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Tainted as murderers and criminals, Arabs are caught up in the same circle of violence that grips Darfur.
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CAIRO — Stereotyped as the enemy by the West and neglected by the government, Arab Darfuris are the silent victims of the conflict in the western Sudanese region, The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday, March 22.
"It's as if we are against all the world," Mohmed Izzat, who represents Arab nomad populations in North Darfur's state government, said bitterly.
"Now everyone acts as if we are all killers."
The conflict in war-ravaged Darfur is usually described the Western media and official as involving Arab versus non-Arab ethnic Africans, with Arabs cast as the villains.
But Darfur's Arab population asserts they are no less victimized in the deadly conflict than the non-Arabs, except that their dilemmas usually go unreported.
Cut off from their homes and livelihoods, many Arabs are caught up in the violence and forced into displacement camps.
Adam Abdalla Omar, 70, ended up in his old age living in a camp after his village was attacked by gunmen.
Several thousands like Omar are trapped in small pocket-like towns, unable to make use of their traditional migration routes used for grazing and watering cattle and camels.
Even international groups pressing for an end to the humanitarian disaster in Darfur are denying war-weary Arabs aid.
"People want to make us criminals instead of helping us," Izzat said
"The (aid groups) give us nothing. They view us as enemies."
Excluded
Izzat said Arabs in the western region have long suffered from a lack of education, with only fewer than 10% literate.
"We cannot explain ourselves, so we are exploited," he lamented.
Worse still, ethnic Arabs say they are not included in any talks over Darfur's future.
"Arabs were not part of the negotiation," said Izzat. "They got nothing."
The government and the main rebel group the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed an AU-mediated peace deal in May to end the bloody conflict.
However, peace has never really been implemented with violence escalating day in and day out as other rebel groups refused to sign up to the deal.
Some blamed Khartoum government for overlooking the rights of Arabs amid the turmoil.
"The government went through the whole peace process without representing the people they once used," said Mariam Sadiq Mahdi, daughter of former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq Mahdi, who is the leader of the opposition Umma Party.
"That's left Arabs with a lot of tension. It's very turbulent."
Experts fear that excluding Arabs from attempts to end the deadly strife could backfire.
"The more we isolate them and tarnish them, psychologically it can only serve to make them feel more defensive," Cate Steains, acting head of the UN mission in North Darfur's capital, El Fasher, The Los Angeles Times.
Instead, Steains said, the only solution lies in joining all parties of the conflict in talks.
"Ultimately these people are going to have to live together.
"We need to engage all groups, including the Arabs, if we want to achieve peace."
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