----- Original Message -----
Sent: July 21, 2004 10:28
Subject: [TruthTalk] Morality versus
Christianity
Jonathan, Bill, and
Lance, Below is what anarchy leads to when there is no moral
Government, and no fear of God, or respect for the rule of law (not the Torah, civil law)
in place. This is why the clarion call to "watch and pray" and "let
freedom ring" judyt
Arab women singers complicit in rape, says Amnesty report Jeevan Vasagar
in Nairobi and Ewen MacAskill
Tuesday July 20, 2004
The Guardian
While African women in Darfur were being raped by the
Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy, according to
an Amnesty International report published yesterday. The songs of the Hakama,
or the "Janjaweed women" as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities
committed by the militiamen. The women singers stirred up racial hatred
against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated
the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said. "[They] appear
to be the communicators during the attacks. They are reportedly not actively
involved in attacks on people, but participate in acts of looting."
Amnesty International collected several testimonies mentioning the
presence of Hakama while women were raped by the Janjaweed. The report
said:"Hakama appear to have directly harassed the women [who were] assaulted,
and verbally attacked them." During an attack on the village of Disa in June
last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang
songs praising the government and scorning the black villagers.
According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: "The
blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them
from our area and our cattle will be in their land. The power of [Sudanese
president Omer Hassan] al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you
until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God."
The chief said that the Arab women also racially insulted women from
the village: "You are gorillas, you are black, and you are badly dressed." The
Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking
their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their
home villages, the report said. The militiamen "are happy when they rape. They
sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do
with us how they
wish", a 37-year-old victim, identified as A, is quoted as
saying in the report, which was based onmore than 100 testimonies from women
in the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.
Pollyanna Truscott, Amnesty International's Darfur crisis
coordinator, said the rape was part of a systematic dehumanisation of women.
"It is done to inflict fear, to force them to leave their communities. It also
humiliates the men in their communities." The UN estimates
that up to 30,000 people have been killed in Darfur, and more than a million
have been forced to flee their homes. Peace talks between the Sudanese
government and two rebel movements broke down on
Saturday when the rebel
groups walked out, saying the government must first disarm the Janjaweed.
Another human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, today
publishes alleged Sudanese government documents showing that it was much more
closely involved with the Janjaweed than it has so far admitted. The
documents, which Human Rights Watch said it had obtained from the civilian
administration in Darfur and are dated February and March this
year, call
for "provisions and ammunition" to be delivered to known Janjaweed militia
leaders, camps and "loyalist tribes".
One document orders all security
units in the area to tolerate the activities of Musa Hilal, the alleged
Janjaweed leader in north Darfur interviewed by the Guardian last week. Peter
Takirambudde, the executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division,
said: "These documents show that militia activity has not just been condoned,
it's been specifically supported by Sudan government officials." The official
government line is that it did not arm or support the Janjaweed, though its
presence was useful in helping to combat rebels in
Darfur.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
