A new website was launched yesterday, called Eyes On Darfur. Started by Amnesty International it uses high-resolution satellite technology to record the obscene antics of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed militia.
So far, more than 200,000 civilians have been killed in Darfur, and two million people have been forced to flee their homes. The area is suffering from some of the worst human rights abuses imaginable, including systematic and widespread murder, rape and abduction.
There aren't too many photographs of these dreadful events but these drawings by Darfurian children, some as young as 8, are a heartbreaking testament to what has been happening there. In the two years since these kids set pen to paper the massacres, rapes and expulsions have carried on unabated. This was made possible by the fact that the Arab Government in Khartoum could claim that the ethnic cleansing and killing that accompanied it was the work of the Janjaweed, and even use this as a negotiating card with the UN.
Not any more. It may be all but impossible for journalists to travel that desperate part of the world, but thanks to Amnesty's satellite we can now all see exactly what is happening.
