In 2003, fighting broke out in Darfur region of Western Sudan between government forces and the rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
The fighting internally displaced thousands of people within Darfur before they began moving as refugees to the neighboring Chad.
The government of Sudan has been accused by the United States and other Western countries of supplying the Janjaweed militia with weapons to fight the opposition, but the government has repeatedly denied the accusations.
The crisis in Darfur is sometimes referred to as a genocide, but the United Nations until now rejects such description.
For more about the issue, ask Dr. Eric Reeves live at IslamOnline.net
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Dr.Eric Reeves is Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He has spent the past eight years working full-time as a Sudan researcher and analyst, publishing extensively both in the US and internationally. He has testified several times before the Congress, has lectured widely in academic settings, and has served as a consultant to a number of human rights and humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan.
Working independently, he has written on all aspects of Sudan's recent history. His book about Darfur ("A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide") was published in May 2007. (Read critical praise for A Long Day's Dying.) He is also at work on a longer-range project surveying the international response to ongoing war and human destruction in Sudan over the past 18 years ("Sudan � Suffering a Long Way Off").
In 2003, fighting broke out in Darfur region of Western Sudan between government forces and the rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
