Janjaweed

The Janjaweed (Arabic: جنجويد, variously transliterated Janjawid, Janjawed, Jingaweit, Jinjaweed, Janjawiid, Janjiwid, etc.) is a blanket term used to describe mostly armed black Arab gunmen in Darfur, western Sudan. Using the United Nations definition/description, the Janjaweed is comprised of fighters claiming Arab background (mainly from the Baggara people). Since 2003 it has been one of the principal actors in the increasingly bloody Darfur conflict, which has pitted the Arab-identified Sudanese against the non-Arab muslim population of the region.

The name "Janjaweed" is often believed to mean something in a dialect of Western Sudan[1]. Generically meaning ‘hordes' in colloquial Arab, there is no evidence for etymological connection between Janjaweed and ‘jinn' (spirit), ‘jim' (‘G' as in G3 rifle) and ‘jawad' (horse). The Janjaweed are the successor to an earlier Arab tribal militia, the Murahilin (literally "nomads") [2] , 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 2003-2004.

The Janjaweed first emerged in 1988 after Chadian President Hissène Habré, backed by France and the United States, defeated the Libyan army, thereby ending Col. Muammar al-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 Reunion'. 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 Janjaweed 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 utilizing the Janjaweed as its main counter-insurgency force. Protracting the militia to attack and recover the rebel held areas of darfur, the Janjaweed however conducted a scorched earth campaign of mass atrocity targeting civilians in the region of Darfur. The U.S. State Department in 2004 named leading Janjaweed commanders including Musa Hilal as suspected genocide criminals. The UN Security Council called for the Janjaweed to be disarmed.

By early 2006, many Janjaweed had been absorbed into the Sudan Armed Forces including the Popular Defence Forces and Border Guards. Meanwhile, the Janjaweed expanded to include some Arab tribes in eastern Darfur, 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 [3], is suspected by the US State Department of being a leader of the Arab Janjaweed 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

* Picture of Janjaweed Fighter on Horseback
* Darfur Documents Confirm Government Policy of Militia Support
* Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
*HOPE for Darfur Campaign
*Sudan Emancipation & Preservation Network (SEPNet)
* States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Voices on Genocide Prevention Podcast Stay up-to-date on the crisis in Darfur and the continuing challenge or preventing and responding to genocide