Here's how one UN official apparently summed up the Darfur conflict to an unnamed celebrity passing through N'Djamena recently...
Un-named UN figure: (enthusiastically) “Yes, basically the janjaweed are the Arabs, you know the ‘white’ Arab horsemen who carried out the killings against black African tribes in Darfur”
The full, rather comical exchange is posted on Celeste Hicks' blog. Can't imagine who the unnamed celebrity is, although I'm guessing he's fond of stewardesses...
That would be hilarious if it weren't so disturbing. And I thought that framing the conflict as an Arab/African dichotomy was falling out of fashion! Organizations like the Save Darfur Coalition are certainly trying to deny that they've ever used such rhetoric to describe the crisis.
http://savedarfuraccountabilityproject.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/so-what-do-sdc-and-007-have-in-common/