It's times like this when

It's times like this when I'm prone to quoting Bill The Cat and his
infamous "Aaack Thbbt!" and then going about my business, my disgust
for what I'm about to do resolved as being one of those human
compromises.
I hate "Now With Bill Moyers." It offends me that my tax
dollars are paying this partisan twit's salary all in the name of
cultural diversity. I do not like it and the minute that show goes off
the air, the happier I will be. PBS isn't getting dime one from me
during any of their guilt-a-thons until he's off the air---and I've
told them that. They don't care. It plays well here, or so they told
me. Sigh. Anyway, I was flipping past tonight and the word "Darfur" was
uttered in the three seconds before the channel changed and I wound up
flipping it back and paying attention. David Brancaccio was
interviewing Julie Flint, a reporter who's been on the ground in Darfur
recently for Human Rights Watch (yet another stellar organization). She
recently testified before Congress about the humanitarian crisis in
Darfur. Here are some excerpts from her interview. I've cut the twaddle
and left you with facts. You can find the whole thing here.

Aaack Thbbbt!

BRANCACCIO: You have been covering atrocities, war zones for 30 years. Where do you place Sudan, the current situation in the Darfur region in terms of the things you've seen in your career? FLINT: It's as bad as anything I've ever seen. There's no doubt about that. I expected it to be bad when I went there, because of the very sporadic, scattered reports we were getting. Information was still quite thin when I went in. But to my astonishment, I found a land which had no human life. It was completely empty. And that, in a way is as bad, it's a land which is full of blood and war, it was just an empty land. All human life had been removed. And I found that profoundly shocking. BRANCACCIO: How many villages did you see? FLINT: I probably saw about 17. But it's hard to move. I mean, I moved with a force of probably about 100 men. Some close to me. Some further out. Some in advance. It's a huge, Darfur — the size of Texas. It's very hard to know what's going on. And it's very hard to be blanket. Because I think not every area, the war will not be the exactly the same in every area. So, I basically selected a block. And I looked at the 60 square kilometer, 25 square mile block, which had 14 villages. And I visited all those villages but one. Eleven had been burned. And if there were huts remaining, it was a handful. All the others had gone. BRANCACCIO: Let's take a look at some of the video that you were able to record when you got into the Darfur region. What are we looking at here? FLINT: That's a village called Harewajip in the Masalit area of Darfur. And the Masalits are one of three African tribes that form the backbone of the rebels, the Sudan Liberation Army. And they're being systematically targeted by the government, and the pro-government militia fighting side by side, working hand in glove. I don't know how many people died in that village. But it was completely empty. The mosque had been burned. I was told that Korans had been torn up and defecated on. And everything that made life sustainable had been destroyed. There were a few huts, which were still standing, but food stores had been systematically broken, looted, destroyed. Even the little glasses they used for drinking tea had been smashed. It was impossible to go back to that place. BRANCACCIO: I see nobody there. FLINT: No. Everybody has gone. Everybody has gone. What shocked me was that I was basically going to do a human rights report inside Darfur. I had to keep on crossing the border back to Chad. Because there was no one to speak to in Darfur, apart from rebels. I was there, in and out for 25 days. BRANCACCIO: Everyone was either dead or driven out? FLINT: Yes. I was there for 25 days. I saw 12 civilians, who were going back to their village, to dig up food stores they buried. People began burying their food a few months ago, knowing that they would be attacked, and their food would be looted. And they decided it was better to risk death, by going back to dig up their food, than to go begging along the border in Chad. {...}BRANCACCIO: The Janjaweed, these are Arab raiders, often on horseback, sometimes on camel who are... FLINT: I wouldn't call them raiders anymore. BRANCACCIO: What would you call them? FLINT: Well, the word, "Janjaweed," has been used for a long time. And basically, it referred to a sort of a motley bunch of different groups, camel herders, encroaching on the farming lands of settled, African tribes. And it was largely economic conflict. But in the last few years, the Islamist government have harnessed these militias, who they know have pre-existing disputes with the settled, African farmers, and have used them, especially since the rebellion began, as counter insurgency militias. And what I found of which I'm absolutely certain is that the vast majority of these lethal attacks are done by government forces, and the so called Janjaweed forces, working together. These are no longer hit and run attacks by Arab nomads. They're systematic attacks by the government and the militia, often with air support. BRANCACCIO: So, you saw evidence, and from your interviews, that the government of the Sudan is working in concert with these Janjaweed? FLINT: Yes. That was the most striking thing. I interviewed scores and scores of people, civilians, as well as rebels of course, and documented 14 instances of large scale killings in a six month period. Those weren't the only instances of large scale killings. But they were the only ones I corroborated in the time I had. BRANCACCIO: How many people? FLINT: Almost 800 people died that I know of. There will be more. And in all but two of those instances, the Janjaweed and the government attacked together. And the civilians said, "They're partners now." And I said to the chief of one village, the headman, "Why do you say they're partners?" And he said, he looked surprised that I even asked. And said, "They arrived together. They fight together. And they leave together." BRANCACCIO: And you saw evidence in these villages of a systematic campaign, not just to wipe out the village, but really to prevent it, to make it impossible for people to ever return? FLINT: Yes. It was striking that even in villages where some huts had not been burned, all food stores had been destroyed. In all the villages I visited, I didn't find a single food store that hadn't been completely destroyed. You can rebuild a hut. But if there's no food, you can't go back. BRANCACCIO: And of course, in the spring, people plant. And then they eat that later in the year. FLINT: It's not possible. And now they're all displaced. And even if they're too late for next season planting at this stage as well. No, we're going to need a year and a half of emergency aid at best. BRANCACCIO: To make up for the harvest that will never come? FLINT: Yes. If you get them back to their homes. First of all, you have to get them back to their homes, in safety, and enable them to plant, and harvest in safety. And they can't do that while the Janjaweed are roaming about, hand in glove with the government. {...}BRANCACCIO: One term being used here is ethnic cleansing. From what you've seen, is that accurate? FLINT: Oh, definitely. The countryside is empty. There's nobody there. It has been ethnically cleansed. BRANCACCIO: What about the international community. You don't really see, for instance, the United Nations breathing fire everyday about this humanitarian crisis. FLINT: The United Nations initially led the way. They made some very strong statements. Kofi Annan, a while ago, on the tenth anniversary of Rwanda made some very strong statements suggesting that military intervention might be needed. There have been some excellent reports by the U.N. from teams that have gone into government controlled areas and have reported on ethnic cleansing, mass burning, mass killing, extra-judicial execution. Everything I have said from the rebel side, they have said from the government side. And one delegation said this: they had never seen such fear ever as the people of the African people of Darfur have of the Janjaweed. But certainly stronger United Nations' action is needed. {...}There are things that can be done, air drops, cross-border access, much greater pressure on the government of Sudan. We know who the war criminals are. {...}BRANCACCIO: Why is it not being done? That's the part I don't understand. You make a very good case. And it's happening before our eyes. What is slowing down the European response, the U.N. response, maybe the U.S. response. FLINT: There is a fear that excessive, unwelcome, emphasis on Darfur could still derail the north-south peace. {...}BRANCACCIO: The international community's worked really hard to try to establish some peace in the other Sudanese conflict. FLINT: Yes, absolutely, a lot of energy's been invested in the north-south peace. And whether it proves lasting or not it's a great respite for the people of the south. And many countries, especially in Europe, fear that this peace might fall apart if too much pressure is put on the government of Sudan. I think there are indications that the U.S. is no longer of that opinion and think it necessary to make peace in Darfur even if this jeopardizes peace in the south. But you can't have peace in the south on the backs of the people of Darfur. But there are other reasons, I think, for the lack of action. The press were very slow in getting onto this. And I think quicker and better reporting of Darfur might have prompted quicker action. As so often, it's only when you get to the stage of babies dying that the press are interested. When you have disaster pornography photos on television of dying people that the press gets involved. BRANCACCIO: You call it disaster pornography? FLINT: Yes, I mean, I've been writing about Darfur since August 2002. It was there. It was happening. It was possible to do. It wasn't reported on. So, the relative silence of the press and the emphasis of the international community on let's have a foreign policy success in southern Sudan conspired to cast a blanket of silence over Darfur. And of course, there's also coming back to the fact that it's very hard to get in there. The government simply doesn't let you view what's happening. So, you have to be quite inventive. BRANCACCIO: Well, I know some other very intrepid reporters who've tried. And there they are arrayed along the Chad border with the Sudan. They can't get in. You did? FLINT: You walk across a valley. It's easy. Sorry, it's really easy. I'd like to tell you I'm a heroine. It's not. It's easy. BRANCACCIO: And so many lives are at stake that these are perhaps risk the media should take? FLINT: Definitely yes, definitely, the attention is welcome now. But it's late.