Darfur and the Genocide Debate

In Sudan's western Darfur region, a massive campaign of ethnic violence has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 civilians and uprooted an estimated 1.8 million more since February 2003. The roots of the violence are complex and parts of the picture remain unclear. But several key facts are now well known. The primary perpetrators of the killings and expulsions are government-backed" Arab" militias. The main civilian victims are black" Africans" from three tribes. And the crisis is currently the worst humanitarian disaster on the planet.