---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Reeves <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:48:42 -0400
Subject: "Are U.S. and U.N. Officials Ignoring New Evidence of
Atrocities in Sudan?"
To: [email protected]
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0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; }"Are U.S. andU.N. Officials Ignoring New
Evidence of Atrocities in Sudan?"
The New Republic(on-line), July 23, 2011
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/92510/sudan-kordofan-princeton-lyman-kadugli
byEric Reeves
Sudan seems to bring out a perverse diffidence in both theObama
administration and the international community. This is especially
clearin their response to a growing body of evidence that atrocities are
beingcommitted in South Kordofan, a border state in what is now Northern
Sudan.Indeed, the more evidence that accumulates about the targeted
destructionof the African Nuba people, the less the White House and the
U.N. seem inclinedeither to speak out forcefully or to announce a course
of action.
U.S. special envoy for Sudan PrincetonLyman offered only a passing
reference to the violence in South Kordofanduring his Senate testimony
on July 14, and, this week, Lyman said he could notconfirm whether
evidencehas in fact revealed mass graves in the vicinity of Kadugli, the
capital ofSouth Kordofan. The U.S., meanwhile, has preemptively takena
military response off the table, and U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon
continues to indulge in vague exhortations. And thehead of U.N.
humanitarian operations has said the world can't be sure of what'sreally
happening in South Kordofan.
This, however, is simply not true:We do know what's happening, by virtue
of a now-leakedreport from U.N. human rights investigatorsworking in
Kadugli in June. The report contains 19 pages of accounts of massgraves
and brutal actions, from air assaults to summary executions,
takenagainst the Nuba. There is also corroborating evidence from a
variety ofsources that backs up the report. How one can choose to
dismiss thisinformation defies comprehension.
THE U.N. REPORT contains numerous eyewitnessaccounts of mass graves,
gathered independently by U.N. investigators in June.A few examples:
"On 10 June, UNMIS [U.N. Mission in Sudan] HumanRights interviewed
residents from Murta village, outside of Kadugli Town [thecapital of
South Kordofan], who stated that they saw fresh mass graves locatedin a
valley southeast of the Murta bus station near the Kadugli police
training
centre."
"[Two men interviewefrom SAF [Sudan Armed Forces] custody, they saw
freshmass graves between
the SAF 14th Division Headquarters and Kadugli Market. On16 June, UN
military observers, while on their way between the SAF 14thDivision
Headquarters and Kadugli Market in an attempt to verify the existenceof
these mass graves, were arrested, stripped of their clothes, and
believedthat they were about to be executed when a senior SAF officer
intervened."
"On 22 June, an UNMIS independent contractorreported witnessing SAF
elements fill a mass grave in Al Gardut Locality inTillo with dead
bodies. She reported that SAF elements transported the bodiesto the
site, dumped them in the grave and using a bulldozer to cover the
grave."
Bolstering thesereports, the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) recently
publisheddramatic photography taken July 4 that shows three parallel
mass gravesites,each approximately 16 feet by 80 feet. It also captured
images of heavyearth-moving equipment and manywhite bags piled up near
the gravesites, all consistent with human proportions.
ButLyman, citing unspecified U.S. intelligence assets,has said simply,
"We can't confirm the conclusion in the Sentinelproject that there are
mass graves in Kadugli." This claim could mean that U.S. surveillancehas
just not been directed at this particular site, but Lyman also said of
thewhite bags, "[W]e see those same items in those same places beforethe
fighting started"---whichwould seem to imply that U.S. surveillance has
been ongoing. Problem being, SSP has photographic evidence indicating
that these white bagswere not there on either June 7 orJune 17. (Putting
aside the question of why Lyman and SSP's accounts are so different, one
hasto ask what the excavated sites might be, if not graves. Lyman,
however,offered no alternative explanation.)
Ofcourse, we can't sayfor sure who or what is in the bags or in what
seem clearly to be graves---but,given the violence committed again them,
it's reasonable to guess it's the bodies of Nuba. Consider thaton June
20, some 7,000 Nuba who had sought U.N.protection were forcibly removed
from international custody by government securityagents disguised asRed
Crescent workers. The U.N. still doesn't know where these people are.
Then, there are thevictims of Khartoum'songoing aerial assault
throughout the Nuba Mountains, which the U.N. reportfrom June details:
"Since the eruption of the conflict, the SAF hascarried out daily aerial
bombardments into the Nuba Mountains and in severaltowns and villages
populated by Nubans. The consequences of these bombardmentson the Nuban
people and in particular civilians, including women and children,are
devastating. They have resulted in significant loss of life, destruction
ofproperties, and massive displacement. UNMIS Human Rights has received
photographsof mangled and mutilated bodies of civilians, some cut into
halves, includingwomen and children."
Theconsequences of such bombings were also described in a July 13
dispatch inEngland's TheIndependent:
"'Theinjuries are horrifying,' said the missiondoctor who comes from
upstate New York, 'agirl with her feet blown off, another with her
abdomen sliced open.' The victims pouring in from the villages in
Sudan’s Nubamountains were being bombed by their own government, he
discovered. Grassthatch villages were being turned to charnel houses as
an air force droppedbombs from the back of ageing cargo planes. The
government in Khartoum insistsit is targeting armed rebels but the
Antonovs it is using are non-militaryaircraft and are randomly
destructive."
John Ashworth of the SudanEcumenical Forum and a close observer of Sudan
for more than 25 years alsoreports that recent conversations with the
Nuba have a frightening congruence:
"Theconflict in South Kordofan continues, even if it is not so much in
the newsthese days. I have just this minute talked to three Nuba,
including one veryold friend, who found their way separately to Juba
with firsthand news ofKauda
, Kadugli and Dilling. All contargeting of Nuba andsuspected SPLM
sympathisers is continuing. These
days it is Arab militia ratherthan government forces which are searching
vehicles and removing people on theroad between the Nuba Mountains and
El Obeid. Security forces in El Obeidcontinue to search for 'SPLM
sympathisers' and anyone who has come from the conflict area, and
Nubareport that they don't even feel safe inKhartoum. There is still a
feeling that educated people are being singled out." (e-mail received
July 13, 2011)
DESPITETHE EVIDENCE at hand, U.N. and U.S. officials continue to speak
ambiguously orinsufficiently about South Kordofan. Valerie Amos, the
head of humanitarianoperations for the U.N., claimed on July 15 that
"[w]e do notknow whether there is any truth to the grave allegations of
extra-judicial killings,mass graves and other grave violations in South
Kordofan"---despite her own organization's new report on those very
allegations. Then, there's Hillary Clinton of the U.S., who, in early
July,according to AgenceFrance-Press, "expressed concern overa recent
flare-up of violence in the [South Kordofan] region, which she said
'cannotbe allowed to return and jeopardise the larger peace.'" Clinton
makes no mentionof the evidence of atrocities, and her language suggests
that the governingU.S. priority is not the immediate fate of the Nuba
people. And Princeton Lyman, in more than 3,000words of Senate testimony
last week, said, "We are extremely concerned by credible allegations
oftargeted and ethnic-based killings and other gross human rights
abuses. Theseabuses must end, an investigation must be conducted."
That's just 27 words onthe matter.
To be sure, the "concern" expressed byLyman, Clinton, and members of the
U.N. is warranted, but it's far from a satisfactory response. That
response shouldentail putting considerable pressure---pressure whichI’ve
outlined before---on Khartoum to stop whatit is doing in South Kordofan.
Given how many senior officials in the U.S. andat the U.N. won't speak
honestly or evenseriously about the situation in South Kordofan,
however, how can we expectthis to pressure to be applied?
Somehow, both current evidence andthe echoes of mass atrocities in the
not-too-distant past aren't findingan audience in Washington, New York,
or Europe. Or, worse, they are beingignored. Why can't the world find
its voice—or its conscience? We have seenthis play before, and we know
that it will end terribly.
[Eric Reeves has published extensively on Sudan, nationally and
internationally, for more than a decade.He is author of A Long
Day'sDying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide.]
_____________________________
Eric Reeves
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
[email protected]
413-585-3326
www.sudanreeves.org
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