Comments on: Endorsements

By: Rob Crilly

Rob Crilly — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:20:00 +0000

You raise some interesting questions, some of which will be covered in the book. I guess the general point is that the widely-accepted narrative of an Arab genocide against African tribes seems to miss the reality of what happened. If it was really a genocide would IDPs have clustered around government towns, filled with soldiers apparently intent on extermination?
That said, one of the lasting and most pernicious aspects of the conflict is the breakdown of relations between tribes and the erosion of the traditional mechanisms for resolving disputes. This is a bit chicken and egg, as it was Colonel Gadaffi’s message of Arab supremacism that helped cause this breakdown and sparked the wider conflict. At the same time the past six years has completed this damaging process so that it is difficult to see how things can go back to “normal”.
Any successful resolution of Darfur’s conflicts must start with getting all the tribes talking to each other, setting out their needs and claims, before we move on to getting rebels and government to the negotiating table.

By: Rob Crilly

Rob Crilly — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:13:59 +0000

Nov 10

By: Graham Holliday

Graham Holliday — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:12:20 +0000

I think I might just enjoy the sound of your nerves jangling and sweat dripping as you await the reaction to your tome more than your blog. And you still owe me a pint. I have not forgotten.

By: Aden Ali

Aden Ali — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:32:59 +0000

Rob! I hope the book will answer a puzzling question about Darfur – why did major population centers did not witness fighting? The atrocities happened in rural Darfur and the villagers sought asylum in the urban areas of Darfur where IDP camps are all located, etc…The only fighting in a major town reported was one clash at El Fasher airport in February 2004…
Actually, the IDPs were given land, aid agencies were invited in to serve them and there was peaceful settlement in the IDP camps during the onset of violence. Who takes the credit? There is some sort of heroism from the police in the major towns because they helped prevent Rwanda style neighbor-hacking-neighbour or Somalia style neighborhood fighters clan cleansing that reaches every where….it seems the conflict of Darfur was controlled somehow somewhat…The mix of tribes and ethnic arab and african descents in all towns and cities in Darfur (38 major towns) is never upset despite the conflict. Some local authorities claim the failure of containing he conflict in the rural areas was because government had no sufficient resources to police all Darfur..hence the collapse of co-existence in the rural areas…GoS authorities acknowledge there was a counter insurgency operation but deny that it ever targetted civilians…I wonder if you can cover a bit about the impact of the conflict on the customary law that used to help support social coexistence amongst various ethnic and tribes in the region….

By: Michael Logan

Michael Logan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:08:29 +0000

So when is the book likely to hit the shelves so I can invest a few quid in it?