April 19 marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, the internationally recognized date that commemorates the millions of lives that were lost at the hands of Nazi perpetrators. More importantly, the day reminds us that addressing and preventing crimes against humanity and other atrocities is a responsibility we all share.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) website, Congress “unanimously” established this day of reflection in 1980, while entrusting USHMM with the responsibility of “leading the nation in commemorating Days of Remembrance and for encouraging appropriate observances throughout the United States.”
To that end, USHMM planned several events beginning April 15 and continuing through April 22. Woven throughout this weeklong period of remembrance is a singe theme – “Choosing to Act: Stories of Rescue.” These stories highlight the efforts of “ordinary people who acted in extraordinary ways” in the “face of injustice.”
Today in Sudan, another story of inhumanity is unfolding, as its leader, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is waging an ethnically-inspired conflict against the Nuba, an indigenous people living in the mountainous, southern region of the country.
Mr. Bashir’s proclivity for violence is well documented, evident by the International Criminal Court’s indictment against him for genocide in Darfur.
This recent, humanitarian crisis surfaced last July, shortly after South Sudan’s independence. For decades, a civil war raged in Sudan between the Arab-African, dominated north and the Black-African, dominated south. During the war, the Nuba formed a rebel army and allied themselves with the south.
In 2005 the U.S. brokered a peace agreement, ending the conflict and paving the way for the south’s secession. Many issues remain unresolved, including the line of demarcation dividing the two Sudans. Consequently, the Nuba find themselves on the wrong side of the border.
Sudan asserts its campaign targets only remnants of the rebel forces. This isn’t true. Civilians comprise the lion’s share of casualties, enduring aerial and rocket bombings, razing of villages, murder, and systematic rape. The mountains’ caves provide the only shelter against the violence.
Within months a famine will undoubtedly strike the area—as farmers the Nuba can’t till the soil as bombs rain down upon them.
Until recently, the Nuba’s plight has remained off the radar of the public’s consciousness. But thanks to the efforts of American, Ryan Boyette a serious discussion is now taking place.
Originally a volunteer with nongovernmental organization, Mr. Boyette has lived among the Nuba for almost a decade. He fell in love and married a Nubian woman. When the NGO left, Mr. Boyette refused to abandon his new family.
Armed with a camera, a computer powered by a solar battery, and an unreliable satellite connection, Mr. Boyette began documenting Mr. Bashir’s fury. Not be outgunned by Sudan’s military, he recruited his own “soldiers,” training local Nuba in journalism to wage his media campaign.
Mr. Boyette will soon be launching a website, Eyes and Ears Nuba (www.eyesandearsnuba.org), providing the “only source of reliable and credible information from the ground.” Mr. Boyette’s goal is simple—draw attention to a conflict, while motivating the public to pressure elected leaders to act.
Activists, academics, and former diplomats familiar the crisis have weighed in, proposing solutions, ranging from opening up a humanitarian corridor from South Sudan to drawing the government of Sudan, which faces an economic crisis and growing, political opposition, to the table of compromise by the fruits of self-preservation.
The phrase “never again” emerged from the Holocaust as a clarion call to the international community about its responsibility in preventing the types of atrocities committed by the Nazis.
Sadly, since World War Two the world has largely stood idly by as millions have died, victims of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other crimes against humanity.
Remember the Killing Fields of Cambodia where victims were bludgeoned to death, or the use of mustard gas against the Kurds of Iraq, or the massacre of Muslim boys and men at Srebrenica, or the deaths of Tutsis at the hands of Hutus wielding machetes in Rwanda, or the Janjaweed rampaging through Darfuri villages terrorizing the inhabitants?
As each victim succumbed to the most evil and grotesque elements of our nature, the expression “never again” lost its resonance with every, extinguished breath of life.
From their caves, the muffled voices of the Nuba cry out “never again.” As these words echo through the Nuba Mountains, what will the international community do? Will it lend its eyes and ears, but fail to provide its voice? Or will it say “never again” and this time mean it?
This latest chapter of inhumanity has yet to be written. Let’s honor Holocaust Remembrance Day by rescuing the Nuba, amplifying their voice and prodding our representatives to listen and act, for the lives of hundreds of thousands are at risk of becoming footnotes in the annals of human rights violations.
Frank J. Perez is from Hollister.
