For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 19,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2009-10-20 issue:

The forgotten women

Editorial

by Everett J. Thomas

Print Article

Jesus calls us to remember and care for the most vulnerable in our society and world. No people are more vulnerable and in need of help than the 140,000 women and girls who have fled Darfur's six-year conflict. But, according to a Sept. 29 Reuters report, women who fled the violence "are regularly raped in refugee camps in neighboring Chad, despite the presence of U.N.-trained forces."

Once again we must pay attention to this part of the world and ask our elected representatives to think of matters other than the national health-care debate and its consequences.

On Oct. 2, representatives from faith communities across the United States—including Mennonite Central Committee—met with the Obama administration and asked that working for a lasting peace in Sudan become a higher priority. Hyattsville (Md.) Mennonite Church pastor Cindy Lapp was MCC’s representative.

The group delivered a letter signed by 1,400 clergy—including 100 Mennonite pastors. The letter asked the administration to "work with multilateral coalitions to ensure that displaced people can return safely to their homes and begin to rebuild their lives," said an Oct. 1 release from MCC. The letter also asked for the U.S. government to work toward full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2007 and for a resolution in the lesser-known conflict in Eastern Sudan.

Why should we care about violence between two Islamic groups? Because these enemies continually try to demoralize each other with the most heinous action—raping the women belonging to the other side.

The complexities around this conflict make it difficult for U.S. foreign policy. First, this region has become the front line for the struggle to dominate northern Africa. Arab Muslims from the north, called Ginjaweed, are attempting to eradicate non-Arab Muslims. It is widely believed that the Sudanese government supports the forces from the north. Last March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president—making Omar al-Bashir the first head of state to be indicted while in office.

A second complexity for U.S foreign policy is the role of the United Nations and the African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Since beginning operations there in January 2008, 14 peacekeepers have been killed—the latest one on Sept. 29. But at least one organization claims the peacekeeping force is not doing its job.

"These women fled Darfur, hoping that the international community and Chadian authorities  would offer them some measure of safety and protection," said Amnesty International’s Tawanda Hondora in the Reuters report. "That protection has proved to be elusive, and they remain under attack."

Few of our friends and neighbors will care about violence between Islamic groups. Few will also want to spend more tax money to expand the U.N. peacekeeping effort that sees its people killed in the distant conflict.

In the meantime, real women and girls are suffering. The conflict is being waged on their bodies—deliberately shaming them into silence. But now is the time for us to pay attention and to ask our elected representatives to pay attention.

We can also follow the reporting by MCC, offer financial support to MCC  and pray for the "least of these" who are largely forgotten by the world.

Reader Comments

Add Comments