Name:Zhou Zhanjie  Student ID：b07097
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year

Abstracts: Darfur Crisis is "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world", which has caused hundreds of thousands die, and more than 2,500,000 displaced. In this article, the origin, history and present of Darfur crisis will be introduced, views of the international societies to this crisis are to be shown. Then, the root of the matter is to be analyzed to make the issue more clear to be understood. Finally, the Future blue print of Darfur issue will be drawn and the possible solutions to level off or resolve this disaster are to be proposed.
Keywords: root; conflict; Future；Darfur crisis
1 introduction
1.1 geography and history of Darfur
       Darfur is a region in the west of Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur which are coordinated by a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority. Due to the Darfur Conflict, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency since 2003.
Darfur covers an area of some 493,180 square kilometers (190,420 sq mi)— approximately the size of Spain. There are about 6 million people living in this region. It is largely an arid plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,042 meters (9,980 ft) of topographic prominence, in the center of the region. The region's main towns are Al Fashir, Nyala, and Geneina[1].
Developments in the Darfur region are dependent on the terrain and climate, as it is composed mostly of semi-arid plains that cannot support a dense population. The one exception is the area in and around the Jebal Marra mountains. It was from bases in these mountains that a series of groups expanded to control the region.
The recorded history of Darfur begins in the 14th century with the establishment of a Tunjur sultanate. Independent Darfur reached a height as the Keira dynasty began in the seventeenth century. In 1875, the Anglo-Egyptian Co-dominion in Khartoum ended the dynasty. The British allowed Darfur a measure of autonomy until formal annexation in 1916. However, the region remained underdeveloped through the period of colonization and into independence in 1956. The majority of national resources were directed toward the riverine Arabs clustered along the Nile near Khartoum. This pattern of structural inequality and underdevelopment resulted in increasing restiveness among Darfuris. The influence of regional geopolitics and war by proxy, coupled with economic hardship and environmental degradation, from soon after independence led to sporadic armed resistance from the mid-1980s. The continued violence culminated in an armed resistance movement around 2003.
1.2 Brief introduction of Darfur Crisis
The region became the scene of a rebellion in 2003 against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, with two local rebel groups - the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) - accusing the government of oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arabs. The government was also accused of neglecting the Darfur region of Sudan. In response, the government mounted a campaign of aerial bombardment supporting ground attacks by an Arab militia, the Janjaweed. The government-supported Janjaweed were accused of committing major human rights violations, including mass killing, looting, and systematic rape of the non-Arab population of Darfur. They have frequently burned down whole villages, driving the surviving inhabitants to flee to refugee camps, mainly in Darfur and Chad; many of the camps in Darfur are surrounded by Janjaweed forces. By the summer of 2004, 50,000 to 80,000 people had been killed and at least a million had been driven from their homes, causing a major humanitarian crisis in the region. Till now, 200,000 people had been killed and 2.5 million displaced.
2 Origin, past and present of Darfur crisis
The low-level clashes came to a head in February 2003 when two non-Arab rebel militias - the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - attacked and captured several towns in Darfur. They demanded that Khartoum increase economic development in the region, share power, and disarm the Janjaweed. The government refused and in July launched major offensives.After battling for months, the two sides agreed to a series of cease-fires in September, but they were routinely violated. By December all efforts at peace collapsed.The Janjaweed increased attacks against civilians, according to international observers, creating what the UN has called "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."
Untill now, the five-year-old conflict has killed more than 200,000 and displaced more than 2.5 million people. Facts show that Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died from violence, disease, and starvation, and thousands of women have been raped. More than 2.5 million civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and property stolen. Thousands of villages have been systematically destroyed and more than 230,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad. But most of those displaced are trapped inside Darfur. Although large-scale government attacks against civilians have declined since 2005, millions remain at risk. Most of the displaced are not returning home for fear that their villages will be attacked again. The Sudanese government still bears primary responsibility for the danger to civilians, but the increasing fragmentation of the rebel groups and their use of violence have contributed to the high level of insecurity.[2]
3 views of Darfur issue by international societies
As regards the nature of Darfur issue, the United States views that what has taken place in Darfur as “genocide”, while Chinese government sees it as “a problem of development”. Before June 2004, the Bush administration viewed the Darfur issue as only “a humanitarian crisis”. On March 27, 2004 the New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof used the term “genocide” to describe the Darfur Crisis, saying that “Sudan’s behaviour also easily meets the definition of genocide.”[3] However, the U.S. government declined to describe publicly Darfur issue as “genocide”.
On April 7 of 2004, Deputy State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli, Speaking on the 10th Anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, said “I think we have a good sense of what’s going on there…we’ve called it a humanitarian crisis. …I really hesitate to use the G-word at this point not really having considered it in that light”[4]. In June 2004, under pressure from public opinion, the U.S. government organized an inter-agency group to consider whether the Darfur conflicts constituted genocide. One month later the U.S. Congress passed a resolution calling the crisis “genocide”. On September 23, 2004, Democratic Presidential Candidate, Senator John Kerry said in an article of The New York Amsterdam News that “President Bush should stop equivocating and join the U.S. Congress in calling the catastrophe in Darfur by its rightful name: genocide”[5]. He should also release immediately the powerful findings of the State Department's own investigation into the horrors in Darfur.” This forced the Bush administration accepted this definition finally on September 2004.
Professor Sarah Kenyon Lischer take a similar view as U.S. government. He said in an article that “This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a war.” He maintained that “The label ‘humanitarian crisis’ conveniently absolves the rest of the world from taking political and military action in Darfur. By providing generous humanitarian assistance, governments and the UN claim to take meaningful action. But genocide cannot be resolved by donating blankets and food to the potential victims.”[6]
From the very beginning, the Chinese government has declined to call the Darfur crisis  “genocide”. Instead, after examining the deeper causes of the issue, it views the crisis as a “problem of development”. Liu Guijin, Chinese special representative for Darfur issue, reaffirmed China’s standpoint at a briefing on May 29, 2007. Liu Guijin said that the real reason for the Darfur crisis is that the region is undeveloped, impoverished and short of resources, leading to local tribes competing for water and land. So, the Darfur issue is essentially “a problem of development”[7]. It is true that the most direct and basic cause of the crisis is that drought forced people living in northern parts to move to central areas.
On the issue of Whether the Darfur conflict constitutes “genocide”, the United Nations has reached a clear conclusion. In October 2004, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed an international commission of inquiry to determine whether or not there had acts of genocide in Darfur crisis. After three months’ investigation, the commission proposed a report on January 31, 2005, which claimed that since February 2003, there had been lots of events in Darfur that seriously contravened the international human rights law as well as the international humanitarian law. However, the report denied that there was genocide in Darfur. The report declared that Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia should be responsible for all the crimes against humanity, but the crucial element of genocide appears to be missing, at least the central government authorities are taken into account[8].
4 peace-keeping efforts and humanitarian intervention of international societies
Differences existed between China and U.S. on the issue to deal with the Darfur crisis. The U.S. government has tried to call for sanctions agaist Sudan, while China, on the other hand [...]

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