| Ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan |
[18 May 2005|12:37am] |
http://www.savedarfur.org
photos: http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/darfur/steidle/
report: http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAFR540382004
letter: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR540242005?open&of=ENG-SDN
propaganda flash, but in a nutshell: http://www.savedarfur.org/go.php?q=neverAgain...Again.html
A preventable humanitarian crisis, affecting more than two million people, is raging in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement. Government-backed militias, known collectively as the Janjaweed, are systematically eliminating entire communities of African tribal farmers. Villages are being razed, women and girls raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Victims report that government air strikes frequently precede militia raids. — SaveDarfur.org
In March a shaikh told the UN that, in Mornei in Western Darfur, up to 16 women per day were being raped as they went to collect water in the river bed (wadi). Women had no choice but to continue to go to collect water despite the threat of rape, because they feared that their men would be killed if they went instead.
"We have branding of rape victims. We've had a number of testimonies and visual evidence of women who have been raped and then branded -- sort of like a scarlet letter, a permanent letter on them that says they've been raped by an Arab soldier, or Janjaweed member, and the blood line has now been infiltrated."
It's a brand that Zara Abel Kareem will wear the rest of her life. "I was raped," she says. "I was burned on one leg. They used the knives."
Zara said her husband and two of her children were killed. Now, she's left with a 1-year-old infant and the mark of the Janjaweed.
I think if people see this footage, they'll say Oh, my God, that's horrible. And then they'll go on eating their dinners.
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