Monday, February 26, 2007

Janjaweed act up. Send in the Ganjaweed gals - Drew and Cameron?

From VOA: Clashes erupt among Sudanese Arabs.

Schoolchildren in Singita village, south Darfur, sing a song at the start of the school day. They sing, "Oh, bird, I am not a sniper, don't fly away from me." Perhaps strange words for a song for small children, but even the youngest in Darfur have witnessed unspeakable violence during four years of conflict in the region.

Violent attacks by Arab nomads known as janjaweed have terrorized this land since 2003.


But now the janjaweed are fighting among themselves AND fighting the Africans. The latest incident? A massacre in the village of Amar Jadeed. A day earlier in a neighboring (and different tribal) village four young boys were shot execution style as they slept.

AU peacekeepers drove 26 kilometers to the village(Amar Jadeed), but arrived at the scene of the attack several hours after it happened. The village was in ashes, with small fires still smoldering. Twenty nine bodies were stacked in the bed of a truck for burial in a nearby cemetery. Three young children had already been laid in the ground. Men sat astride camels preparing for another attack while women gathered in a group and wept.

About those AU peacekeepers? To use the immortal words of one former Wall Street bond trader, they're just about as 'good as tits on a trashcan'...
Back at Amar Jadeed, African Union peacekeepers take notes for a report on the incident, but in the distance gunfire erupts again. The villagers, on their way to camps for the displaced in Kaas come fleeing back over the hills. The African Union peacekeepers run for their patrol trucks. Their mandate forbids them from stepping in between fighting forces. They are allowed to raise arms only in self-defense.

They argue over whether to go back to the village, but decide against it. The people of Amar Jadeed are left to their own fate.