---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Reeves <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:31:37 -0400
Subject: "Yet More Compelling Evidence of Atrocity Crimes in South Kordofan"
To: [email protected]
"YetMore Compelling Evidence of Atrocity Crimes in South Kordofan"
Three more mass gravesites identified by the SatelliteSentinel Project,
along with clear evidence of advance planning by Khartoum forthe
slaughter in Kadugli
Eric Reeves
August 25, 2011
The most recent report onatrocity crimes in South Kordofan was published
on Tuesday, August 23, bythe Satellite Sentinel Project ("Special
report: evidence of burial of humanremains in Kadugli"). It provides
compellingevidence---satellite photography and eyewitness accounts---of
three additionalmass gravesites in and around Kadugli, capital of South
Kordofan, and scene ofwell-documented attacks on the Nuba ethnic group.
The UN High Commission for Human Rights has released its ownreport,
which also presents compelling evidence of war crimes and crimesagainst
humanity (the un-redacted and more revealing version is available
here).The weak head of UNHCHR, Navi Pillay, hasdeclared that it is
"essential [that] there is an independent,thorough and objective inquiry
with the aim of holding perpetrators toaccount"; she has been echoed in
this insistence by other senior UNofficials and diplomats from member
states. But as I'verecently argued, this will be adamantly refused by
Khartoum;and---protected by China on the UN Security Council---the
National IslamicFront/National Congress Party regime will be in a
position to reject anynon-consensual investigation. Thiswill be an
extraordinary moment of political and moral clarity for the worldbody,
and for whatever remains of the ideal of a "responsibility toprotect."
There will simply beno way in which to finesse international failure to
investigate at this moment,with such compelling evidence.
To be sure, Khartoum has now offered the UN the opportunity fora brief
"assessment mission" in South Kordofan, which will be strictlycontrolled
by the Sudan Armed Forces and Military Intelligence; it will be
athoroughly sanitized view. At the same time the regime has createda new
"committee"charged with monitoring the situation in South Kordofan. This
will be theongoing reply to any further insistence on the need for an
independent humanrights investigation. Accepting this "assessment
mission" andKhartoum's factitious monitoring committee in place of the
demanded independentand thorough investigation will be to admit the most
abject failure.
What gives special importance to this new report from theSatellite
Sentinel Project (SSP), in addition to the evidence it provides, isthe
editorial comment that accompanies it. This "Note from the Editor"
makes clear just howperversely unwilling the Obama administration has
been to accept theoverwhelming evidence of mass gravesites and extensive
atrocity crimes inKadugli, including widespread, ethnically-targeted
human destruction. This has entailed what is finally nomore than a
feckless and disingenuous skepticism, deployed for reasons ofdiplomatic
expediency rather than any reasoned concern about pre-judging
thesituation on the ground. The "Notefrom the Editor" provides a brief,
perspicuous survey of all the evidencenow available, and thus provides a
devastating account of how untenable theObama administration's
continuing skepticism and counter-claims have become. It also provides
clear evidence that theKhartoum regime had prepared in advance for the
mass killings that began onJune 5:
"Statements and press releases by the InternationalFederation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the SRCS, and theInternational
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have also confirmed that massbody
recovery and disposal operations have been occurring in Kadugli. A 1
Julyreport released by IFRC verifies the SRCS, reportedly acting on
instructionsfrom the Government of South Kordofan, has been actively
collecting dead bodiesin Kadugli town, and had at least 415 body bags
and 2,000 plastic tarps recentlytransferred to it from the IFRC prior to
the fighting in June. By the end ofJune, the SRCS was pub
licly saying it
needed more bodyIn this context, the conclusion to this "Note from
theEditor" has an
inescapable authority:
"It is now two months since reports of the systematic killing
ofcivilians in Kadugli by Government of Sudan-aligned forces first
emerged. Thedebate continues about what further steps the US and the
internationalcommunity should take in response to the gross violations
of human rights thathave been reported. What should no longer be
debated, however, is that thesealleged crimes, including mass killing
and subsequent mass burial of the dead,have happened and continue to
occur."
**********************************
Editor’s Note
Satellite Sentinel Project, August 23,2011
"Special report: evidence of burial ofhuman remains in Kadugli"
The Satellite Sentinel Project's (SSP) identification on14 July 2011 of
a cluster of white bundles in Kadugli as consistent with humanremains
wrapped in white plastic tarps or body bags was controversial at
thetime. Although publicly questioned by a U.S. government official, it
has nowbeen established by SSP through the collection of additional
imagery andeyewitness reports. This report presents more visual evidence
and newinformation by eyewitnesses who spoke directly to SSP of the
collection andburial of human remains wrapped in tarps and/or body bags
by the Sudanese RedCrescent Society (SRCS). The bundles were buried at
an additional two newapparent mass graves in and around Kadugli.
To date, SSP has identified a total of eight massgraves in and around
Kadugli, as well as evidence of corpses wrapped in whatappear to be body
bags and/or tarps at four sites. Also, SSP's imagery of apparent
massgraves has been reviewed by Stefan Schmitt, International Forensic
Program Directorfor Physicians for Human Rights, who has concluded that
the images "provide enough credibleevidence to suggest the presence of
mass graves."
Despite the visual evidence corroborating theeyewitness accounts, as
well as images of three mounds consistent with reportedmass graves
nearby, the US government claimed that SSP's satellite imageryprovided
"noclear evidence of mass graves." In a 20 July 2011 WashingtonPost
article, "US Government Cannot Confirm Mass Graves in Sudan," a US
government officialstated that, "What they (SSP) identify as body bags,
we see those same itemsin those same places before the fighting
started." The US government hasreleased no eyewitness report or imagery
in support of its assertion.
SSP has determined, though, that these same items werenot present in
those same places on 7 June or 17 June or 20 July. Since the 14July
report, SSP has published reports from additional eyewitnesses who
haveseen corpses wrapped in what appear to be white body bags or white
plastictarps. And satellite imagery shows the dumping and subsequent
burials of whatappear to be white bundles of human dimensions, wrapped
in some sort of tarps,and bent in the shapes of the letters "C" or "J,"
consistent with human bodies bent at the waist or knees, on aremote,
wooded mountainside.
Statements and press releases by the InternationalFederation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the SRCS, and theInternational
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have also confirmed that massbody
recovery and disposal operations have been occurring in Kadugli. A 1
Julyreport released by IFRC verifies the SRCS, reportedly acting on
instructionsfrom the Government of South Kordofan, has been actively
collecting dead bodiesin Kadugli town, and had at least 415 body bags
and 2,000 plastic tarpsrecently transferred to it from the IFRC prior to
the fighting in June. By theend of June, the SRCS was publicly saying it
needed more body bags.
This, paired with a 7 July statement by the ICRCstating that it
"provided Sudanese Red Crescent emergency action teams withtechnical
advice on the management of dead bodies, and with the body bags
theyneeded to recover the dead," corroborates SSP’s assertion that the
white or light-coloredobjects are
consistent with body bags.
Eya backhoe digging mass graves in andaround Kadugli at sites in which an
SRCS Land Cruiser and SRCS workers werealso present. One eyewitness
described a yellow excavator digging two pits at asite where men dressed
in a manner consistent with SRCS workers subsequentlythrew bodies into
the pits.
These eyewitness reports, obtained by SSP, areconsistent with a
statement to the press by the executive director of the SouthKordofan
branch of SCRS that the locality of Kadugli provided the SRCS
corpsemanagement team with "a loader for excavation."
Itis now two months since reports of the systematic killing of civilians
in Kadugliby Government of Sudan-aligned forces first emerged. The
debate continues aboutwhat further steps the US and the international
community should take inresponse to the gross violations of human rights
that have been reported. Whatshould no longer be debated, however, is
that these alleged crimes, includingmass killing and subsequent mass
burial of the dead, have happened and continueto occur.
[footnotesin PDF at http://www.satsentinel.org/reports]
_____________________________
Eric Reeves
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
[email protected]
413-585-3326
Skype: ReevesSudan
www.sudanreeves.org
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