[sudan] best to skip over this post - it's quite nasty

Continued … Steidle says he was warned the Sudanese Government wanted to keep it that way. African Union commanders – not wanting to offend the host government – were suspicious of the new man who’d brought a camera as he heard Janjaweed riders explain that they destroyed villages over stolen cattle. He saw neither regret nor remorse: "It was like looking into the devil's eyes."

In January, he predicted – based on Janjaweed movements – that the town of Hamada would be attacked within two weeks. When it was hit 10 days later, Steidle says he refused to go with the observation team: "I knew what they were going to see. I said, `I've seen enough.' " The team found babies with their faces bashed in. When members returned, "they were like zombies", Steidle recalls.

He returned to the US in February 2005 with hundreds of images, including those of a man castrated and left to bleed to death, people with their ears cut off and eyes plucked out and an aerial view of government troops joining ranks with the Janjaweed.

Is this an aberration? Are these Arab militias only native to the Sudan? Look back at this piece and decide:

http://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2006/09/algeria-western-veil-of-silence.html

This is from that story: The GIA get my vote for the sickest, craziest, bloodiest guerrilla group since the Khmer Rouge went out of business. They're the ones who do the massacres that make Algeria the place you'd least like to spend your honeymoon.Just killing isn't enough for these guys. Killing is for wimps. The GIA started coming up with new touches to keep the game interesting: burning people alive, bayoneting babies, raping and killing children in front of their parents. All in the name of God, you understand. Very nice people, these Arabs.

The less gruesome Sudan pics by Steidle are here:

http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/darfur/steidle/

The original story is here:

http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,20504619-663,00.html