Just another dent in the damage…

Monitoring a ceasefire was always going to be a tough job but ex-marine Brian Steidle had no idea he was about to witness such a thing as modern genocide. The Devil came on Horseback is an amazing documentary, not one I say is ‘good’ particularly due to its topic but amazing nonetheless. It tells the story of his experience following the ‘end’ of Sudan’s 20-year civil war armed with nothing but a camera and a pen. After six months he returned to the states to show and tell the world what he saw…

.And The Economist learns a few lessons:

Remember Ahmad Batebi?

Waltz with Bashir is both an incredible screen animation and graphic novel depicting Ari Folman’s quest to rediscover his lost memories from the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut during 1982.

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection between the dream and their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing about that period of his life anymore.

Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

The Sabra and Shatila massacres are central to the plot development, which culminates in the unlocking of Ari’s lost memories about the horrific mass slaughter of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians carried out by the Lebanese Forces Christian militia group, following the assassination of Phalangist leader and president-elect Bashir Gemayel. It’s beautifully drawn and beautifully shot without losing the realism of the deeply disturbing subject matter or the difficulty Ari himself has in confronting his painful past.

There are a number of clips to watch on Youtube but given the book will only take you an hour to read (tops) there’s no excuse. And seriously the film is well worth it. But remember ‘behind those beautiful drawings and animation there were real people, they were slaughtered, they were killed. There were kids there, there were women there, there was thousands of people there’. Gives you something to think about eh?

The Facts:

More than 90,000 are believed to have been killed during conflict with a further 200,000 thought to have died from conflict related causes (estimates of the total death toll thus far ranges between 300,000 – 450,000);

A further 2.7 million people are said to be displaced living in camps for refugees or internally displaced people (IDPs), squatting in shacks, living with relatives or sheltering in the bush. Few others have fled further afield claiming asylum;

90% of Darfur’s villages have been destroyed;

3.6 million people are dependent on international humanitarian aid.

The Cause:

Low-level conflict has simmered in Darfur for years, characterised primarily by disputes between nomadic and sedentary groups, because of increased competition for resources – grazing grounds for cattle and livestock.

Nomads were accustomed to move south during the dry season after the harvest to graze their herds on the fields of sedentary farmers; this provided food for the animals of the nomads and manured the fields of the farmers. This system, which was always delicately balanced, began to break down as a result of increased population, desertification and changes in lifestyle.

Farming groups began to herd their own animals and wanted to stop nomads from grazing on their lands. At the same time, nomads tended to leave part of their group farming during the rainy season and increasingly wanted land to farm on.

Clashes between farming groups and nomads were regular, as was the use of traditional reconciliation mechanisms. If someone was killed, for example, it was customary for the group or family which had caused the killing to pay diya (blood money) to the group or family of the person killed.

Timeline:

February 2003: Angry at what they perceived to be a lack in government protection against village attacks and the marginalisation of Darfur the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) take up arms. The government of Sudan responded by exploting the existing tensions in the region, supporting the militias from largely Arabic-speaking nomadic groups;

July 2003: Janjaweed militia with support from the government begin offensive attacks murdering, raping and driving people out of their homes;

March 2004: Mukesh Kapila (the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan) called Darfur the “world’s greatest humanitarian crisis”;

April 2004: An African Union-brokered ceasefire is signed in N’Djamena (Chad’s capital) but later repeatedly violated by all sides;

July 2004: UN Security Council gives Khartoum 20 days to disarm the Janjaweed, bring its leaders to justice and allow humanitarian assistance. but with no enforcement the conflict continues;

September 2004: George W Bush declares the Darfur crisis ‘genocide’;

October 2004: The AU expands its mandate to protect civilians and sends in a peacekeeping force of 7,000 troops;

January 2005: Government attacks on civilians decrease, partly due to the majority of targeted villages already being destroyed and their inhabitants displaced;

31 January 2005: The UN releases a 176-page report saying that while there were mass murders and rapes of Darfurian civilians, they could not label the atrocities as “genocide” because “genocidal intent appears to be missing”;

March 2005: The UN Security Council refers the war crimes committed in Darfur to the International Criminal Court for investigation;

December 2005: Chad declares itself ‘in a state of war’ with Sudan following violent clashes along the Darfur-Chad border;

May 2006: The Darfur Peace Agreement, brokered by the AU is signed by the Government of Sudan and a faction of the SLA rebel group. All the other rebel leaders including the JEM reject the deal, claiming it doesn’t address key issues such as power sharing and disarmament of the Janjaweed. Fighting continues on all sides;

August 2006: UN Security Council passes resolution 1706, calling for a 23,000-strong UN-led peacekeeping force in Darfur by January 2007. But the resolution ‘invites the consent’ of the government, and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir states ‘there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I’m in power’;

September 2006: The first ‘Global Day for Darfur’ is held by campaigners around the world;

November 2006: The government agrees in principle to allow a ‘hybrid’ force into Darfur with enhanced UN support for AU forces. The government subsequently adds many restrictions to delay the hybrid force becoming operational;

December 2006: The conflict is increasingly spilling over into Chad, as Chadian rebels supported by the government of Sudan clash with Darfurian rebels supported by the government of Chad. Tens of thousands of Chadians are displaced. Militia attacks on refugee camps in Chad increase, displacing some Darfurians for the third time;

February 2007: The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicts two people – Sudanese Minister for Humanitartian Affairs, Ahmad Muhammad Harun, and Janjaweed commander Ali Kushayb – for crimes against humanity in Darfur. This is the first time someone who is currently in government has been indicted by the ICC. Khartoum declares that it will not co-operate and instead will try Kushayb in its own ’special criminal court’ – a clear attempt to pre-empt independent prosecution. Some Jajaweed leaders, concerned they may also be tried by the government, start switching allegiance to the rebels;

April 2007: Under pressure from China, Khartoum removes its opposition to 3,000 UN peacekeepers entering Darfur as part of the ‘hybrid’ force;

September 2007: 12 African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) peacekeepers, whose mandate is to protect civilians, were killed in Haskanita, apparently by forces from armed opposition groups;

May 2008: Unprecedented assault by the JEM on Khartoum;

14 July 2008: The ICC serves a warrant (issued March 4 2009) for the arrest of Omar al-Bashir outlining five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes in Darfur (a further three for genocide were dropped due to insufficient evidence of a specific intent to destroy ethnic groups in Darfur);

November 2008: President Bashir announces a ceasefire;

November 2008: The ICC calls for arrest of three rebel commanders;

February 2009: A ceasefire is agreed by the JEM with a committment to end conflict with the Sudan Government in three months;

March 2009: The ICC’s arrest warrant for Bashir is filed but is unlikely to make any difference as the ICC does not have a police force and the warrant will be delivered to Sudan’s government, who are not likely to execute it.

Sources: Amnesty International, New Internationalist, BBC etc.

This is not the end.

I’ve recently finished reading a book about a translator, a tribesman in Darfur caught up in the violence when his village was destroyed by helicopter gunships in 2003, when ‘the Sudanese government-backed militias came to murder, rape and burn’ and drive the tribesmen from their lands. The Translator, his name Daoud Hari, is a Zaghawi who grew up ‘racing camels across the desert, attending colourful weddings and, when his work was done, playing games under the moonlight’ who survived not only the decimation of his village but also a harrowing journey to Chad, six illegal border crossings (each with their own tale of rape and murder), abduction, torture and imprisonment.

It’s difficult to call it a good book, yet it’s probably one of the best books I’ve read in a while. A book that makes you stop and think about life and whether there is something more the better off jokers like me should or could be doing to try and make the world a better place for those of us less fortunate. for those suffering the consequences of a modern genocide let’s say! After putting the book down the world has turned a somewhat shitty shade of brown and left a part of my mind in a permanent state of sadness. I dug out an old copy of the New Internationalist from a lapsed subscription – Darfur: Don’t look away (401 June 2007) – remembering it’s opening:

‘God how grim’, is the most common reaction I’ve been getting when I tell people I’m doing a magazine on Darfur. Often followed by: ‘It’s just so awful – but there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do.’ This feeling of powerlessness in the face of extreme human suffering is unpleasant and upsetting [you're not wrong]; so we’re inclined to look away.

But we shouldn’t be! This is what the UN are calling ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis’, we shouldn’t be looking away, we should be tackling this head on – pushing for effective peacekeeping forces with a mandate to protect the people. Sounds good on paper eh? But how do we do this? Well, I’m not so sure but I do know that Amnesty International is always a good starting place for anyone looking for current information or wanting to take action.

So back to the book. After losing his brother, Ahmed, one of the village defenders left behind to slow the attack and helping to push his people (those with no animals who could hide and make a temporary life) into the mountains, burying the newly dead along the way Daoud arrived in Chad and got to work moving around the refugee camps helping in any way necessary. In Chad refugees are welcomed by the government but restricted from working – even for free – and so this is how Daoud came to be Suleyman Abakar Moussa of Chad and how he was able to begin using his knowledge of both English and Arabic to work as a translator for journalists and NGOs documenting this occurrence of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.

Essentially this book is a memoir of one man’s horrific journey through life using language skills as a weapon against war. It’s a tale of his survival aimed to tell the story of those lost and of those still fighting and of those left waiting for peace, for those wanting to return to their homeland free from fear. It is written for those wanting to learn more about the people of Darfur and the cause of their conflict, for those wanting to know what happened to young children like Amma, stabbed through the stomach with a Janjaweed’s bayonet, thrust into the air and then left to die a slow painful death under her Abba’s tear drenched eyes. It is for all of us wanting to find hope behind the horror stories embedded in Darfur’s long and complex history who want to help rebuild their communities in whichever way we can. And lastly it’s for those of us wanting to spread the word and speak out or rather ‘whine and kick and scream until everyone has everything they need’.

Ahmad Batebi, the Economist’s face of the second revolution, was arrested shortly after July 17th 1999 following the world wide publication of his participation in the student protests. In his hands was the bloodied shirt of his fellow protester, a image used to sign Batebi’s death warrant following the accusation that he “defaced the face of the Islamic Republic that is a representative of God on earth” around the world.

After nine years he escaped from Iran, following a seizure leaving the right side of his body without feeling, smuggled by car then donkey through Iraq. On June 24th 2008 he arrived in America and later released his ordeal to CBS News:

Asked if he feels free now, he told Cooper, “No, I don’t feel free. I have a responsibility to the people imprisoned in Iran whose human rights are being violated. I have to get their message out. And it’s a big responsibility that doesn’t leave one free. But to an extent I do feel free. I live in a free country and I’ve left prison.”

But how does he feel about the image itself?

Looking at the picture that sparked his ordeal, he says that another man in his place might be angry, but he is not. Mr Batebi is a photographer himself. He says he understands what journalism involves. Had we not published the picture, he says, another paper might have. Looking at the same picture, his lawyer, interpreter and friend Lily Mazahery says she is close to tears: in it, the young Mr Batebi’s pale arms are as yet unscarred by torture.

How would you feel? Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I’ve been wanting to write something about the rise in horrific acid attacks for some time but it’s just so difficult. The stories I read are heart-breaking. One particular story I read today is about an Iranian woman called Ameneh Bahrami, a victim of a vicious acid attack in 2004.

In all honesty though I don’t know what angers me more, the fact that this awful thing happen to her or the fact that she is battling to punish her attacker with the acid treatment. Yes you read correctly, she is willing to condone the blinding of Majid Movahedi with acid under a court order. A blatant violation of basic human rights! She says “if I don’t do this and there is another acid attack, I will never forgive myself for as long as I live” but hang on a minute two wrongs don’t make right. I know there’s a lot of people who’d suggest ‘an eye for an eye’ serves as some kind of justice (it certainly does in Sharia Law). but seriously people, you can accept pouring acid into some-one’s eyes is some kind of redemption! She is making a decision to accept the use of acid to disfigure Movahedi and so surely she’d never be able to forgive herself for that either for as long as she lives.

I obviously agree that this man should be punished, left to rot in a cell somewhere for a very long time but come on. Ameneh knows first hand what it’s like to have acid poured all over her, the pain she suffered I’m sure still plays on her mind day-in-day out, the surgeries shes needed and her recovery would certainly have broken her spirit yet to want to condemn someone else to this kind of treatment is unfounded, it’s completely absurd and it frightens me much more than the initial attack.

The Progression Women’s Association is an NGO based in Pakistan ‘fighting against the horror of violence against women’ and Shabnaz Bokhari is a remarkable woman. We need more of these!! There is also The Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (no website), a voluntary organisation in Southern India striving to help victims of acid attack. Whilst alls I can do is raise awareness, these women risk their lives to speak out and I applaud their courage.

If you ever needed any more proof that Propagandhi are the best band in the entire world. look no further. March 10th sees the release of their new record Supporting Caste, but if you can’t wait that long (I can’t) you can download two exclusive tracks from their website, providing you donate to one of three organisations:

• Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organisation);
• Partners in Health (provides a preferential option for the poor in health care);
• Peta 2 (the youth division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Needless to say my donation goes to the Sea Shepherds and I think YOURS SHOULD TOO (although all are seriously worth while)! These guys need more money to succeed in shutting down the illegal slaughter of whales. Help them out!

Check out Stephanie’s weekly cartoons!

I like this one most:

“The only moral abortion is my abortion.”