Mass Grave, Memories Feed Fear in Darfur

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: Associated Press

MUKJAR, Sudan (AP) -- Uncovered by a restless wind, skulls and bones poke above the thin dirt in this corner of Darfur, lying surrounded by half-buried, rotting clothes.

A short, bearded man named Ibrahim, 42, scratches through the sand. He is quiet and serious, close to tears. There are other, bigger grave sites elsewhere, he says, but the bones he is looking at are those of 25 people who he is sure are his friends and fellow villagers.

Some of them were dragged from the prison where he was held and were axed to death, he says.

Ibrahim is showing the burial ground to an Associated Press reporter and photographer, the first Western journalists to visit this remote town in more than a year. The western Sudan region is about to enter a new phase in its four-year-old conflict - one that villagers fear may encourage more killing.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DARFURS_KILLING_FIELDS?SITE=VTBUR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Lurking Dem]

1. 200,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless

So they get 3,000 UN peacekeepers out of a mandated 22,000?

Sometimes I feel there is no shame left in the world.

"The minister (Harun) told them their mission was to burn all the region down," he said.

Next, he said, Kushayb ordered his men to "get rid of every Fur" and turn their territory into Dar al-Arab, meaning "Land of the Arabs." Fur are the main tribesmen of this region, hence the name Darfur.

Kushayb then opened the cell's barred door, pulled out a prisoner and split his head open with an ax, Ibrahim said. He said he witnessed the killing.

Ibrahim said Kushayb then axed two more prisoners to death while his men shook their right fists and shouted "janjaweed, janjaweed."

As for Harun, Kushayb's boss, "The minister was sitting under the shade, and he was also cheering," Ibrahim said.

[Lurking Dem]

2. kick