The Darfur Nightmare continues - Eye Witness Account. by International Crisis Group / ABC News Online 10:24am 22nd Apr, 2005   April 27, 2005.    UN fears return to Darfur scorched earth attacks. (ABC News Online)    The United Nations has expressed alarm that abandoned villages in Sudan's region of Darfur are once again being burned down to prevent residents from returning.    Returning from a trip to Darfur, the United Nations Refugee Agency expressed concern that villages are being burned as a terror tactic to discourage people from returning to their homes. A UN team was taken to a village in Western Darfur that residents claim was burnt by pro-government militias.    The UN fears a return to a policy that saw almost 100 villages burnt in the region late last year. About two million people have been displaced by the conflict in the western region of Sudan and the United Nations says the burning of villages will change the social structure of the region beyond repair.    Nairobi/Brussels, 26 April 2005    "A New Sudan Action Plan". (International Crisis Group)    Despite recent UN Security Council resolutions and a peace agreement covering the south, parts of Sudan remain at war or threatened by war and the security situation in Darfur is deteriorating. Stronger measures are needed to restore security and prevent further mass deaths.    A New Sudan Action Plan,* the latest briefing by the International Crisis Group, outlines a policy blueprint for the next steps required in Darfur, where as many as 10,000 civilians or more die each month, and elsewhere in the giant country.    "The UN, NATO and the EU need to get together urgently with the African Union (AU), decide who can do what best in Darfur and then do it without regard for institutional prerogatives or national prestige", says Suliman Baldo, Crisis Group's Africa Program Director. "How to maximise cooperation between these four organisations -- how to get the necessary additional troops on the ground quickly enough with equipment, structure and command organisation to be effective -- is probably the single most urgent and complex issue the international community faces with the entire Sudan portfolio".    The UN Security Council resolutions at the end of March 2005 were welcome, if long overdue, steps, raising the prospect that senior Khartoum officials will finally be held criminally accountable for their Darfur policy. But the situation remains very grave, and more action is needed to:    1.  protect civilians and relief agencies in Darfur by reinforcing AU peacekeepers with a stronger mandate and more troops -- up to at least 10,000 total -- that are properly resourced; enforcing the arms embargo and military flight ban over Darfur; neutralising government-controlled militias and enabling IDPs and refugees to return home;    2.  implement accountability by getting the proposed Sanctions Committee operational; by widening targeted sanctions; and aiding the International Criminal Court investigation;    3.  build a Darfur peace process by devising a blueprint for negotiations and appointing a lead senior mediator from the AU as well as U.S., EU, and UN envoys to lend support;    4.  implement the existing peace agreement for southern Sudan by deploying the proposed UN mission rapidly; effectively managing the oil sector; pressing for security sector reform; and ending the capacity of Khartoum hardliners to use the Ugandan insurgency, the Lord's Resistance Army, to sabotage stability in southern Sudan; and    5.  prevent new conflict in the east, before it becomes the next major civil war.    "In the absence of more assertive action, a resumption of war threatens the south, fighting could intensify in the east, and mortality rates will skyrocket in Darfur, where localised famine threatens", says John Prendergast, Special Advisor to the President of Crisis Group. "The future of the Sudanese state and its people are at stake, and their fate will be determined by the actions the international community now takes - or fails to take - to counter atrocity crimes and promote peace throughout the country".    Broadcast: 21/04/2005. ( Transcript: ABC News Online: Lateline)    Cease-fire monitor describes Sudan abuses.    TONY JONES: Former US marine captain Brian Steidle was a witness to what's been largely hidden from the eyes of the world - the joint operations of the Sudanese government and its client militia. Captain Steidle has given evidence in secret to the US Congress about what's been going on, and today he was there again pushing the case for stronger Western intervention to stop the killings. I spoke to him in Washington earlier today.    TONY JONES: Can we start by getting you to tell us what your role was in Darfur, what you did during your six months there?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Well, I was there as a US representative to the African Union - an African Union monitor, monitoring the cease-fire in Darfur. I was there for six months. We were there, like I said, to monitor the cease-fire, yet we weren't able to stop any of the fighting. We were there to observe what was happening and then to make our reports and take our pictures.    TONY JONES: Can you describe for us some of the truly dreadful things that you saw there?    BRIAN STEIDLE: When we were there in Darfur, we would see things - villages up to 20,000 had been burnt down to the ground. We would see scores of women and children that had been killed, evidence of torture - people had their ears cut off, their eyes plucked out, men who had been castrated and left to bleed on the fields when they ran from the villages. That was an everyday occurrence.    TONY JONES: You also have written about walking through a field of bones. Could you tell us about that?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, outside the village of Adwah there was a bone field. It was probably about 50m by 50m and you couldn't walk around without stepping on human bones. We don't really know how many people were killed there, but they apparently had been taken from one of the village by the Janjaweed and executed and left there to rot.    TONY JONES: In all these cases, are you talking about atrocities committed by the Janjaweed militia or the government itself?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Absolutely. That's what we saw the majority of the time and there were a few attacks that occurred by the rebels, but probably say 95 per cent of the attacks, maybe even more – 99 per cent - were from the government of Sudan. It was the government of Sudan working in conjunction with the Arab militias using their helicopter gun ships and their Antonovs to bomb and terrorise the people.    TONY JONES: So would you say the key role of a cease-fire monitor is effectively to stop the Sudanese government slaughtering its own people?    BRIAN STEIDLE: No, no, that's not their mission at all. They don't have a mandate to do that, nor is that their mission. They're there to simply report on the cease-fire.    TONY JONES: Let's get some more detail, if we can. Last December, you witnessed a joint government-militia attack on the village of Labado Can you tell us what happened there?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes. During that attack, we arrived when the helicopter gunships were still flying over and they were firing on the village. The village was burning. We arrived there and the government of Sudan had just recently attacked with around 3,000 troops and about 1,500 Janjaweed Arab militias that were with them.    TONY JONES: You're saying these helicopter gunships were actually strafing the village. What sort of damage was done? How many people were killed?    BRIAN STEIDLE: The village was a village of 20,000 people, and the entire village was on fire. Everything was burning. It took them more than a week to burn the entire village all the way down to the ground, but they did successfully do that.    TONY JONES: So the operation actually began with helicopter gunships coming in, strafing the village, and then they brought in the Janjaweed militia, is that right?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, that's correct.    TONY JONES: Was this typical in your experience of the type of attack that you witnessed, the government working alongside the militia?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, that's exactly what happened the majority of the times. The helicopter gunships would come in, strafe the village, the Antonovs would bomb and then the government and Janjaweed Arab militias would arrive and attack the village, killing scores of people and begin the burning process.    TONY JONES: Did you see the aftermath of that attack on the village of Labado?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, it took us about three or four days to convince the government of Sudan to allow us to enter the village. But, yes, we saw it first-hand from the helicopters, as I mentioned before, and when we got on the ground - you know, the burned villages, the looting that was being performed right in front of us by the Arab militias and the government of Sudan.    TONY JONES: What exactly did you see the Janjaweed militia doing in that village?    BRIAN STEIDLE: They were looting and burning the village directly in front of us. They were taking stuff out of the huts and then setting the huts on fire.    TONY JONES: Can you explain, with these helicopter gunships - can you explain how they're armed?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Each gunship has four rocket pods and each rocket pod, about 20 rockets, in each rocket, about 500 of these fleschettes. A fleschette is a small nail, maybe 4cm long, that has a pointy end and a fin on one side so the pointy end hits first and it's used against civilian targets, people targets, not vehicles or buildings or anything like that.    TONY JONES: What do they do to people?    BRIAN STEIDLE: They make them - we saw one individual, it appeared his back had been shredded by a cheese grater. That's what it does to them.    TONY JONES: There is clearly no doubt that the government and the militia are operating hand-in-glove. Do you believe the Sudanese military are actually ordering the Janjaweed militia, issuing them orders?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, I do, because they tell us that they are.    TONY JONES: And did you speak to senior Sudanese military officers to confirm that?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Most of the officers say that they don't have control over them and they don't know what they're doing, but we saw them giving them direction at many different times.    TONY JONES: Colin Powell went to Sudan last year and he described what he saw happening there as genocide. Is that how you see it?    BRIAN STEIDLE: I do agree with that term, but I do want to add that I don't think it should be an argument over terminology. I think that it should be about what's happening on the ground. Innocent people are being killed by a government that is aimed at wiping them out, pushing them out of Darfur, killing them, simply because they are black Africans. I think that that's what should be most important, not what term we define it.    TONY JONES: You say, "Simply because they are black Africans." What are the ethnic divisions in this fight?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Well, the government and the Arab militias are Arab Muslims, and the individuals that they're targeting are black African Muslims.    TONY JONES: Is it possible to estimate how many civilians have been killed?    BRIAN STEIDLE: No, I have no idea. I think that the UN estimate of 70,000, the prior estimate of 70,000 was extremely low. That was based on 10,000 a month dying of humanitarian causes per month over a seven-month period. I think a more realistic estimate are the more recent ones of around 300,000 to 400,000.    TONY JONES: Many of us have seen recently the film Hotel Rwanda and the frustrated impotence of the UN peacekeepers and the military observers there. Did you feel that same sort of frustration with what was happening in front of you?    BRIAN STEIDLE: For sure, I was. I wasn't able to stop any of it. I mean, our mandate did not allow us to do it. We carried a pen and a paper. We had no weapons to stop any of the fighting. We were there simply to report, and that was frustrating for us. We wanted to get in there and wanted to do more, but we weren't able to; that wasn't our mandate.    TONY JONES: So what's your advice to admittedly the small number of Australian troops who are going very soon to southern Sudan?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Those are troops that are designed or designated for the UN mission in the south of Sudan. That has nothing to do with Darfur. The UN mission in southern Sudan which will provide 10,000 peacekeeping troops to the south will not affect the conflict in Darfur at all.    ONY JONES: Do you have any idea why more Western troops haven't been mobilised in the face of what Colin Powell refers to as a genocide?    BRIAN STEIDLE: I cannot speak on that matter. I do not know why.    TONY JONES: You are speaking to people in the US Congress, even today. Do you get a sense that there is a growing frustration over what's happening in Darfur?    BRIAN STEIDLE: There is, for sure. A lot of the Congress men, the Congress women and the senators are extremely involved with this issue, passing legislation left and right, but still nothing is happening and still people are dying at at least 10,000 a month. We're getting ready to move into the rainy season. No crops have been planted this year and we will probably see that estimate rise to around 15,000 a month, just based off of humanitarian reasons and not from the fighting at all.    TONY JONES: Is it possible, do you believe, to mobilise a small number of African Union troops who are on the ground there at the moment to stop these massacres?    BRIAN STEIDLE: No, I don't believe it is. They are in too few numbers, nor do they have the resources or actually the capability. They operate there because the Sudanese government allows them to. They don't have a mandate to protect civilians.    TONY JONES: You were able to use small numbers of these African troops on an ad hoc basis, to stop individual massacres. Could that work more broadly?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, that is true. We basically positioned African Union troops in the middle between the government of Sudan and the village they wanted to attack and it persuaded them that they did not want to attack through us.    TONY JONES: Now, you've advocated a no-fly zone over Darfur. How difficult would that be to do in practice?    BRIAN STEIDLE: I think it would be extremely easy to do. I think if it was headed up by an organisation such as NATO, I think they could operate from Chad and they could have very few airplanes that would actually be needed to enforce a no-fly zone, and the logistics are already in place in the airports in Chad.    TONY JONES: And the purpose of that would be to stop the Sudanese military gunships acting in support of the militia on the ground, is that right?    BRIAN STEIDLE: Yes, it would.    TONY JONES: Is there a growing political will in the United States to actually do something to stop this happening?    BRIAN STEIDLE: I hope that there is. I can't speak for the politicians, but I really hope that it is. I have faith in democracy, and I believe that these people will do what is right and what's right is to stop what's going on.    TONY JONES: Why is it that you've decided to speak out? It's pretty rare, in fact, for Western observers to give these kind of detailed accounts of what is actually going on inside Darfur.    BRIAN STEIDLE: Just me personally, I think it's the right thing to do. I think that we need more support over this issue. I couldn't live with myself if I just sat idly by and let people die. So I felt that it was necessary for me to speak up.    TONY JONES: Would you be able to go back to Darfur after what you've said?    BRIAN STEIDLE: No, I'll never be able to go back to Sudan. I don't believe the Sudanese government - actually, I know the Sudanese government will not allow me back into their country.    TONY JONES: What would happen to you if you did?    BRIAN STEIDLE: I think I would probably disappear, like many Sudanese people do who speak out against the government..    New York, March 31, 2005.    Historic Step toward Justice; Further Protection Measures Needed. (Human Rights Watch)    The U.N. Security Council resolution referring Darfur to the International Criminal Court is a historic step toward justice for massive human rights violations committed in the western Sudanese region, Human Rights Watch said today. At the same time, the Security Council should help ensure an increased force on the ground to protect civilians and stabilize the deteriorating security situation.    The resolution gives the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) authority to investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed in Darfur. As Sudan is not a party to the treaty establishing the court, a referral from the Security Council is the only way for the court to have jurisdiction over the crimes, Human Rights Watch said. The resolution passed with eleven votes in favor, and four abstentions, including the United States.       “The Security Council’s action signals that those most responsible for mayhem and murder in Darfur will be brought to justice,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “This historic step by the Security Council offers real hope of protection for people in Darfur.”      For this reason, Human Rights Watch welcomes the abstention of the United States in the vote.  “We now look to the ICC prosecutor to respond swiftly and assume the responsibilities entrusted to him,” said Dicker..      While the referral to the ICC is a decisive step toward preventing further abuses, other concrete measures remain desperately needed, Human Rights Watch said. An immediate increase in the protection force in Darfur and monitoring of the Sudanese government’s commitment to end its aerial bombing of civilians are crucial.      The existing 2,000-member African Union ceasefire monitoring force lacks enough troops to adequately deploy in rural areas, protect civilians, or stabilize the deteriorating situation. Human Rights Watch has called on Security Council members to support the recent African Union proposal to double its force by providing all necessary financial, logistical, and other forms of support.       “The insecurity that continues to plague rural Darfur has rendered civilians displaced by the government’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaign into de facto prisoners in the camps and towns,” said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division. “A much bigger protection force must be deployed. The Security Council needs to actively support the African Union and maintain the pressure on Khartoum.”      Despite fewer allegations of air attacks in the last two months, the violence in Darfur has not ceased. Almost two million people have been forcefully displaced from their homes since February 2003. Most of the displaced persons remain in camps and towns and cannot return to their homes and farms due to ongoing attacks, rape, looting, and assault by government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed.      The Sudanese government has been unable or unwilling to stop ongoing atrocities. In recent months, rebel movements have also been responsible for an increasing number of attacks on commercial convoys. The prevalent insecurity, particularly for humanitarian aid convoys and commercial vehicles, is increasing fears of a major food crisis in the coming months. Visit the related web page
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