Moon falls down the rabbit hole

By Clay Varney

In an op-ed entitled "A Climate Culprit In Darfur," published in the Saturday, June 16 edition of the Washington Post, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon passes the buck for the devastation and genocide in Darfur away from the Sudanese government and Janjaweed militiamen, where it rightfully belongs, and attributes the violence to the consequences of global warming. According to the secretary, "Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change." Citing the lack of rain in the region, which Secretary Moon states is a result of man-made global warming, tensions began to build in Darfur between nomadic Arabs and settled black farmers. Due to the poor agricultural conditions, these farmers began to fence off their land, angering the nomads, which ultimately touched off the violence we see today, resulting in 2 million refugees and uncountable deaths.

Despite Secretary General Moon’s claims to the contrary, something other than global warming lies at the root of the genocide. Though the informed person is aware that the fighting in Darfur has been between rebel groups of black farmers and the nomadic Arab herders who compose the Janjaweed militia supported by the Sudanese government, there is another, lesser known, element to the conflict. This element, which Secretary Moon does not address in his opinion piece, is of a religious/political nature. The groups targeted for ethnic cleansing are in fact Muslim, coreligionists of the Janjaweed and the ruling government in Khartoum. However, the form of Islam practiced by the black African peoples of Darfur is influenced by Sufism, the mystical strain of Islam, and elements of animism, the mode of religion indigenous to the area. Of course, this practice rubs the Islamofascist regime of President Omar al-Bashir the wrong way. In a 1989 coup, al-Bashir joined forces with the National Islamic Front’s Dr. Hassan al-Turabi. Since consolidating power, the regime has implemented Sharia law and, quite famously, hosted Osama bin Laden. The Arab government, as so aptly demonstrated in Darfur, has sought to implement its form of religious practice on the other peoples of the country, through any means necessary. So, for Secretary Moon to claim global warming as the root cause of the genocide in Darfur ignores the reality of the situation, and the reality of the brutal nature of Sudan’s government.

Secretary Moon also ignores the complicity of the People’s Republic of China in the Darfur genocide. In the quest for natural resources to satisfy the thirst of its exploding economy, the Communist government of China has blatantly ignored the human rights violations of the Sudanese government, much as it perpetrates its own violations of human rights. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Sudan exports 64% of its oil to the Chinese. The subsequent cash flows allows the government of Sudan to continue its policies in Darfur, allows for the purchase of Russian and Chinese arms used to kill innocents in Darfur, and otherwise allows the government to continue its support for the Janjaweed. China has also actively blocked efforts within Secretary Moon’s own United Nations to impose sanctions on Sudan and any efforts to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur, which President al-Bashir finally accepted this past week. Sadly, Moon seems to ignore the facts right under his nose.

In his assertion that global warming has caused the genocide in Darfur, Secretary Moon strains all credibility. By refusing to put blame for the conflict on the authoritarian nature of the Sudanese government, which is steeped in a violent religious ideology, Moon does not fault the concrete actions of individuals within the government and among the Janjaweed that have resulted in the genocide, those people who are truly responsible for the murderous violence in the region. One must wonder if Secretary Moon would similarly blame global warming for the recent Palestinian on Palestinian violence in Gaza, the conflict in Kashmir, or the bombings and shootings perpetrated between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq.

Sadly, Secretary Moon’s disjointed musings in the op-ed page of a major American newspaper offers yet another example of the futility of relying on the United Nations when issues important to the United States are at stake. After years of stalling due to Chinese interference in the UN, definitive action is finally being taken on Darfur. Unfortunately, Darfur is not an isolated case, and the dysfunction of the UN will no doubt continue. The United Nations acts as a repository of forces opposed to the interests of the United States, who use the body as a political tool to obstruct American freedom of action in the international arena. It is high time that US policymakers cease perceiving the United Nations as some kind of stamp of approval necessary before taking action, and instead act according to what is best for the security of the American people.

Clay Varney is an intern at the Center for Security Policy and a Master’s candidate in International Security at the University of Denver.