Scholar disputes ‘genocide’ term for Darfur

Mahmood Mamdani, a Uganda-born professor of anthropology and political science at Columbia University, has created a raging controversy over whether the Sudanese government’s response to a six-year rebellion in Darfur constitutes a genocide.

In a new book, “Saviors and Survivors,” the Columbia professor weaves history, statistics on deaths and displacements, and 156 pages of footnotes to support his view that no genocide occurred in the country’s vast westernmost province.

Beyond facts, his interpretation bundles 19th-century British colonialism, the Cold War struggle against Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi and his allies in Darfur’s neighbor, Chad, and the war on terrorism into a narrative on Darfur’s plight.

The professor contends that there is no evidence of intent by the Islamic fundamentalist government of President Omar Bashir to exterminate a whole group of people in the province, which would justify the label “genocide.”

The label was used by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell during the first term of President George W. Bush. But the United Nations and the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands — which has indicted Lt. Gen. Bashir for war crimes — have avoided using the term.

The ethnic groups targeted by Sudan’s government and allied Janjaweed militias are the regions three main tribes - the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit, all close to the border with Chad. Chadian President Idriss Deby is an ethnic Zaghawa, Mr. Mamdani said.

Mr. Mamdani did not dispute reports of a scorched-earth policy, in which entire villages have been flattened, along with massacres and mass rapes that have killed an estimated 300,000 people and driven 2.5 million more into squalid refugee camps, according to agencies supporting victims.

However, the sheer complexity of the racial, ethnic and occupational patterns in Darfur, Mr. Mamdani argued, negate a simple labeling of the conflict as a genocide by Sudanese Arabs against black Africans.

This is how the Save Darfur Coalition depicts the conflict, Mr. Mamdani said.

The campaign seeks international intervention against the government. A spokesman for the group declined to answer questions for this report.

Stephen Hayes, president of the Washington-based Corporate Council on Africa, another group closely watching the Darfur situation, cautions against overly simplistic characterizations of the conflict.

“The situation is far more complex than presented in the media or by any one lobby. It is historic in its roots and also has an environmental component to it. It is a very difficult situation that I do not see resolved in the near future,” Mr. Hayes said.

The Save Darfur Coalition is a group of nongovernmental faith-based and humanitarian agencies, supported by socially conscious entertainment stars such as George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Mia Farrow.

The coalition recently addressed Mr. Mamdani’s conclusions in a statement to “Here and Now,”a program produced by a Boston public radio station.

It said Mr. Mamdani “completely rejects the legitimacy of organizations like the Save Darfur Coalition — whose mission is to amplify the voice of the victims in order to mobilize the international community to pursue a comprehensive strategy of policies to resolve the conflict.”

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