Villagers burned alive in Sudan atrocity

[struggle4progress]

By David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 28/07/2004)

One of the most savage atrocities yet recorded in Sudan was laid bare yesterday when it was reported that Janjaweed militia shackled villagers and burned them alive during a raid in the Darfur region.

Monitors from the African Union reported that on July 3 the black African village of Suleia was attacked "by militia elements believed to be Janjaweed".

The Arab raiders, mounted on horses and camels, "killed civilians, in some cases by chaining them and burning them alive".
<snip>

The African Union has traditionally turned a blind eye to atrocities committed by member states. Any criticism from that quarter carries far more weight as a result.
<snip>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/28/wsudan28.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/28/ixportal.html


Sudan to face 'genocide' inquiry
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Wednesday July 28, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>
The Foreign Office said yesterday that it would not shy away from uncomfortable conclusions, even though a declaration of genocide would invoke a legal obligation to intervene.
<snip>

Sudan has bridled at the increasing international pressure and the suggestion by General Sir Michael Jackson, the chief of general staff, that Britain would be able to send a force of 5,000 if necessary.
<snip>

In Britain a Foreign Office spokesman asked whether what was happening in Darfur amounted to genocide said: "There are certainly some elements. There is an ethnic element to the violence, but we do not at the moment have incontrovertible proof."
<snip>

The US House of Representatives passed an unopposed motion last week declaring genocide in Darfur. The Senate unanimously agreed in a voice vote.
<snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1270516,00.html


Resolve needed to halt Sudan genocide
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Wednesday, July 28, 2004

It's going to take concerted efforts for the world to stop the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan. The situation demands sustained focus.
<snip>

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other diplomats have done significant work to gain Sudanese promises to act responsibly. But Sudan must act, not just talk.

Humanitarian aid is also urgent. Federal Way-based World Vision says Sudan is promising to facilitate aid deliveries for refugee camps. The U.N. World Food Program and private agencies, including World Vision, also are sending food to refugee camps in Chad.

A U.S. agency has warned that 350,000 or more Sudanese could die this year. That gruesome prospect can be averted only with international resolve.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/183778_darfured.html



Sudan promises a fight if foreigners invade
Reuters
Wednesday, July 28, 2004

ANKARA Sudan's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Sudanese soldiers would fight back if foreign troops entered his country to quell ethnic violence in its western Darfur region, but added that he hoped this would not happen.

The United States Congress has branded the Darfur violence as genocide and both Washington and the European Union have threatened economic sanctions. Britain and Australia have both said they might send troops as UN peacekeepers to the region.

"If we are attacked we will not sit silent, we will retaliate," the foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail told a news conference in Turkey, "but we definitely hope we do not reach that situation."

http://www.iht.com/articles/531374.html

[Massacure]

1. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be burned alive.

[reorg]

20. did you see fahrenheit 911?

at about 57 minutes into the film, an American soldier sings:

the roof is on fire ... we don't need no water let the motherfucker burn, burn motherfucker, burn

He really seems to enjoy what he does in his job if we can take his grin as indication. Probably has some practice, too.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Now if Sudan will get some oil, maybe Bush would be....

willing to help you.

:eyes:

[Solly Mack]

3. They have oil. The Sudan has oil and natural gas.

[Hobarticus]

5. Do WMDs count towards foreign intervention, anymore?

Or was that just a sham?

Easy to joke, but this is sick.

[Solly Mack]

4. wtf is wrong with people?

has humankind learned nothing?

[aquart]

8. Silly. We've learned it works.

Just like clearing the trees off the land. Just like we did to the Indians. This is a tried and true method.

It works. And pretty much nobody stands up for the powerless.

Ask the Kurds. They'll tell you. The Armenians could fill in lots of details. Liebensraum. Living room. Ask the Russians about the Germans.

[gottaB]

6. Mark Lacey of the NYT reported one of the incidents

"Days after the American secretary of state and the United Nations secretary general ended their tour, witnesses said, gunmen stormed a girls' school in the desert region of Darfur, chained a group of students together and set the building on fire. The charred remains of eight girls were still in shackles when military observers from the African Union arrived on the scene."

Despite Appeals, Chaos Still Stalks the Sudanese.

I checked the AU website for the report, but they don't update very frequently.

[aquart]

9. Arabs and schoolgirls. A fiery combination.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Sudan

Congo since 1998 3.5 million
Sudan accuses Bush of exploiting Darfur crisis for election campaign
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=707785

[aquart]

10. 8 million? Not 6 million?

Busy, busy.

[bemildred]

11. A less selective list:

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatx.htm

One really should not leave out the achievements of Stalin
and the Japanese in China during WWII. But there are many others
as you can see. I like this fellow because he includes a lot
of cites so you can see the range of estimates.

[Catfight]

12. But Saddam had torture chambers? Nothing to see other than in Iraq.

Michael Moore stated yesterday to O'Lielly that many dictators are evil and need to be removed, this confirms his statement. Bush has his head in the Sudan Sand over this one.

[gottaB]

13. still haven't seen the report

the bbc's coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3932321.stm

The latest communiqué from the Peace and Security Council (Communiqué on Darfur crisis, 07272004), as mentioned by the beeb, calls for considering and planning for a full-fledged peackeeping mission.

9. Requests the Chairperson of the Commission to prepare and submit to it, for consideration, a comprehensive plan on how best to enhance the effectiveness of the AU Mission on the ground, including the possibility of transforming the said Mission into a full-fledged peacekeeping mission, with the requisite mandate and size, to ensure the effective implementation of the Cease fire Agreement, with particular emphasis on the disarmament and the neutralization of the Janjaweed militia, the protection of the civilian population and the facilitation of the delivery of the humanitarian assistance;

At the present, opposition to such a proposed peacekeeping mission is coming from Arab League nations, Russia, China and France. Support may come from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria and Rwanda. The US has sent mixed signals, as have other nations in Europe.

The US-backed resolution calling for a threat of sanctions has already been weakened, and still it faces significant opposition. In the absence of a clear mandate from the Security Council, support for any expansion of the AU mission may be severely limited.

[geek tragedy]

14. No genocide here--Chirac says so! n/t

[gottaB]

16. Barnier's visit to Abu Shouk, El Fashir

The French may be rethinking their position.


French FM appeals for Khartoum's help in Darfur

French foreign minister arrives in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region

Darfur's displaced recount atrocities to French FM

France says Africa should take lead in ending Darfur violence

French FM, visiting Darfur refugees, says sanctions may be needed in Sudan

[Flagg]

18. Be that as it may

FRENCH SOLDIERS IN CHAD BEGIN RELIEF WORK FOR SUDAN'S DARFUR
Received Saturday, 31 July 2004 16:31:00 GMT

NDJAMENA, July 31 (AFP) - French soldiers stationed in Chad began airlifting aid to the border with Sudan's Darfur region Saturday, as Sudan reluctantly agreed to accept a UN Security Council resolution threatening international action unless atrocities in Darfur are halted within 30 days.
After President Jacques Chirac ordered a mobilization to help the 1.2 million people driven from their homes by Sudanese troops and Arab militia known as Janjaweed, French forces in Chad began flying relief supplies to the border town of Abeche and prepared to send 200 troops to secure Chad's eastern frontier with Darfur, according to army colonel Philippe Charles.
However the French action stopped short of entering Sudanese territory where the government has warned it would send its army to repel any foreign military intervention.
Amid concern that the escalating crisis could turn Sudan into a new breeding ground for terrorism and instability, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sent a message Saturday to his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Beshir, urging him to bring the Janjaweed militias under control.
The Security Council passed a resolution Friday giving Sudan 30 days to rein in the militias, and threatened unspecified international action, without specifically using the word sanctions.

http://www.ttc.org/200407311631.i6vgvkq28505.htm

[seemslikeadream]

15. BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...

HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...

BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html WATCH THIS VIDEO only takes 3 minutes

Wumpscut
Totmacher

sie ahnten nichts von mir
von meiner wilden gier
doch als du kamst zu mir
da wurde ich ein tier
kein gedanke an danach
als ich dir die knochen brach

tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot

tot

fuer mein naechstes leben
schoepfe ich neue kraft
ich bin dem toeten ergeben
in der einzelhaft

tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot
tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot

ein dahinsichen
von gottes hand
ich kann dich riechen
und das denken verschwand

tot tot tot tot tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot tot tot tot tot

ich mache dich tot ich mache dich tot
ich mache dich tot ich mache dich tot

sag mir was du willst
dass du meine sehnsucht stillst
ich mache dich tot fuer immerdar
von blut alles rot auf gottes altar

tot tot tot ich mache dich tot
tot tot tot von blut alles rot

ich mache dich tot fuer immerdar
ich mache dich tot glaub mir es ist wahr
ich mache dich tot fuer immerdar
ich mache dich tot auf gottes altar


TRANSLATION

Wumpscut - Deadmaker

They didn't expect me
never expected my wild lust
I turned into an animal
No thought about afterwards
When I broke your bones

Dead, dead, dead I make you dead
Dead, dead, dead stained from blood so red

Dead

For my next life (life after death in the religious sense)
I get the power I need
I’m a slave to the killing
In solitary confinement

("einzelhaft" (solitary confinment) has become part of the german vocabulary after the terrorist attacks of the Red Army Fraction during the 70's. It's used for people in prison, who are put into complete isolation not just from other people, but from all kinds of information. It's what might be known in the US as "sensual deprivation", a kind of torture-technique to destroy people's self.)

Dead, dead, dead I make you dead
Dead, dead, dead stained from blood so red
Dead, dead, dead I make you dead
Dead, dead, dead stained from blood so red

Wasting away
By God’s hand
I can smell you
And my thought disappeared

Dead, dead, dead I make you dead
Dead, dead, dead stained from blood so red
Dead, dead, dead, dead

I make you dead I make you dead
I make you dead I make you dead

Tell me what you want
That you fill my longing (that you satisfy my desire)
I make you dead for evermore
God’s altar stained from blood so red

Dead, dead, dead I make you dead
Dead, dead, dead stained from blood so red

I make you dead for evermore
I make you dead believe me its true
I make you dead for evermore
I make you dead on God’s altar

http://www.bushflash.com/animation.html

[gottaB]

17. more news reports of children burned alive

Death and Deception in Darfur

Militia's in Sudan are Burning People Alive, Aid Workers Say

I don't know why the headline is qualified that way. Raghavan cites direct testimony from refugees in addition to statements by aid workers.

[daleo]

19. This is bad, terrible, unspeakably cruel

As was the use of napalm in Iraq and Viet Nam by the U.S.