By Mia Farrow (Toronto Star,  November 4, 2009)

Cycles of violence and apathyCampaign of brutality in Darfur has lasted longer than the Holocaust itselfMia Farrow

 The post-World War II cry of “Never Again” has tragically become “Again and Again.” But in today’s wired world, we cannot retreat behind claims that we don’t know what is happening.

 Here is what is happening: In 2003, the Sudanese government responded to rebel activity in the Darfur region by launching a brutal campaign of destruction upon the entire civilian population of Darfur. Using planes, government troops and a proxy militia called the Janjaweed, the violence has become genocide, with as many as 90 per cent of Darfur’s villages completely destroyed and hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered.

 More than a third of the population of Darfur has been displaced, and sexual assaults of women and girls are commonplace. Darfur is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. After six years what message have we sent to the people of Darfur? Only that they are completely dispensable.

 In 2004, I made the first of my 11 trips into the Darfur region and witnessed the terrible suffering. Ever since, I have worked to carry the words and images of the victims in and around Darfur, and to rouse international action to change this unacceptable situation.

On March 4, the International Criminal Court indicted Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir for the murder, rape, plundering and displacement of millions in Darfur. He retaliated by expelling half the international aid agencies from the region.

These agencies had provided life-saving food, water, basic health care and sanitation to more than 2 million displaced people. Humanitarian operations in Darfur faced total collapse. But the world did nothing.

So on April 27 I began a fast of water only – in solidarity with the people of Darfur and as a personal expression of outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by and watch innocent men, women and children needlessly die.

Today the worst of the outright killing is over in the Darfur region. But almost 3 million people are still languishing in refugee camps. Humanitarian access is limited, inconsistent or non-existent. More often than not, there is no medicine or doctors; the latrines are overflowing because they cannot be maintained; bore holes – the camps’ only water sources – break down and there is no one to fix them and no replacement parts.

Stockpiles of sorghum fester with maggots because there is no one to deliver the rations. While the long nightmare continues for the refugees, aid workers are doing their best to fill the gaps left by their expelled colleagues.

People are dying of disease and hunger. They long to return to their homelands. But they cannot leave the camps because there is no protection anywhere. Their beloved fields are ashes now, or occupied by Arab tribes that have come in from Sudan, Chad and from distant Mali and Niger.

Sadly, efforts by both the United States and others to reach a comprehensive peace agreement and end the humanitarian disaster in Darfur have failed. Together with paralyzing restrictions on relief agencies, the plight of displaced Darfurians, both in Sudan and neighbouring Chad, continues to deteriorate.

The hybrid peacekeeping mission of the United Nations and the African Union, known as UNAMID, remains understaffed, underequipped and generally ineffective. Rations of hope are meagre in Darfur, but along with the refugees we hope and we pray for peace.

Two Canadian Jewish groups are among the leaders in Darfur advocacy in Canada, and I am in Toronto this week to support their efforts. Ve’ahavta, a non-profit humanitarian organization, has sent pharmaceuticals and personnel to the region in cooperation with local and Israeli partners.

 The Canadian Jewish Congress, meanwhile, will be releasing an extraordinary handbook titled, Darfur: A Jewish Response that will engage Canada’s Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Darfur advocacy.

As Elie Wiesel wrote in amazement about the Holocaust: “The victims perished not only because of the killers, but also because of the apathy of the bystanders. What astonished us after the torment, after the tempest, was not that so many killers killed so many victims, but that so few cared about us at all.”

 Mia Farrow is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a leading Darfur activist. In 2008, she was selected by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.