hello i love the beach! :D
Sunday, March 16, 2008
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS DARFUR??
Living on an island, it’s easy to forget that there is a world out there in need of our care and continued consideration.
Today, Darfur is dying.
The Darfur genocide has killed more than 400,000 civilians and displaced 2.5 million people from their homes, which is about half the size of the Singapore population. These people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
What has happened in Darfur to cause such a major conflict?
In February 2003, upset by poverty and neglect, two Darfurians rebel groups launched an attack against the government. The government responded with a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the civilian population who are members of the same ethnic groups as the rebels. As a result, hundreds of villages were burned and destroyed, tens of thousands of civilian died, and millions of people were driven from their homes to refugee camps.
How are people surviving in Darfur?
The majority of the people in Darfur are now living in camps where they are almost entirely reliant on international humanitarian assistance. They are unable to leave the camps because they run the risk of being attacked outside the camps. People cannot return to their homes due to the presence of government-backed armed forces in the rural areas.
Personally, I think that this is worrying because many innocent people are dying. What has started out as a conflict between the government and two rebel groups has turned into major bloodshed. If nothing is done to stop this violence, more people will become homeless or dead. The worst part is that the government who is supposed to protect its people is the one who is killing them.
We can do our part to help the people in Darfur by creating awareness about the situation. This can be done through dissemination of related information through letters to the media, as well as postings on school websites or personal blogs. We can also participate in petitions or donate generously to organisations set up to help the people who are suffering in Darfur.
We must act quickly and decisively to end this genocide before hundreds of thousands more people are killed.
Today, Darfur is dying.
The Darfur genocide has killed more than 400,000 civilians and displaced 2.5 million people from their homes, which is about half the size of the Singapore population. These people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
What has happened in Darfur to cause such a major conflict?
In February 2003, upset by poverty and neglect, two Darfurians rebel groups launched an attack against the government. The government responded with a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the civilian population who are members of the same ethnic groups as the rebels. As a result, hundreds of villages were burned and destroyed, tens of thousands of civilian died, and millions of people were driven from their homes to refugee camps.
How are people surviving in Darfur?
The majority of the people in Darfur are now living in camps where they are almost entirely reliant on international humanitarian assistance. They are unable to leave the camps because they run the risk of being attacked outside the camps. People cannot return to their homes due to the presence of government-backed armed forces in the rural areas.
Personally, I think that this is worrying because many innocent people are dying. What has started out as a conflict between the government and two rebel groups has turned into major bloodshed. If nothing is done to stop this violence, more people will become homeless or dead. The worst part is that the government who is supposed to protect its people is the one who is killing them.
We can do our part to help the people in Darfur by creating awareness about the situation. This can be done through dissemination of related information through letters to the media, as well as postings on school websites or personal blogs. We can also participate in petitions or donate generously to organisations set up to help the people who are suffering in Darfur.
We must act quickly and decisively to end this genocide before hundreds of thousands more people are killed.
Labels: By Ingrid Ryanti
4:16 PM
