Transcript Darfur Violence Through the Eyes of Children

Darfur Violence Through the Eyes of
Children
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By Dina Temple Raston
for National Public Radio
www.npr.org
August 1, 2005
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Introduction
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Earlier this year (2006), aid workers at a
refugee camp in Chad, on Sudan's western
border, passed out crayons and paper to
children while Human Rights Watch officials
interviewed their parents. Without prompting
or instruction, the young artists put pen to
paper and produced some harrowing
images—the visions of an unfolding genocide
in Sudan's Darfur region.
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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The government of Sudan is responsible for “ethnic
cleansing” and crimes against humanity in the
context of an internal conflict in Darfur, one of the
world’s poorest and most inaccessible regions, on
Sudan’s western border with Chad. Since 2003, the
Sudanese government and the ethnic “Janjaweed”
militias it arms and supports have committed
numerous attacks on the civilian populations of the
Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa and other ethnic groups
perceived to support the rebel insurgency.
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Government forces oversaw and directly
participated in massacres, summary executions of
civilians—including women and children—burnings
of towns and villages, and the forcible depopulation
of wide swathes of land long inhabited by the Fur,
Masalit, and Zaghawa. The Janjaweed militias,
Muslim like the groups they attack, have destroyed
mosques, killed Muslim religious leaders, and
desecrated Qurans belonging to their enemies.
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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1
Studying a
Photograph/
Painting
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3
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Objects
What objects (i ncluding people)
are in the photo/painting ?
What is the setting/ backg round?
Actions
What is taking place?
Context
What time period or event was
the painting/photo created?
How can you tell?
Artist's
Point of
View/
Motivation
What messag e/ emoti on is the
artist trying to convey?
Why?
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Abd al-Rahman, Age 13
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“I am looking at the sheep in the wadi [riverbed, or
oasis]. I see Janjaweed coming—quickly, on horses
and camels, with Kalashnikovs—shooting and
yelling, ‘kill the slaves, kill the blacks.’ They killed
many of the men with the animals. I saw people
falling on the ground and bleeding. They chased
after children. Some of us were taken, some we
didn’t see again. All our animals were taken: camels,
cows, sheep, and goats. Then the planes came and
bombed the village.”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Taha, Age 13 or 14
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“In the afternoon we returned from school and saw
the planes. We were all looking, not imagining about
bombing. Then they began the bombing. The first
bomb [landed] in our garden, then four bombs at
once in the garden. The bombs killed six people,
including a young boy, a boy carried by his mother,
and a girl. In another place in the garden a women
was carrying her baby son—she was killed, not him.
Now my nights are hard because I feel frightened.
We became homeless. I cannot forget the bad
images of the burning houses and fleeing at night
because our village was burned…”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Musa, Age 15
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Musa drew this picture of Antonovs bombing his village. His mother,
father, and brothers were all killed. His uncle told his family’s story:
“It was July 2003. At 6 a.m., the Sudanese government soldiers and
Janjaweed came by car, tank, horse, camel, and on foot. There were
three or four villages in our area, with a total population of maybe 1,200.
Men, women, and children were killed—some by bombing, some by
shooting. Some ran away. All our livestock, property, and food were
taken. Then the village was burned. Some huts were set on fire by the
Janjaweed. Later a plane came in the evening and burned the village.
All the people who were still hiding in their huts—the old, the weak, the
blind—were rounded up by the Janjaweed and shot. One hut was set
on fire with someone still inside. I saw them with own eyes. I was then
chased by Janjaweed but not caught. My family slept that night in the
wadi [riverbed, or oasis]. We returned the next day. I counted around 80
or 90 bodies: men and children, a few women. We made a grave for all
the people, 10 or 20 people to a grave, five or six graves in total.”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Mostafa, Age 8
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“We were running. From soldiers. Janjaweed.
Planes. They were chasing us. These are
men. These are women. We ran to the wadi
[riverbed, or oasis]. Then we ran to Chad.”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Nur, Age 9
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Nur: This is my brother. He is hiding in
Sudan. He is not happy.
Human Rights Watch: Why?
Nur: He wants to learn, to go to school, but
he has nothing. Our school was burned.
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
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Magda, Age 9
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“We were running from the burning houses.
Janjaweed and soldiers with guns and planes and
bombs came, all together, quickly. They were
shooting…my uncle was shot. I saw them taking
women and girls away. All of us—my family—we
were screaming and running from the Janjaweed to
hide in the wadi [riverbed or oasis]…holding each
other by the arms to keep together. Here in camp
we are safe, but my father…he was lost.”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Magda, Age 9
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“There was a plane. This is the village burning. We
took some water and were running. This Janjaweed
came and took our camel away. I saw him. We ran
to the wadi [riverbed, or oasis], and we climbed into
a tree to hide. Then we ran in the night.”
Magda’s mother, Khadijah, added, “If we can go
back to Sudan, that would be good, but we have no
home. Our village was burned to the ground.”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Jamil, Age 12
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“The Janjaweed came on camels and horses,
very fast. Sometimes two on one camel, with
guns. Many soldiers, with guns. This one is a
machine gun. They were shooting us.”
In the same exercise book, Jamil had drawn
a man with a radio transmitter, drawn larger
than the man: “We needed help. There was
no one to protect us.”
See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Mahmoud, Age 13
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Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: These men in green are taking the
women and the girls.
Human Rights Watch: What are they doing?
Mahmoud: They are forcing them to be wife.
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: The houses are on fire.
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: This is an Antonov. This is a helicopter.
These here, at the bottom of the page, these are
dead people.
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See Next Picture
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Human Rights Watch researchers Dr. Annie Sparrow
and Olivier Bercault visited Chad in February 2005 to
assess the issues of protection and sexual violence in
the refugee camps along the Darfur/Chad border. In
her work as a pediatrician, Dr. Sparrow habitually asks
children to draw while she talks to their parents or
guardians. She did the same thing in Darfur. While
Bercault and Sparrow spoke with parents, teachers,
and camp leaders, the children drew. Without any
instruction or guidance, the children drew scenes from
their experiences of the war in Darfur: the attacks by
the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese
government forces, the shootings, the burning of entire
villages, and the flight to Chad.
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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As Sparrow and Bercault visited schools in refugee
camps in Chad, many children between the ages of
8 and 17 shared the drawings they had done in their
school notebooks, often alongside their lessons in
Arabic or math. Schoolchildren from seven refugee
camps and the border town of Tine offered Human
Rights Watch’s researchers hundreds of drawings in
the hope that the rest of the world would see their
stories as described in their own unique visual
vocabulary of war.
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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George Clooney
In a speech to the UN Security Council George
Clooney said the following.
 "I'm here to represent the voices of the people
who cannot speak for themselves," Mr.
Clooney told Security Council members.
 "We know how difficult a task this is... but you
are the UN and this is the task that you have
been given.”
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Elaborate: George Clooney (slide 2)
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"It is the first genocide of the 21st Century
and if it continues unchecked, it will not be
the last."
"… aid workers will have to leave and if they
leave that leaves a couple of million people
with absolutely nothing".
"How you deal with it is your legacy. It's your
Rwanda - your Cambodia - your Auschwitz.
We are one 'yes' away from ending it."
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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Elaborate
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Pairs/group question: Should the United
States intervene to end the violence in
Darfur?
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Pros/ Cons/ Recommendation
Create a T-Graph of the pros and cons of US
intervention.
©2009, TESCCC
World History, Unit 12, Lesson 5
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