The Sudan's Darfur region conflict has escalated into a full-scale government-sponsored military operation, with the support of Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, their objective is to annihilate the African tribes in the region. The Janjaweed carries out horrendous acts, men castrated and left to bleed to death, huts set on fire, people locked inside, children with their faces smashed in, men with their ears cut off and eyes plucked out, and the corpses of people who had been executed with gunshots to the head. Thousands of women have suffered from gang-raped.
Janjaweed militias are in collaboration with the Sudanese. The atrocities committed in Darfur are the direct result of the Sudanese government's military collaboration with these militias. Sudanese government officials and the Arab militias, who attack villages together, coordinate attacks. It has been documented that before these attacks begin, the government shuts down cell phone systems so that villagers cannot warn each other of the impending attacks.
Helicopter gun ships belonging to the government routinely support the Arab militias on the ground. These gun ships fire anti-personnel rockets that contain flashettes, or small nails, each with stabilizing fins on the back so the point hits the target first. Each gunship contains four rocket pods, each rocket pod contains about 20 rockets and each rocket contains about 500 of these flashettes. People wounded by Flashettes look like a shotgun has shot them.
The U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, independent human rights organizations, and international journalists have documented the ethnic and perceived racial basis of the violence. The Sudanese government primarily has targeted the civilian population of the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups, sometimes referred to as "Africans." The government's Janjaweed allies are drawn from some of Darfur's "Arab" tribes.
The death toll exceeds 100,000 and may be more than 400,000. It is pathetic that the world is sitting by and allowing such atrocities to happen. History is repeating its self, is the world going to sit by as they did while Hitler ethnic cleansed Europe of Jews? Are we so wrapped up in our I Pods, big screen TV's, that we are so indifferent to others, that we turn our backs to the thousand's of faces which reflect death, suffering, and torture, these are the faces of people, the people of Darfur.
Have the American people become so insensitive and callous that they would allow such hideous actions to take place? How can so many Americans stand by and allow our ill -gotten president George Bush to continue with his war of choice in Iraq, while our young men and women die for nothing, it is the same mentality that America is showing by not speaking up against the plight of the Darfur people. Would America be so quiet if these atrocities were happening closer to home? In a country that was more industrialized, a country rich in oil? I don't think so.
Think hard about the quote below,