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 View From the Camps, Peace vs. Justice:The Uncounted Vote
The world debates, Darfur burns
By CHARLES CIERI
Omir Al-Basir will certainly be remembered. The conclusion of his legacy of brutality, as the leader of Sudan against the Ethnic peoples of the Darfur Region, is yet to be written. Heads of state from all over the world argue over how to pursue this conclusion—through justice by bringing him to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or peace by suspending the indictment in exchange for an end to the suffering. One place that appears to have been left out of this consensus seems to also be most proximate to the ordeal: the Darfuris themselves.
Basir stands before overwhelming evidence of gross atrocities committed by forces under his control. He could be the first sitting head of state to be indicted by ICC, as well as the first person charged with genocide, the highest crime recognized by the ICC. Since the escalation of violence in 2003, Basir has reportedly wielded the ruthless Janjaweed against the civilian population, resulting in murder, mutilation, institutionalized rape and destruction of villages.
In May of this year the situation escalated further when an armed resistance to Basir’s rule, known as the Justice and Equality Movement, attacked state forces. The brutal reaction by the government resulted in the swelling of refugees in the neighboring state of Chad; some reports put the total number of Darfuris living in the Diaspora at 2.5 million.
Understanding the constituent
Camp Oure Cassoni
 Around the same time as this recent escalation, Katie Jay Scott, community outreach coordinator of Stop Genocide Now, traveled to the refugee camps of Eastern Chad. Her first trip to Camps Kounoungou, Mile, Farchana and Djabal, revealed more than 63,000 refugees in varying degrees of poverty. She then traveled to the northern camp of Oure Cassoni, which houses 26,000 refugees wilting under the advancing Sahara Desert.
Daily life in the camps is the antithesis, according to Scott, of Traditional Darfuri life.
She elaborates: “This is a culture that for generations lived off the lands, sowing the fields, they herded animals, kids from larger towns would ride to bicycles to school. Men would go to market, their life was sustaining themselves and singing and dancing associated with that. Now we asked them and they say they have nothing to do. Going from complete self-sustaining lifestyle to utter dependence, they are literally losing their culture everyday that they have to stay in the camps.”
 While tradition and heritage are receding, the landscape has not ever been robust enough to support normality. Much of the water is pumped out of the ground and dirty, and there is little or no soap in most camps. According to Scott this crushes self-esteem. But more pressing is the lack of even more basic staples.
The Word Food program can only afford 1017 calories of food a day per refugee, half of their target minimum, and about a third of the developed world’s intake. Scott comments on some of the 2.5 million Sudanese refugees surviving on this pittance: “I saw a woman carrying a month’s supply of food for a family of five.”
These camps are designed to simply sustain the people who have been driven from their homes. Barely meeting that goal, Scott relays the atrocity forced upon the innocent children of the fleeing parties:
“If you try to build some structure and cover it with the tent, trying to create a sense of security for the children you are watching, some of which are yours, some you grabbed while fleeing the Janjaweed and adopted into your family. As your trying to provide some stability for these children, the desert is literally taking your makeshift home. Right across the border, your land is being re-bombed in an attempt to threaten aid-workers into retreating.”
Their vote: no peace without justice
While political leaders and academics debate justice vs. peace, the consensus within the camps is that there can be no peace without justice. According to Scott, those who have and still stand to lose the most do not fear the repercussions of holding Basir accountable. Rather, they despise the contrary: the idea that he may buy more time, with phony statesmanship, in order to destroy more of the Darfuri culture before being brought to justice. Even more terrifying is the fear that he may succeed in wiping away the Darfuri people from history, making generations nothing more than a rumor.
“They really don’t see this as more of a risk,” according to Scott, “if you look at the past five years, it’s almost like it doesn’t make sense to wait.”
Scott reiterates that this is the consensus of the camps she visited: “There can be no peace without justice and without peace they will never be able to return home to Darfur.”
This shows how much the world stands to lose. A culture that is being grinded into extinction refuses to succumb to the mirage of appeasement, instead making the hard principled decision to stand hard and choose justice. Despite the Diaspora, which just as the desert reclaims this new home, pulls at the fabric of culture, their vision never looks away from the true path back home.
The Darfuri people at their weakest in these camps, almost barren of men due to the conflict, maintain their pride and belief that they will re-cross the border someday; not under a peace bargained from a murderer, but under justice tempered by unwavering patience.
Scott did not have too many happy endings to share, save one night that she could say many went to bed with the unfamiliar feeling of hope present.
Amira with family
 One night during Scott’s visit, a woman named Amira heard over to the BBC World News Radio that the ICC was going indict Basir. “She woke up everyone in the camp and they stood up all night cheering and laughing,” said Scott. “It was literally the only time, in this camp being overtaken by the desert, that they had joy and a sense that they may, one day, return home.
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