En route to Darfur and thinking of the victims
Posted: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8:36 AM
By Ann Curry, NBC News
SOMEWHERE IN CHAD -- Our NBC News team has landed in Africa and is again heading to the edge of Darfur, gearing up to report a pivotal moment in this tragedy.
Anytime now the International Criminal Court will announce whether to issue an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan for the atrocities in Darfur, a region of Sudan.
About six years after a war between the government of Sudan and a rebel group unleashed systematic rapes, mass killings, and the burning of hundreds of villages, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions are still waiting in camps in Sudan and Chad, waiting for hope and justice.
Video: Darfur's victims await justiceAs our news team moves from planes to vans toward this world of desperation, I think of a woman named Myriam, who survived the burning of her village called Tamajour, just two days before we found her under a tree. Her 5-year-old daughter was traumatized and refusing to eat. When we took her back to her village to salvage what she could, it was still smoldering. The only life she had ever known was in ashes.
I think of Khamis, 13-year-old orphaned when his mother was killed and his father was lost in an attack. When we last saw him, he was a boy alone, surviving on his wits and the kindness of others in a refugee camp. Still he was able to be a good student in the camp's school.
I think of Aziza, raped as a virgin at 17, by an Arab wearing a Sudanese uniform. She said he first wanted to know what tribe she belonged to. He told her, "You are black. You have no place here. We will push you out of here. This land will remain for us." Then he grabbed her tightly and raped her, biting her arm and neck to mark her a victim of rape.
In the hospital, we found elderly Gida Zakaria, severely burned when her thatched roof was set on fire. White gauze was wrapped around her slender body. She told us her husband couldn't move fast enough and was burned to death.
Photo: Six-year-old Khalid (left) recovers at a hospital after a Janjaweed attack, flanked by his mother and sister. Click here to see more photography by the NBC News team and Ann Curry during a 2006 trip.In a nearby room, a young man lay motionless, both his eyes bayoneted. At his side, his wife was weeping and his children sat stunned.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has argued Sudan's President Omar al Bashir masterminded genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur and should be brought to justice.
What will the court decide? And what do the victims have to say about it?
Who more deserves a voice than the victims of atrocities?
Ann Curry will be filing reports for Nightly News, TODAY, and msnbc.com this week. Click here to read her 2006 blog entries. Follow her Twitter feed here.
