Every day, you read the newspapers and read headlines blaring about "genocide in Darfur". United Nations sanctions have been imposed and peace keepers sent. Sudan has been condemned internationally and even in the Olympics, Winter Games gold medalist Cheek, has drawn attention to his activism as founder of 'Team Darfur', when his visa to Beijing was revoked.
The American athlete who will carry the flag for the games, Lomong, is from Sudan. He fled as a refugee from a genocide that has been ignored and suppressed. He is not from Darfur where about 150,000 have died, but from Southern Sudan.
Only from unbiased news organizations like the BBC, and human rights groups, did we learn that 1.2 million people, mostly from the Christian and Animist South have been killed over a 20 year period.
The Islamist North tried to take over the South. Mass killings, torture, rape was done in a systematic and large scale way.
In contrast to the outrage over Darfur, there was a media silence on Southern Sudan.
Why?
In Darfur, the victims are Muslim. In Southern Sudan, they were Christian and animist. I believe that the American media imposed a blanket of silence because they tend to be anti-Christian in their leaning. Contrast the heavy coverage, military intervention, and sanctions Bosnia received even though various reports say 25-50,000 may have died - compared with 1.2 million in Southern Sudan. Also, I believe they did not want Evangelical Christians in the USA to launch a movement and an outcry.
The unnoticed genocide.
