It's four years since conflict erupted in Darfur, engulfing the people of this rural region of western Sudan in terrible suffering. The world said ‘never again’ after Rwanda. Yet the UN, Western governments, the Arab League and the African Union have stood by while the Sudanese Government ethnically cleanses its own citizens. 200,000 dead, 2 million displaced, and counting.

So why the paralysis? This month the NI takes a cold, hard look at the politics behind the scenes of ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis: With the conflict now spreading to neighbouring countries, what can be done to help the people of Darfur?

2 Letters
Missed opportunities in Palestine; deficiencies of Homo sapiens; Baha'is and cinema in Iran.
PLUS: Letter from Mauritius

4 Sick of promises
Jess Worth encounters a Darfurian community that's demanding answers.

8 Facts, timeline and map

10 War against women
Femke van Zeijl on the devastation caused by rape.

13 Salaam Darfur
Moataz El Fegiery and Ridwan Ziyada challenge the Arab world's silence.

14 An African struggle
African civil society is getting results, reports Dismas Nkunda.

16 Darfur: a history

18 Over a barrel
Leben Nelson Moro on the curse of oil.

20 Don't ignore Darfur
How to take action.

21 SPECIAL FEATURE

What next?

The future for the world can look bleak, dominated by technological and corporate power. But what if resistance to it won through? Pat Mooney tells a story illustrating how things might unfold differently between now and 2035.

25 Currents
Scary booklist of the neocons; lesbian Palestinians breaking out; African cinema lion roars.
PLUS: Wordpower and Seriously...

28 Big Bad World
Extremism at large in Polyp's cartoon
PLUS: NI Prize Crossword

29 Making Waves
A letter from inside prison by Iranian women's rights campaigner Mahboubeh Hossein Zadeh.

30 Mixed Media
Including stunning films from India and Aboriginal Australia, music from Mali and Cuba, plus novels about US Muslim punks and a deaf tapestry mender in Iran.

32 Southern Exposure
A ghost town of sand, as seen by Namibian photographer Helga Kohl.

33 View from Abu Dhabi
Urvashi Butalia on a cityscape of the future.

34 Essay: Myths of the Global Market
how the free market destroys life, by John McMurtry.

36 Country Profile - Antigua & Barbuda

NI Japan

No.89

Contents

<This month's translation>

- Sick of promises (NI p4-7)

- Facts, timeline and map (NI p8-9)

- War against women (NI p10-12)

- An African struggle (NI p14-15)

- Over a barrel (NI p18-19)

- Country Profile - Antigua & Barbuda (NI p36)

- Currents
--- Green America Steps Up (Climate Change) (NI p27)
--- Big Bad World (NI p28)