Radio Dabanga Omits the Most Notorious Term ‘The Janjaweed’ from Its News Reports
By: Joljol Mohamed Yahya
Radio Dabanga, the most popular radio set in Darfur and Sudan at large, and it has become famous even more than the state run radio of Omdurman. More than five years of being on air and on cyber, has and is giving excellent service, and fed the Darfur displaced persons and refugees who have been affected by the genocide in Darfur, with good news and bad news, and of course, news about peace and war in Darfur. Dabanga has retold, and is retelling the perpetrators of genocide in Darfur with the news of their actions against their victims.
Radio Dabanga is an independent Radio that broadcasts the relevant news to its listeners across Darfur region and this means that, the Dabanga Radio serves anybody without regard to their political or social opinion, or even if the listener is independent, whether politically or socially, Radio Dabanga is there to serve the listener with good and bad news concerning the plight in Darfur. Radio Dabanga is a place and the voice of the voiceless people, not only in Darfur but also the voice of the marginalized people in Sudan as a whole.
Nevertheless, as the esteemed listener of Radio Dabanga of six years now, I came to realize that, the Radio Dabanga which has become the most respected radio in Sudan and Darfur in particular, it is, so sad that, ‘the Radio Dabanga’ has omitted in a series of dangerous events in Darfur, the most notorious word, which, the worlds’ dictionaries’ have ever known. The word ‘Janjaweed’, has disappeared from the news reports of Radio Dabanga and nobody knows why Radio Dabanga has omitted the word ‘Janjaweed’, except the managerial staff of Radio Dabanga can refute this accusation of being none neutral as its key principals defines the Radio as being an independent Radio that provides the relevant news to any, or to whoever the listener may be.
The displaced people in Darfur, for instance, report to Radio Dabanga that, the Janjaweed have killed them, or attacked them, or looted their property, or raped the women and girls and so forth, Radio Dabanga, because of its reluctance to broadcast the incident precisely, as it has been told, it reverses the statement and says, “unknown militia or unknown gunmen have done this or that” as if the culprits were not identified by their victims. The victims say ‘the Janjaweed’ have done this, and Dabanga says the opposite of the statement which is, ‘the unknown militias’ have done this. And moreover, Dabanga’s news interviewers never mention the term Janjaweed when interviewing the victims of the genocide in Darfur for further news. To prove me wrong or right, just follow Dabanga’s daily news or log on to Dabanga’s homepage news archive where the term ‘Janjaweed’ is not dictated or not mentioned in the news articles. In my view as an ordinary citizen of Darfur, Radio Dabanga dose no believe that, the so called Janjaweed militia does exist. Whatever crimes the Janjaweed committed against the innocents in Darfur, the victims attribute the atrocities to the Janjaweed militia and, in fact nobody else could harm the civilians except, the Sudan armed forces and the Janjaweed. But Radio Dabanga acquits the Janjaweed from their crimes as not mentioning the doer of the action when it puts the incident on air, this could mean that the Janjaweed are not guilty of their crimes according to Dabanga’s view. Where is the impartiality of Radio Dabanga here??? All the actors in conflict in Darfur are all well known, Sudan armed forces and its proxy Janjaweed militia on one side, and the Darfur rebel movements with their different names on the other side. Since Radio Dabanga is an independent Radio, it should live up to its obligations of not omitting some information as is the case with the term ‘Janjaweed’. To be continued in the next edition.
Joljol Mohamed Yahya, is a Darfuri Genocide survivor who has been forced by the current regime in Khartoum to live outside the country of his nationality, and he can be reached at [email protected], or [email protected]