Its going on in Africa too..

Papa Shango

From CNN News..

Darfur villagers tell of war's horrors

Thursday, July 1, 2004 Posted: 6:37 PM EDT (2237 GMT)

AL-FASHER, Sudan (AP) -- First the airplanes come. Then the horsemen who burn, rape and kill.

Over and over, terrified villagers told the same story Thursday as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan got a firsthand look at the crisis engulfing Sudan's embattled Darfur region.

Annan, accompanied by government ministers and senior U.N. staff, toured one of the 137 camps where some of the more than 1 million people chased from their homes over the past 16 months have sought shelter. He has suggested international troops could be sent to Darfur if the situation does not improve.

Sitting on mats shaded by trees, he talked with camp elders and a group of women, and listened to them describe waves of attacks that aid workers have likened to ethnic cleansing.

Human rights groups accuse the Sudanese government of backing militias known as the Janjaweed, which are drawn from the region's Arab herders, in a campaign to forcibly remove African farmers from the vast, western region, where they have coexisted, and in some cases intermarried, for centuries.

"First the planes were flying over us and bombing us. Then the Janjaweed came," said a 20-year-old woman, who gave her name only as Zahara. "They started to shoot and burn. They took all our belongings. They took men and slit their throats with swords. The women they took as concubines."

Zahara, a mother of four, lost her parents in the panic and doesn't know what's become of them. She is now among the estimated 12,000 people living in makeshift shelters of branches and plastic sheeting at Zam Zam camp, just south of the North Darfur town of al-Fasher.

Here, at least, there have been no attacks, residents said. But women say they don't dare venture out of the camp for fear of running into the militias they say regularly abduct and rape African women and girls.

But with the rainy season getting underway, even the camps pose risks.

Dr. David Nabarro, head of the World Health Organization's crisis operations, said Thursday the displaced, who often lack access to clean drinking water or sanitation, could be hit hard by epidemics of diarrhea, cholera, dysentery and malaria.

"We anticipate that if things go ahead as they are at this moment, 10,000 people will die in the next month," Nabarro told reporters in Geneva after returning from a weeklong mission to Darfur.

Annan -- who is on a three-week tour of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe -- has raised the possibility of sending international troops to Darfur if Sudan's government can't safeguard the people of the region.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame told reporters Thursday that his country is ready to send about 100 troops to protect an observer force in Darfur.

U.N. officials call the situation in Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and in a meeting with Sudanese Cabinet ministers Wednesday, Annan said he wanted to see progress in the next 24-48 hours in resolving the conflict, which has killed up to 30,000 people and left some 2 million in desperate need of aid.

The United States called on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo and travel ban on the Arab militias in a draft resolution submitted Wednesday to coincide with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to Darfur. Powell presented the Sudanese government with a timetable to implement its promises to disarm the militias and lift restrictions on humanitarian workers.

Powell also gave the government a timetable to negotiate a settlement to the 16-month uprising in Darfur.

The Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, two rebel groups drawn from the region's African tribes, took up arms in February 2003 over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen in Darfur. A cease-fire was signed April 8, but both sides accuse each other of violations.

The rebel movements are also confronting Arab militias blamed by humanitarian groups for attacks that have razed hundreds of villages in the area.
Black dots mark where buildings once stood in a satellite photo of a razed village near Fata Borno, Sudan.


The government denies any complicity in the militia attacks and says the warring sides are clashing over land and scarce water resources.

"The government did not use the Janjaweed or ask them to come in (the conflict)," Osman Keber, governor of North Darfur, told Annan on Thursday. "We do not deny that they did a lot of atrocities, but they came by their own agenda."

He said the rebels are also committing abuses and reiterated the government's pledge to improve security and disarm all armed groups.

In their talks with Annan, Sudanese Cabinet ministers said the government planned to double the number of national police in the region to 6,000.

Annan welcomed this commitment Wednesday, saying: "I think we are all agreed ... without security, the people are not going to go back to their villages."

"I am happy to hear that the government accepts its responsibility for protection," he said.

But for the villagers sheltering at Zam Zam, the news was no consolation.

"The ones who hit us with planes, we don't trust them," said 19-year-old Sakina Mohammed Idris.

She said she was among 42 girls captured in her village by turbaned raiders and forced on a 21-day journey on foot through the desert. Along the way, the women were raped. When the militiamen tired of them, they were released.

"They spoiled me three times," she said bitterly.

While the governor insisted stability is returning to northern Darfur, an Iraq-sized region, humanitarian workers said attacks continue, particularly in the west.

Over the past week, hundreds of desperate refugees congregated at another site near al-Fasher, hoping for assistance. But when Annan arrived to meet with them Wednesday, the settlement was deserted. Only their donkeys remained.

Social Affairs Minister Ahnoun Mohammed Ebrahim pointed to heavy flooding in the area and said the refugees had been moved overnight to a better camp already served by U.N. agencies and aid groups. But U.N. officials said that place was already overcrowded and the refugees were certain to be turned away.

A U.N. spokesman in New York said humanitarian workers would investigate the sudden disappearance of the 5,000 people who had occupied the site.
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So we've got shit going on there that has happened for years... shit that is parallel to what Saddams regime was all about. Why arent we quick to step in and help them?

Birdman Junior

Crazy shit happens all the time, I mean look at all the crazy fucks who lead countries around the world. There a lot of people ruling killing innocent people, shit is insane, and you are right if we step in for one thing we should step in for another...