http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15702426


Ethnic cleansing spreads to eastern Chad
Janjaweed torching villages, killing ethnic Africans along border with Darfur

The fires of ethnic cleansing in Darfur are now raging in eastern Chad. More than 20 villages have been systematically set on fire here in the last 10 days. Monday, Chad's president declared a state of emergency. And now some are asking whether this area has become a second Darfur.

On the morning of Nov. 8, the farming village of Tamajour became the latest target.

When we found it two days later, Tamajour, home to 600 black Africans, was still smoldering. Scattered in the remains — charred corn, schoolbooks and a Koran. A thatched roof came down on some of the people who didn't leave.


The Arab militia, the Janjaweed, acting on behalf of the Sudanese government, had swept in on horseback, firing heavy weapons, torching thatched huts, burning three children and an elderly man to death. The Janjaweed's goal is nothing less than to wipe ethnic Africans from these lands. People only have bows and arrows to protect themselves. They don't have guns.

The only way to safety was to walk 70 miles to the nearest town. There we found Tamajour's survivors.

One 75-year-old woman's husband had been caught on fire. She threw her body on his to save him. She suffered second-degree burns. He died.



Another man said Janjaweed soldiers called him "a slave," before shooting him twice in the back.

And then, under the shade of a calsadra tree, we found Miriam. She tried to appear strong, but couldn't hide her worries about her sick children. Since the attack, her five-year-old refuses to eat and her three-year-old needs medicine for his eye infection.

"My children are dying from the cold," she told us. "We don't have anything to eat. I am really, really angry at the Arabs who chased us from our village."

She told us all she wanted was her life back. We offered to take her back to Tamajour to see what she could salvage. Only the clay rim of her hut remained. Suddenly, she climbed into a storage jar and found what she had hidden when she heard the Janjaweed begin shooting. The money was all burned, but there were mattresses for her family to sleep on. It was little comfort.

"How can I be happy," she asked, "when everything is burned?"

But, in another pot, she found some hidden grain, enough for her family to survive on for now. And then, with her precious grain, slowly, Miriam walked away from the only home she has ever known into an unknowable future.

Monday, when humanitarian groups, including USAID, went to investigate another village that had been attacked by the Janjaweed, they were fired upon.

I saw a story about this on the evening news last night. One of the NBC newspeople is actually IN Chad covering the story. It's so heartbreaking and unfair. Kind've brings the term 'racism' into a new category...

In this day and age, you would think that humans have evolved past that kind of simple-minded frame of mind.
What has happened (and is happening) in Darfur is tragic, and I can only hope that Chad doesn't become the next Darfur.

In this day and age, you would think that humans have evolved past that kind of simple-minded frame of mind.



In civilized societies maybe, but these areas are third world. It's just amazing the lives we take for granted here in the states. Blows me away how lucky I am to have been born in this country.

In civilized societies maybe, but these areas are third world.

You have a point, but I don't think that living in a third world country merits you the right to kill people of other enthnicities. It's just sad that genocide and racisim is still a problem in the world, period. :no

Oh I don't think it gives them the right either - but obviously they do. I wasn't saying that at ALL :no

Oh I don't think it gives them the right either - but obviously they do. I wasn't saying that at ALL :no

I didn't mean to imply that's what you thought...if you thought that's what I was saying, I apologize. :duh
I just meant it as what I think about the whole situation....

I find it amazing that they have the same religious beliefs and background, they are pretty much the same except for where they come from ...but yet this is happening...it is just too sad

I didn't mean to imply that's what you thought...if you thought that's what I was saying, I apologize. :duh
I just meant it as what I think about the whole situation....

:lol Don't you just love message boards?? I think we're both on the same page with this - it's just plain unbelievable that people can act this way.

In civilized societies maybe, but these areas are third world. It's just amazing the lives we take for granted here in the states. Blows me away how lucky I am to have been born in this country.

I don't know... I think racism is rife throughout the world. :(

(and speaking as someone who's family is from a 3rd world country, 3rd world does not equal uncivilised! :P)

I don't know... I think racism is rife throughout the world. :(

(and speaking as someone who's family is from a 3rd world country, 3rd world does not equal uncivilised! :P)

I was speaking in a literal sense. I live in a house. They live in dirt huts. To me, a dirt hut is not a civilized place to live. I can go to college, they're lucky to learn to read. Those are just a couple of examples. Perhaps "third world" was the wrong descriptive wording (though I don't know what else to call it) - but they are in EXTREME poverty, and that is what I was referring to.

Yes, racism is rife throughout the world, but it is clearly much worse in some places than in others. I believe that if these "Ethnic cleansers" were truly civilized, they would not have the simple minded frame of mind that married2usaf mentioned. That was what I was replying to - her sentence that you would think humans would have evolved. You can't look at this news story and tell me that these people are living in a civilized society.

I was speaking in a literal sense. I live in a house. They live in dirt huts. To me, a dirt hut is not a civilized place to live. I can go to college, they're lucky to learn to read. Those are just a couple of examples. Perhaps "third world" was the wrong descriptive wording (though I don't know what else to call it) - but they are in EXTREME poverty, and that is what I was referring to.

Yes, racism is rife throughout the world, but it is clearly much worse in some places than in others. I believe that if these "Ethnic cleansers" were truly civilized, they would not have the simple minded frame of mind that married2usaf mentioned. That was what I was replying to - her sentence that you would think humans would have evolved. You can't look at this news story and tell me that these people are living in a civilized society.

That's a blanket statement - not all countries classed as third world are like that. I know that my family live in houses and go to uni. I'm actually quite offended at that statement.

Germany were also very involved in ethnic cleansing at one point, and they've always been classed as civilised. It was also rife in the US at one point. I don't think it has anything to do with a 'standard of living'. Racism is wrong. Prejudice is wrong. Simple as.

Please forgive my BLANKET STATEMENT, and accept what I said as my personal assesment of how I feel regarding Darfur and the ethnic cleansing that is occurring there (what the original article was about).

I want to be clear that I do not believe that every single third world country is uncivilized. I do however believe that the animals in Darfur that are killing each other in an act of ethnic cleansing are uncivilized barbarians.

I hope that my clarification is acceptable.

:no How awful

The situation in Darfur is something I did extensive research project a couple semesters ago... and is something I'm pretty passionate about. I read that article and felt the need to set a few things straight... because it seems like nobody really knows exactly what's going on... so I took a look at my research paper (about 20 pages long) and condensed it down to a few paragraphs that'll hopefully better explain what's going on:

First off, Sudan is split into two major territores- the North and the South. Sudan was always a fairly isolated country until a religious zealot named Mohammed Ahmad Ibn Abdallah (a Muslim) invaded the southern region in the 1800’s and took slaves and forced the native peoples to convert to Islam. The British later invaded with the intention of overthrowing Abdallah’s rule… and preserving the cultures of the native peoples. As a result, much tension was created between the North and South territories.

More recently, conflict was created when former Sudanese President Numairi cancelled the Addis Ababa Accord agreement in 1983. He then “redefined” the boundaries of the northern territory to include the rich oil fields of the south. Of course, the Southerners were outraged that the government stole their land… and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SLA) was formed to fight back. In 2003, the SLA began attacking the central government in Khartoum. And as a response, the government commissioned “self-defense militias,” also known as the Janjaweed, to fight back and prevent any more citizen uprisings.

Basically, it’s a story of oppressed citizens fighting against a corrupt government. The Janjaweed is more like a government-sponsored terrorist organization than it is a “self defense” group. The Janjaweed has destroyed thousands of native villages and livelihoods. They’ve raped, tortured and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. The native peoples have been forced out of their land and into disease-infested refugee camps in Darfur and neighboring countries, which aren’t any safer. The Janjaweed prowl outside the camps and victimize the refugees any chance they get. It’s so bad that many non-government organizations (aid) won’t even allow workers into the region. Aidworkers have been targeted as well… some even murdered.

It’s not so much an “ethnic” cleansing because the Muslims and Natives have the same ethnicity… they’re mostly all African. It’s more a “culture/religious” cleansing… the Muslim-run government trying to squash the native people.

In NO way are these poor people less “civilized” or less “human” than the rest of us. Their ways of life has worked for them for thousands of years. The only thing that makes them appear to be “uncivilized” is the fact that their country is being torn apart by war.

oops I should mention.. when I said "nobody really knows what's going on," I was NOT referring to you girls specifically... I just meant people in general. This conflict has been happening for a couple years now, and it wasn't until fairly recently that more light has been shed upon it. Just wanted to clear that up so nobody took it as a personal attack... because it wasn't meant that way at all. :)