, have offered these words.

Without question this is a a defining moment for each of us, and a deeply consequential one for the people of Darfur and eastern Chad. Responsible leaders and citizens alike should think carefully as to how they might best use their leverage with China. The successful staging of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games have proven to be a lone point of leverage with a country that has thus far been impervious to criticism. Those who have Peking’s ear in the lead-up to the Games and those underwriting the ceremony–the corporate sponsors–must step up and do their part. [...]

Editors note: We are pleased to have this contribution from Daniel Large, a UK-based scholar on China—Sudan relations who has published widely on the topic. He recently authored a piece, “China and the Changing Context of Development in Sudan,” for the journal Development.

Europe and America have tended to regard China as the Great Hope or the Great Demon, moving historically between binary projections of China as an enlightened model to learn from or as an example to avoid. In the case of Sudan today, however, China is paradoxically held up to represent both: it is supposedly the route to peace in Darfur but it is also responsible for ‘empowering evil’ in Sudan.

Steven Spielberg’s decision not to continue his role as artistic director[...]

Editor’s note: Chris Alden, senior lecturer in international relations at the London School of Economics, contributed this post on Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal from his involvement in the Beijing Olympics. Alden is the author of the acclaimed China in Africa, part of the African Arguments series to which Alex de Waal’s book on Darfur, written with Julie Flint, also belongs.

Steven Spielberg’s decision to publicly withdrawal from his post as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics has reignited a simmering debate as to China’s relationship with the Sudanese government and its role in the troubled Darfur region. In what appears to be a carefully worded statement, Spielberg acknowledges that while the Sudanese government bore the ‘bulk of the responsibility’ for crimes in Darfur, the ‘international community and China in particular should be doing more’ [...]

In an act infused with symbolism, the African Union decided to create a memorial museum to the victims of genocide and grave human rights abuses at the former Ethiopian central prison, site of incalculable human suffering, at the very center of its expanded compound. This resolution was passed on the tenth anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Three years later, the African Union has failed to act upon its solemn commitment to memorialize the millions of victims of the Rwanda genocide, the Ethiopian Red Terror, and other killings. A few months ago, the prison building was unceremoniously demolished to make way for a Chinese-financed conference center.

Six months ago, John Prendergast and I debated the response to Darfur at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This week we continued the debate online, courtesy of Newsweek. It’s a lively exchange and after just two rounds, Newsweek’s deadline was upon us so the editor called time. I would have liked to say more—so I am posting my response to him here.

President Jimmy Carter on his recent visit to Sudan was outspoken in his criticism of the Sudan government, which he accused of “ethnic cleansing” and a “crime against humanity.” But he also argued that it was “unhelpful” to describe the crimes committed in Darfur as “genocide,” adding that they didn’t fit the definition contained in [...]