Roust! Roust! The Round Up Has Started!

It has started! The round up of the native black Darfuri people from the refugee camps in Darfur has begun. Armed Sudanese troops surrounded the camp at Nyala, south Darfur and started to load the civilians onto the back of waiting trucks. The troops were not only armed with heavy weapons, but they were also armed with rubber hoses and sticks that were used to force the civilians on to the trucks.

When UN personnel tried to intervene in the forced evacuation of the Nyala camp, they were prevented from doing so.

Supposedly the forced evacuation of the camps had been planned since June, when the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir announced that he wanted to close what he termed "these museums of despair."

According to James Smith of the British charity, the Aegis Trust, "This could be the start of a long-term plan, to change the demographics of the region, under the noses, and in the presence of the United Nations, that won't be able to do anything about it. The government can get away with this kind of population movement, this illegal population movement, without firing a shot."

A number of human rights groups have stated that they fear that the forced relocation will open the way for ethnic cleansing.

So where have the Sudanese government shipped the evacuated the refugees from the Nyala camp? Nobody knows. Those UN and NGO staff members of the ground were just informed that they were being shipped to a safer camp. Have the Sudanese government built a new camp, possibly a new Auschwitz or a new Bergen Belsen?

This past weekend we witnessed the attempt at peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Darfuri rebel groups. These so called peace talks are going nowhere. What can they achieve when the Sudanese government institutes the initial stages of ethnic cleansing? Who will talk to these mass murderers in the future?

As we have seen, the UN is now considered a nonentity in Darfur. How can it be considered anything else when it is prevented from helping the people of Darfur? What has empowered the Sudanese government to ignore the UN and prevent it from intervening to save the lives of the evacuated refugees?

The UN, the AU, the EU and the US have been talking about the issues of Darfur for over four years now. Nothing has been achieved. How long must the international community entertain the Sudanese government before it is too late to save the millions of innocent civilians that are dying in Darfur?

Is it reasonable to think that we can force the Chinese government to take the appropriate and necessary action to enhance the Sudanese's government willingness to stop the mass human rights abuses in Darfur? Could we encourage US and multinational companies to divest, not only in Sudan, but in the sponsorship of the 2008 Olympic Games that will take place in China?

We must act to stop the further deterioration of the situation in Darfur. We can not sit back and watch while millions of innocent men, women and children continue to be butchered, raped and mutilated.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will host the upcoming Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. We ask that you support this major global event. We also ask that you join with us in our call for global action to save the innocent civilians of Darfur. For further information, please email dnolan@iafhr.org or call him at 212.695.7022, ext. 315.