Thursday, December 14, 2006

Sudanese Knights: Aid worker in Sudan

Sudanese Knights' blog entry (claims to be authored by an aid worker in Sudan) entitled Who's calling who a janjaweed? (hat tip Global Voices - Sudan: Janjaweed identity) - excerpt:
Many of those who have moved into the IDP camps go back to their fields in the daytime, on donkeys (they only have donkeys and goats now as their horses and camels have been rustled by janjaweed). At night they return to the safety of the camps. Last week I was out in the villages trying to organise training sessions with the few people who have stayed in the villages, but most people were too busy and worried about bringing in the harvest quickly before the cattle came to eat the crops. I saw fields being eaten up by herds of cows, the remaining wheat stalks still standing taller than the cattle as they munched their way through. Later I saw a group of men in dark green uniforms, (hell, let's be rash and just call them janjaweed), relaxing in the long grass with their guns propped up next to them, as their camels had a good square meal in somebody else's field.
Why be rash and call them janjaweed? See Werner's blog entry from Darfur on Answers to Questions and this excerpt:
Question: How can you tell who is a janjaweed and who is a government soldier?

Answer: Usually the GoS wear distinctive green camouflage uniforms and the Janjaweed do not. Otherwise I would not be able to tell the difference.

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