Professor Writes in Report on Sudan

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an organization dedicated to promoting health through fostering human rights protection, published a 14-page report on the conditions in Sudan on June 23, drawing heavily upon the research of Harvard School of Public Health professor Jennifer Leaning ’68.

Leaning’s expertise was essential in analyzing testimony from those in Sudan.

“Medical and public health skills were necessary in knowing what questions to ask the refugees and aid workers, knowing how to evaluate their answers, and in making assessments,” Leaning wrote in an e-mail.

It was her expertise that prompted her to make a trip to Sudan in the first place.

“The crisis in Darfur and Chad is an incredibly acute and massive humanitarian crisis, and I wanted to help. With my experience with humanitarian crises and my background in human rights and international legal issues, I thought I could contribute to this effort,” Leaning wrote.

Leaning was part of a two-member team affiliated with PHR that canvassed Darfur, Sudan and the border region of Chad, where hundreds of refugees have established makeshift camps. Darfur has been a recently-publicized hotbed of conflict between the Janjaweed militia and non-Arab Darfurians. The government of Sudan is alleged to have conspired with Janjaweed militias to cause the destruction of the black Darfurian population. Both groups are composed almost entirely of Muslims.

Leaning’s investigation outlined six ways in which the actions on the part of the militias constituted genocide—a delicate term in the world of international relations.

“Based on our research, we have determined that the nature of the attacks on the non-Arab population is so serious and widespread that raising concerns of genocide is appropriate,” she wrote.

The report cites the consistent pattern of attacks on and destruction of villages, livelihoods and means of survival, specifically the “hot pursuit with intent to eradicate [non-Arab] villagers...and the consistent pattern of systematic rape of women” as evidence of the desire to achieve a full-scale eradication of non-Arabs living in Darfur.

Though the situation in Sudan has been widely condemned by foreign governments and international human rights organizations, Leaning was taken aback by the extent of the crisis “despite months of warning.” She cited “the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis, especially in the Northeastern area of the Chad/Darfur border” as one of the most pressing concerns in the region.

Further obscuring complete appreciation of the situation, Leaning believes that the worst atrocities in the region remain largely undocumented.

“There are 137 areas where the displaced people of Darfur have clustered or settled, and the international community has been allowed to reach only 75 of them,” Leaning wrote. “What we are seeing is desperately awful, but we fear that what we aren’t seeing is worse.”

The report issued recommendations to various entities, including the United States and the United Nations. PHR recommends that the United Nations pass a Security Council resolution ensuring, among other things, humanitarian aid, Janjaweed disarmament and human rights monitoring. Leaning recognizes the difficulty of this task, but hopes that the “United States and Europe, working with the African Union” may have some effect.

The government of Sudan remains defiant, however. In a statement issued yesterday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail dismissed the suggestion that any foreign intervention was necessary, threatening that U.S., British or U.N. intervention would only aggravate the situation.

Leaning, however, believes such a measure may be necessary.

“The Sudanese government has to be stopped from killing the non-Arabs in Darfur,” she wrote. To achieve a ceasefire, “external political pressure [must be levied] on the government if not the threat of coercive measures from the U.N. Security Council.”