Genocide, murder, rape. These are all powerful words that are almost always used in an explanation of Darfur. These aren’t nice words that people like to hear. Many will do all that they can to avoid them, look away, turn and walk the other direction, change the channel on the TV.
“Home”
Did that scare you? Did you turn the channel?
“I want to go home”
That is one of the first phrases children learn in life. Except for wanting to be with one’s Mom, wanting to go home is probably the most universal human desire. “I want to go home to Darfur” is what we continue to hear from so many people in Camp Djabal. I don’t think that a lot of people really understand this desire to go home, and the paramount importance of it. I recently read a comment to a Darfur blog where the person suggested that maybe the refugee camps could be setup as new sovereign states with their own governments. The person was trying to be helpful, but in my opinion, that suggestion gets it all wrong. The people of Darfur have been expelled from their home, and they want to return. A whole population of people being driven from their homes by their own government and not allowed to return in safety and peace, is a violation of basic human rights.
Day to day protection and shelter are basic needs that everyone understands, but the long term goal of returning home in safety and peace is something that people also need to understand and remember.