Tracey Barnett: Tragic invisibility of the hell that is genocide in Sudan

If I tell you this column will be about George Clooney in Africa you might stick with me. If I tell you it is about Darfur, I'll bet you 20 bucks you'll move on.

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil has been the perfect refrain for Darfur's genocidal hell, engulfing an entire nation of 6 million. The United Nations now describes it as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Surprised? Darfur's real tragedy is its invisibility.

Christopher Hitchens in Slate called Darfur, "A Rwanda in slow motion, and in front of cameras and diplomats. What was all that garbage about 'never again?"'

At least 2.5 million are homeless, 3 million are dependent on international food relief, and anywhere from 200,000 to 450,000 are dead, slaughtered by ethnic cleansing. The UN won't call it genocide.

In this case, we've outdone ourselves; we've found a way to make Sudan's Darfur almost disappear off our compassion-fatigued radar screens. So far this year the three major US news broadcasts combined have devoted 18 measly minutes of coverage to Darfur, according to The Tyndall Report.

Even combining coverage in the US, Germany, South Africa and the Middle East, Sudan's tragedy has garnered only 1.25 per cent of international news, according to Media Tenor Research Institute.

We're no better. In New Zealand this year we've seen Darfur on our nightly news for a whopping total of 8.5 minutes. Not much infotainment in death.

There are far too many reasons why George Clooney's recent visit there is the only thing that is pulling in eyeballs. Take your pick.

A movie star visiting the wreckage is a lot more footage-worthy than dead bodies shoved down village water wells to poison the supply or hundreds of helicopter-bombed villages flattened into dirt.

There is always the obvious. One of journalism's tenets is to follow the power.

Want to wager what would get coverage first - a war situation in white Christian Europe or black Muslim Africa? There is no power left in the faces of refugees who have witnessed mass rape, abductions, and mass executions.

News directors will tell you this story has no fuse, it has been a slow-burn for three years now. There isn't a focal point of twin towers imploding or footage of walls wavering in earthquakes.

When a new tragedy hits we veer off to Indonesia's earthquake death tolls of 6200 but never turn around to see the 5000 every month now dying in Darfur who are left behind. Are we mired in worldwide attention deficit disorder?

A Genocide Intervention Fund report said, "Put simply, if television does not cover the genocide in Sudan, it does not exist in the minds of many. If it does not exist in the public's mind, there is no sense of urgency and no public pressure on world leaders to do anything to stop the killing."

It doesn't help that it's hard to find any good guys in this war. The Sudanese Government brutally put down a rebel uprising using the Janjaweed, a fierce physically black but ethnically Arab faction that has killed black Africans en masse with the rallying cry of "Kill the slaves! Kill the slaves!", according to a US Government report.

The infighting rebel factions also stand accused of atrocities, leaving the international community scratching its head where to go next if the Sudanese Government doesn't deliver on its promise to begin disbanding the Janjaweed terror.

It begs the obvious question: where is the urgent UN peacekeeping force? Gone fishin'.

Khartoum turned away a UN assessment mission and threatened that anyone who turns up on their soil uninvited will find Darfur their graveyard.

Nato officials have declared that "their footprint should be as limited as possible" in Darfur. Translation: This is too big, too expensive, and too messy.

When Colin Powell visited the country in 2004, he boldly called the situation genocide. But too many other countries heard only political subtext on another Islamic problem from the US perspective and never considered listening to the message.

America had spent its moral capital on other political blunders. Osama bin Laden would be only too happy to lead a line-up of Arab leaders shouting invasion if an US-led peacekeeping coalition entered a Muslim country.

This tragic invisibility comes at a terrible human cost. In April the UN was forced to halve food rations for 3 million hungry people for lack of funds. They are scrambling to restore that but donor countries aren't paying up.

So what are we left with? Numbers that somehow must convey devastating human suffering enough to be noticed?

Fear not, when governments dither and public apathy sets in, there's always our favourite torchbearer of moral rectitude to save the day - the celebrity. Enter good ol' George - not Bush, but Clooney, bless his salt and pepper locks.

When five US legislators were arrested in front of the Sudanese embassy, some noticed. But when George Clooney headlined a Save Darfur rally after his trip there, then spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, the house was packed and press coverage flowed.

Clooney said, "I'm not a legislator or a politician. I just try to use the credit card you get from being famous in the right way."

He's right to count his charge card credits wisely. There are 6 million people counting on someone returning their call. As a last resort, even Hollywood will do.

That must be worth $20 - if you can spare the change.