Arab Militants Raping Girls in Sudan
Tuesday July 20, 2004
Rape is all too often used as a weapon of war because it destabilizes social groups and demoralizes the people being attacked. In Sudan, Amnesty International reports that the Arab militant group Janjaweed, backed by the Sudanese government, has been systematically kidnapping, raping, and murdering girls as young as 8 and women as old as 80.
CNN reports:
"They raped women, I saw many cases of Janjaweed raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell us that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish."
"Soldiers of the Sudan government army are present during attacks by the Janjaweed and when rapes are committed, but the Sudan government has done nothing so far to stop them," Amnesty researcher Benedicte Goderiaux told a news conference.
One woman was five months pregnant when the Janjaweed abducted her and eight others during an attack in July. "After six days some of the girls were released. But the others, as young as eight years old, were kept there," she said. "Five to six men would rape us in rounds, one after the other for hours during six days every night. My husband could not forgive me after this, he disowned me."
Who are the Janjaweed? BBC reports:
The Janjaweed are pastoral and they have been hard hit by desertification, which has greatly diminished water resources and pasture in Darfur.
The African tribesmen have supplied the bulk of the fighting forces for both the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), the main rebel groups in Darfur.
By scuppering the African tribesmen, the Janjaweed are able to disrupt the two movements' recruitment drives. This fits well in the government strategy of beating the rebels militarily. The Africans of Darfur and relief agencies say that, far from stopping the Janjaweed, the government is providing them with weapons, training and uniforms.
According to Wikipedia:
The Janjaweed (also known as Janjawid or Jingaweit) is an armed militia group in Darfur, western Sudan, comprising fighters of Muslim Arab background (mainly from the Baggara tribe). Since 2003 it has been one of the principal actors in the increasingly bloody Darfur conflict, which has pitted Arabs against the black African population (also Muslim) of the region. Its name translates as "a man with a horse and a gun," although it is more usefully translated as "armed men on horseback." The Janjaweed is the successor to an earlier Arab tribal militia, the Murahilin (literally "nomads"), which had existed for many years beforehand.
[O]bservers have noted that Janjaweed attacks on the ground have often been supported by air strikes from the Sudanese air force. It has been suggested that the Sudanese government has been reluctant to rein in the militia, as it has been an effective opponent of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) and the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA).
Are there any Muslim leaders in the Middle East who have condemned the Janjaweed? Are any Muslim leaders calling upon members of the Janjaweed to surrender to authorities and accept responsibility for their crimes?
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Comments
thanks for the opportunity, I thinks most of have written here is incurrect, due to the following reasons:
most of arab background tripe are muslims and just use their weapons to defends themselfs also they are more radikal muslims so they will not be able to do rape non arabic tripes womens.
also raping is not athing that you can do infront of every body since we are sudanese and we can not do such things because we will shame to do even normal sex in groups.
so I think from my point witnesses said that the Goverment army is apart of this process(strange for some one know alot about the tradition of the affrican and arab tripes there)