There has been debate over whether what’s happening in Darfur constitutes genocide and ethnic cleansing or not. The UN declined to call Darfur genocide but the United States however did label what’s happening in Darfur as genocide. The Khartoum government on the other hand has totally denied that it is practicing a policy of genocide in Darfur and instead claims that it’s only fighting an illegal rebellion.

Before we decide if what’s happening in Darfur is indeed genocide and ethnic cleansing let’s look at some simple definitions of those terms first.

Genocide (from Wikipedia):

Genocide is a term defined by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Ethnic cleansing (from Wikipedia):

Ethnic cleansing refers to various policies or practices aimed at the displacement of an ethnic group from a particular territory.

According to the above definition of genocide, it would be inaccurate to say that Khartoum is directly practicing a policy of genocide against Darfurians. The Khartoum government is not waging war in Darfur because it’s interested in wiping out certain “African” ethnic populations. All the Khartoum government mainly cares about is fighting the rebellion and maintaining its solid grip on power in the country. Only after that do “tribal” and “racism” factors come into play. The recently solved eastern conflict further proves this point. The Khartoum government has marginalized the inhabitants of eastern Sudan just like it has done to Darfur even though the tribes in eastern Sudan consist of “Afro-Arabs” and “Arabs” who crossed the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula about a century ago. The Janjaweed on the other hand are directly terrorizing and committing serious harm to ethnic rival tribes in Darfur. They have attacked and killed innocent inhabitants of villages simply because they are from rival tribes that back up the rebels. Hence, since the Khartoum government backs up the Janjaweed, it must also be at least partly held responsible for what the Janjaweed do.

According to the above definition of ethnic cleansing, it would be accurate to say that tribes in Darfur competing for areas with better water resources have engaged and continue to engage in ethnic cleansing against each other.

What has been mentioned above is of course debatable. Many of those who argue against calling Darfur genocide agree that the conflict has taken a genocidal nature but disagree from a legal perspective on calling Darfur genocide since in their view it doesn’t fit the legal definition of the term. Whether or not what’s happening in Darfur is genocide shouldn’t matter much. What matters is that the Darfur conflict is a very ugly and horrific humanitarian disaster which should get the full attention it deserves.