wow just read this. fucked up.

[QUOTE]Excerpts: Ex-Janjaweed fighter story

[SIZE=2][B]A former member of Sudan's pro-government Arab militias, the Janjaweed, has told the BBC's Newsnight programme that ministers in Khartoum gave orders for the activities of his unit in the Darfur region, which included killings and rape. Following are excerpts of the interview with ex-fighter "Ali", who is now living in London.[/B] [B]'GOVERNMENT ORDERS'[/B]

[IMG]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/66a.gif[/IMG] The people who trained us came from the north, from the government. They gave us orders, and they say that after we are trained they will give us guns and ammunition... They were wearing the uniforms of the military... I tell you one fact. The Janjaweed don't make decisions. The orders come from the government... One very well-known and regular visitor was Interior Minister Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hussein.

[B]'KILL!'[/B]

We will be split into two groups, one on horses, one on camels... The aircraft went ahead of the Janjaweed. We saw the smoke, we saw the fire, then we went in... Whenever we go into a village and find resistance we kill everyone. Sometimes they said wipe out an entire village... We hear kill! Kill! Kill! And we shoot to kill... [B]VICTIMS[/B]

Most were civilians - most were women... Innocent people running out and being killed including children. And those who escape will die of thirst. There are many rapes. But they don't do it in front of others. They take the victim away and rape them. [IMG]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/99a.gif[/IMG] [/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

Re: yao, in particular.

I live a sheltered life. Damn.

Re: yao, in particular.

Well at least they take them away before raping them. In Congo the women get raped in front of their family members.

Fear and Famine: WMD's in Africa...

Re: yao, in particular.

Damn, that was a painful read. :(

Re: yao, in particular.

and hopefully sobering up for some people. I've always said that the govt was behind those raids, behind the whole fucking thing, and still many Western countries are reluctant to say the truth...

Re: yao, in particular.

If you want to trace where the truth is just ignore those who have contracts with the Sudanese gov't (or owed money by them) and listen to those with no interest involved.

Re: yao, in particular.

true dat Ben....I have lt to say on this topic, but as i'm a bit tipsy I'm gonna save that until I've sobered up ;)

Re: yao, in particular.

[quote=Yao;391714]and hopefully sobering up for some people. I've always said that the govt was behind those raids, behind the whole fucking thing, and still many Western countries are reluctant to say the truth...[/quote]

as long as we got Escalades, Plasma TV's, and everything that makes us lazy and comfortable, our people won't do anything. It's a dog-eat-dog world unfortunately.

Re: yao, in particular.

Even worse, the part of the people that DOES react often enough get mocked.

I cannot believe that out dept. of development aid has already reserved about 100 million for the reconstruction of Sudan while the whole country is still being deconstructed by it's government! I'm all for an intervention with the help of the AU, but with NEPAD in place it's not going to happen anymore: then another thing the West can do is not only cut all aid to Sudan, but also to the rest of the African Union members that refuse to take action. They say they want to take matters into their own hands, but at the same time they do not act at all when it comes to proving they want to clean house and promote good leadership. Sudan, Zimbabwe are 2 prime examples of that.

Re: yao, in particular.

this is why i stand for the UN nations growing a pair and declaring war in an rffot for peace. if anyone reacted to an invasion of sudan like they did iraq, ill personally smack the shit out of you. this is the country that needed the regeim change. obviously. then on to the ICU in somalia, ethiopia. but nope, there will be a few hundred thousand liberal arts majors with pretentious eye glasses and 'unique' belts, crying and making wiseass remarks.

Re: yao, in particular.

(1) The UN is not about war, but about consensus - hence the usual reluctance to take action. I do agree that an intervention and regime change are necessary, but then again it could again be a case of the West installing puppets. The best changes are the ones from inside, so I advocate sanctions that will cripple the regime instead until it's weakened enough to be toppled, together with backdoor support for rebel groups.

(2) I'm officially doing an arts major and I'm far from a treehugging pussy, so I'd appreciate it if you could stop generalizing like this - not everyone that doesn't have a black/white view on things is automatically a leftist hippie treehugger with an arts major. The percentage is somewhat high though...

Re: yao, in particular.

STFU hippie.

at least you can grasp concepts of economics, trade, taxation, war, science, etc.

i have tried to talk to some people about topics on the serious note, and frankly, thier art history degrees prevent them from being ablt to contemplate most real world things.

Re: yao, in particular.

I'm a business hippie!

Re: yao, in particular.

lol. Maybe i'm a bit strange for an arts degree master, i don't know...i'm somewhere in the middle between politics, economics, development studies, anthropology and law.