Fido the Yak

Passion of the Present is reporting on the case of Paul Foreman, the MSF (Doctors Without Borders) worker who has been arrested by Sudanese authorities for publishing the truth about systematic rape in Darfur while protecting the anonymity of victims. Mohamed Farid, the attorney general of Sudan, is reported to have said that "These kind of false reports damage the image of Sudan." If only they were false. Unfortunately, the evidence for systematic rape being perpetrated in Darfur is voluminous. The most thorough and best documented reports come from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and of course Doctors Without Borders. Scores of independent journalists have collected testimony from victims, witnesses, officials and humanitarian workers. Taken as a whole, their reports corroborate the truth of the charge that the government of Sudan in partnership with its proxy militias have systematically raped the African women and girls of Darfur. They continue to do so even now.

I've provided a few links to prominent reports, but of course there are many thousands more. The evidence is so voluminous, I've found it useful to break it down into categories. One proviso, if you please, before proceeding. While not wishing to minimize the violence and oppression visited upon millions of people on the African continent, I feel that it's important to note that hundreds of millions of Africans are not currently suffering under tyrannical regimes actively seeking to wipe them off the face of the earth, that a majority of African nations live in peace, and that prosperity and the enjoyment of the fruits of civilzation are hardly unkown in modern Africa. Undeniably Sudan is "the open sore of the continent," as several wry commentators have observed. But the wound is deeper than that. All of humanity suffers from the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, while the government of Sudan pursues a global public relations policy equivalent to rubbing salt in our wounds. I intend to give my elected representatives an earful this morning. I encourage you to do the same.

Human Rights Observers



• Darfur: Rape as a weapon of war: sexual violence and its consequences


• Empty Promises? Continuing Abuses in Darfur, Sudan: Rape and sexual violence against women and girls


• Sexual Violence and its Consequences among Displaced Persons in Darfur and Chad


• Attack and Rape of IDP Children


• Rape in Darfur


• Rape, fighting continue in Sudan's Darfur region despite accords

Humanitarian Workers



• MSF: Rape and Sexual Violence Ongoing in Darfur


• Girls and women terrorized by widespread rape in Darfur


• In Darfur Wood-gathering Women Walk Through a Minefield of Rape


• Sexual Violence in Sudan Camps Often Preventable, Insists UNFPA


• Sudan: For Raped Women in Darfur, Access to Reproductive Health Services Limited


• Rape, Islam, and Darfur’s Women Refugees and War-Displaced


• Field Notes from Darfur: How Women Suffer in Darfur


• Bellamy condemns sexual violence against Darfur’s women and children


• Testimony of Emily Fries Before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus


• Remembering the women of Darfur


• UNICEF adviser says rape in Darfur, Sudan continues with impunity


• Darfur’s displaced remain traumatized and at risk of rape, harassment


• UN agency seeks to protect bitter harvest of Darfur conflict – babies born of rape


• UN reports no security improvement in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region

Journalists



• "We Want to Make a Light Baby": Arab Militiamen in Darfur said to use Rape as a Weapon of Ethnic Cleansing


• UN Attacks Darfur "Fear and Rape"


• Mass Rape Atrocity in West Sudan


• Sudanese Tell of Mass Rape


• "They Raped Me, One After the Other"


• Sudanese Rape Victims Find Justice Blind to Plight


• "This child belongs to a man I don't know and the tribe will not accept him -- but he is mine"


• Rape, fighting continue in Sudan's Darfur region despite accords


• Living with the legacy of rape and genocide


• Rape widespread in Sudan's Darfur region


• In Darfur, three from Boston see horrors firsthand


• Keeping our sisters safe: Women unite to stop rape of Sudanese


• Rape a tool in conflict pitting Arabs against black Sudanese tribes


• Gang-raped and pregnant, these women thought their ordeal was over when they went to the police. They were wrong


• Terror in Sudan: when sex is a weapon of mass destruction


• "This baby has come from Allah and I will accept him"


• Painful legacy of Darfur's horrors: Children born of rape


• In Sudan, Rape's Lasting Hurt


• Women Tell of Brutal Rapes in Secret Camp


• Darfur displaced angry as U.N., govt visit


• Darfuris demand action after women raped


• Full extent of Sudan gang-rape problem unknown

posted by Fido the Yak at 5:10 AM.