Information AboutJanjaweed |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JANJAWEED | |
| darfur conflict | |
| rebellions in africa | |
| rebel militia groups | |
| second chadian civil war | |
| central african war | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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Although the Darfur Conflict has also been framed as a battle between Arabs and black Africans, everyone in Darfur is black and Muslim . The true division in Darfur is between ethnic groups, split between herders and farmers, and the tribes gave themselves the label of "African" or "Arab" based on what language its members speak and whether they work the soil or herd livestock. Also, if they attain a certain level of wealth, they call themselves Arab. The name "Janjaweed" means "armed men on horseback." The Janjaweed is the successor to an earlier Arab tribal militia, the ''Murahilin'' (literally "nomads"), which had existed for many years beforehand. HISTORY The Janjaweed are a militia drawn from Darfurian and Chadian Arab tribes that became notorious for massacre, rape and forced displacement in 2003-04. Generically meaning ‘hordes’ in colloquial Arab, there is no evidence for etymological connection between Janjaweed and ‘jinn’ (devil), ‘jim’ (‘G’ as in G3 rifle) and ‘jawad’ (horse). The Janjaweed first emerged in 1988 after Chadian President Hissène Habré, backed by France and the U.S., defeated the Libyan army, thereby ending Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s territorial designs on Chad. Libya’s Chadian protégé, Acheickh Ibn Omer Saeed, retreated with his Arab militia forces to Darfur, where they were hosted by Sheikh Musa Hilal, the newly-elevated chief of the Mahamid Rizeigat Arabs of north Darfur. Hilal’s tribesmen had earlier smuggled Libyan weapons to Ibn Omer’s forces. A French-Chadian incursion destroyed Ibn Omer’s camp, but his weapons remained with his Mahamid hosts, along with an Arab supremacist ideology associated with the Libyan-sponsored ‘Arab Gathering’. The Janjaweed are primarily "Abbala" or camel-herders, although some "Baggara" or cattle herders joined their ranks in 2004. Throughout the 1990s, the Janjaweed were an amalgam of Chadian and Darfurian Arab militia, tolerated by the Sudan Government, pursuing local agendas of controlling land. The majority of Darfur’s Arabs, the Baggara confederation, were and remain uninvolved in the war. In 1999-2000, faced with threats of insurgencies in Western and Northern Darfur, Khartoum’s security armed Janjawiid forces. When the insurgency escalated in February 2003, spearheaded by the Sudan Liberation Movement, and the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Government responded by utilising the Janjaweed as its main counter-insurgency force. Implicitly encouraging them to take over the land of non-Arab ethnic groups, the Janjaweed were instructed to conduct a scorched earth campaign of mass atrocity targeting civilians. Leading Janjaweed commanders including Musa Hilal were named as suspected genocidal criminals by the U.S. State Department in 2004. The UN Security Council has called for the Janjaweed to be disarmed. By early 2006, many Janjawiid had been absorbed into the Sudan Armed Forces including the Popular Defence Forces and Border Guards. Meanwhile, the Janjaweed had also expanded to include some Arab tribes in eastern Darfur, which were not historically associated with the original Janjaweed. Chadian Arabs were also increasingly active in seeking to reestablish a political base in Chad, as part of the Unified Forces for a Democratic Change (FUC) coalition. Musa Hilal , who heads a small but powerful Darfurian Arab tribe is suspected by the US State Department of being a leader of the Arab Janjaweed [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/4007191.stm BBC . The New Yorker quotes him: " I am a tribal leader. ... The government call to arms is carried out through the tribal leaders." He admits recruiting but denies being in the military chain of command, according to Human Rights Watch . EXTERNAL LINKS
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