BURNED LAND: Land without life… Mile after mile of burned villages once inhabited by African farmers… I travelled through this area of western Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people were living only six months ago, to document human rights abuses that the government says are not happening.
WITH REBELS: The only way in was with the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army, who took up arms 14 months ago to demand an end to the destruction of Darfur…. What I found not only corroborated reports of atrocities, but built up a picture of systematic ethnic cleansing with large-scale killings by militia and government forces.
IDPS: These displaced villagers are survivors of one of 14 massacres I documented in which almost 800 people died. The government denies that civilians are being targeted. If they are, it says, it’s by the Arab militiamen of the Janjaweed – not by the government. That’s not what the victims say. They say it’s Janjaweed and government together now.
MUM: This family fled in Darfur after 27 people were killed in their village, Tullus. Interviews like this one with Kaltoum Yahya were done in Chad – without a rebel escort.
SYNC KALTOUM YAHYA: They came with cars and planes… and started shooting and bombing… They took camels, goats and horses… and burned our houses… They shot our children.
WEEPING: Hussein is 12 years old. He broke down when I asked him what happened as he tried to hide behind a tree with three other children who were even younger.
FATHER: In the end, the father had to intervene to explain how the boy was shot – three times and at close range… First in the face, then in the arm, and finally in the leg.
SYNC HUSSEIN: When the soldiers came we went to the valley to hide… One man wasn’t armed, but he called others who were. They shot us... They killed three of us and wounded six.
MAP: I tried to get to Tullus, but couldn’t: Janjaweed were camped in many of the burned villages along the way. But I did manage to examine three other areas – one of them a 25-square-mile block that had contained 14 Masalit villages…
VILLAGE/NUTS:… In this area everything necessary to sustain life had been systematically destroyed. We could only find a few burned groundnuts in the biggest of the villages…
SOLDIERS: The government says the rebels are “thieves and bandits”. But all those I met had joined the SLA after being burned out of villages just like this one.
CIVILIANS… These were the only civilians I saw on my journey… They had crossed the border from Chad to look for food, but were returning empty-handed… Wherever I went, in village after village, the testimony was the same: it is civilians like these who are being targeted.
SHOBA: This video has not been seen before. Seventeen civilians died in this village, Shoba, a year before the SLA took up arms… The war here began with attacks on African villages by Arab nomads seeking new grazing for their herds. The government initially armed the nomads as a proxy militia. Today it is fighting with them.
PRAYING: The war in Darfur differs from the war in southern Sudan in one key respect. The Africans of Darfur are Moslems – not Christians. This is not a war to defend the Islamic state. I was given the names of 62 villages where mosques have been destroyed – among them, that of Imam Izhaq Abdullah.
SYNC IMAM: They kill our imams, destroy our houses and burn Korans… The Arabs have cows, they don’t have planes. They don’t have tanks. They attack our villages with cars and planes and tanks… This is the government!
KHAMIS: The SLA commander of the Masalit area, Khamis Abdullah, is himself a Moslem… He says almost all Masalit villages have been destroyed in a war that is now about just one thing: race.
SYNC KHAMIS: We are Moslems, just like the government… We Masalit don’t think this is a problem about religion. It is about ethnic cleansing of black Africans.
IDPs: I was told that in Wadi Saleh east of Tullus displaced villagers like these were hunted down after their villages had been burned.
WALKPAST: This man comes from Wadi Saleh. Showing his face could cost him his life.
ANON SYNC: The government and janjaweed surrounded the area and took 175 men. In the evening they took 136 to the valley… In the valley they said to put their heads like this and shot them like this… One is wounded and he come to my village and tell that story…
IDP: A year into the rebellion in Darfur, more than a million civilians are displaced and relief agencies warn than 100,000 could die of hunger and disease in the next year if nothing is done. It is very late in the day for the international community to be taking action. This war began more than a year ago.
WITH REBELS: The only way in was with the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army, who took up arms 14 months ago to demand an end to the destruction of Darfur…. What I found not only corroborated reports of atrocities, but built up a picture of systematic ethnic cleansing with large-scale killings by militia and government forces.
IDPS: These displaced villagers are survivors of one of 14 massacres I documented in which almost 800 people died. The government denies that civilians are being targeted. If they are, it says, it’s by the Arab militiamen of the Janjaweed – not by the government. That’s not what the victims say. They say it’s Janjaweed and government together now.
MUM: This family fled in Darfur after 27 people were killed in their village, Tullus. Interviews like this one with Kaltoum Yahya were done in Chad – without a rebel escort.
SYNC KALTOUM YAHYA: They came with cars and planes… and started shooting and bombing… They took camels, goats and horses… and burned our houses… They shot our children.
WEEPING: Hussein is 12 years old. He broke down when I asked him what happened as he tried to hide behind a tree with three other children who were even younger.
FATHER: In the end, the father had to intervene to explain how the boy was shot – three times and at close range… First in the face, then in the arm, and finally in the leg.
SYNC HUSSEIN: When the soldiers came we went to the valley to hide… One man wasn’t armed, but he called others who were. They shot us... They killed three of us and wounded six.
MAP: I tried to get to Tullus, but couldn’t: Janjaweed were camped in many of the burned villages along the way. But I did manage to examine three other areas – one of them a 25-square-mile block that had contained 14 Masalit villages…
VILLAGE/NUTS:… In this area everything necessary to sustain life had been systematically destroyed. We could only find a few burned groundnuts in the biggest of the villages…
SOLDIERS: The government says the rebels are “thieves and bandits”. But all those I met had joined the SLA after being burned out of villages just like this one.
CIVILIANS… These were the only civilians I saw on my journey… They had crossed the border from Chad to look for food, but were returning empty-handed… Wherever I went, in village after village, the testimony was the same: it is civilians like these who are being targeted.
SHOBA: This video has not been seen before. Seventeen civilians died in this village, Shoba, a year before the SLA took up arms… The war here began with attacks on African villages by Arab nomads seeking new grazing for their herds. The government initially armed the nomads as a proxy militia. Today it is fighting with them.
PRAYING: The war in Darfur differs from the war in southern Sudan in one key respect. The Africans of Darfur are Moslems – not Christians. This is not a war to defend the Islamic state. I was given the names of 62 villages where mosques have been destroyed – among them, that of Imam Izhaq Abdullah.
SYNC IMAM: They kill our imams, destroy our houses and burn Korans… The Arabs have cows, they don’t have planes. They don’t have tanks. They attack our villages with cars and planes and tanks… This is the government!
KHAMIS: The SLA commander of the Masalit area, Khamis Abdullah, is himself a Moslem… He says almost all Masalit villages have been destroyed in a war that is now about just one thing: race.
SYNC KHAMIS: We are Moslems, just like the government… We Masalit don’t think this is a problem about religion. It is about ethnic cleansing of black Africans.
IDPs: I was told that in Wadi Saleh east of Tullus displaced villagers like these were hunted down after their villages had been burned.
WALKPAST: This man comes from Wadi Saleh. Showing his face could cost him his life.
ANON SYNC: The government and janjaweed surrounded the area and took 175 men. In the evening they took 136 to the valley… In the valley they said to put their heads like this and shot them like this… One is wounded and he come to my village and tell that story…
IDP: A year into the rebellion in Darfur, more than a million civilians are displaced and relief agencies warn than 100,000 could die of hunger and disease in the next year if nothing is done. It is very late in the day for the international community to be taking action. This war began more than a year ago.