{"footnote":"\u003Cp\u003E  Contrast this with the UN commission\u0026rsquo;s painstaking effort to make sense of the identities \u0026lsquo;Arab\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;African\u0026rsquo;. The commission\u0026rsquo;s report concentrated on three related points. First, the claim that  the Darfur conflict pitted \u0026lsquo;Arab\u0026rsquo; against \u0026lsquo;African\u0026rsquo; was facile. \u0026lsquo;In fact, the commission found that many Arabs in Darfur are opposed to the Janjawiid, and some Arabs are fighting with the rebels,  such as certain Arab commanders and their men from the Misseriya and Rizeigat tribes. At the same time, many non-Arabs are supporting the government and serving in its army.\u0026rsquo; Second, it has never  been easy to sort different tribes into the categories \u0026lsquo;Arab\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;African\u0026rsquo;: \u0026lsquo;The various tribes that have been the object of attacks and killings (chiefly the Fur, Massalit and Zeghawa tribes) do  not appear to make up ethnic groups distinct from the ethnic groups to which persons or militias that attack them belong. They speak the same language (Arabic) and embrace the same religion  (Muslim). In addition, also due to the high measure of intermarriage, they can hardly be distinguished in their outward physical appearance from the members of tribes that allegedly attacked them.  \u003Cem class=\u0022emphasisClass\u0022\u003EApparently, the sedentary and nomadic character of the groups constitutes one of the main distinctions between them\u0026rsquo;\u003C\/em\u003E (emphasis mine). Finally, the commission put  forward the view that political developments are driving the rapidly growing distinction between \u0026lsquo;Arab\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;African\u0026rsquo;. On the one hand, \u0026lsquo;Arab\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;African\u0026rsquo; seem to have become political  identities: \u0026lsquo;Those tribes in Darfur who support rebels have increasingly come to be identified as \u0026ldquo;African\u0026rdquo; and those supporting the government as the \u0026ldquo;Arabs\u0026rdquo;. A good example to illustrate this is  that of the Gimmer, a pro-government African tribe that is seen by the African tribes opposed to the government as having been \u0026ldquo;Arabised\u0026rdquo;.\u0026rsquo; On the other hand, this development was being promoted  from the outside: \u0026lsquo;The Arab-African divide has also been fanned by the growing insistence on such divide in some circles and in the media.\u0026rsquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\n","audio":[],"video":[]}