thedrifter
03-09-06, 06:47 AM
BERKELEY
Stunning photographs show the horror of genocide in Darfur
Former U.S. monitor is touring Bay Area to appeal for action
- Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006
Brian Steidle, a former Marine captain, enjoyed photography as a lark. Then he began shooting images of genocide in Sudan. Now he recalls the awful buzz of flies in a village that was looted and burned after its inhabitants were killed.
As a U.S. representative to the African Union peacekeeping mission, Steidle had access to certain areas of Sudan's troubled Darfur provinces that are restricted to journalists. The Sudanese government reluctantly allowed him to be a witness.
After resigning from his job last year as a neutral observer, Steidle is on a 25-city national tour sponsored by the humanitarian group Save Darfur -- showing his photographs of atrocities and imploring Americans to help stop the killing.
"I was tired of taking pictures of dead bodies, tired of seeing maggots foam out of their mouths," Steidle said. "I was tired of hearing those stories of women who had lost everyone in their families, and then gang-raped. Tired of looking into their eyes and telling them there was nothing I could do for them."
Steidle, 29, has made numerous appearances this week in the Bay Area, speaking at Ascension Church in Saratoga before a crowd of 350 and talking with students Wednesday at UC Berkeley. He appeared Wednesday evening at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, where he showed about 65 digital images and spoke.
His riveting photographs are being exhibited at Cornell University, UCLA, and -- later this month -- Princeton, and have also appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress, the United Nations and the British House of Commons.
Steidle said he has also lobbied the inner sanctum of the Bush administration, but has been asked repeatedly by U.S. officials to stop showing his photographs.
The ethnic genocide began in February 2003 after rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan stepped up their attacks against military bases. The Arab-dominated Sudanese government and Arab militias responded with a campaign of violence against non-Arab Darfurians, most of whom observers said had no affiliation with the rebels.
During the noon hour Wednesday, he stood on the steps of Sproul Plaza, speaking into a microphone, pointing to his photos and imploring students and other passers-by to "spread the word" about Sudan's genocide.
Some of his images capture the beauty of tribal African women and children, standing or huddling together on the stark desert floor. Other photos show crowded refugee camps. One image revealed a burned corpse.
When several students stopped to see what was going on, Steidle told them: "Darfur is a region in Sudan, the largest country in Africa. They're killing people there. They're hacking them alive.
"Darfurians are the nicest people you'd ever want to know," he added. "They're being killed because they're black. This is a man who was locked in a hut and burned alive. These people would give anything to be homeless in Berkeley."
In a series of interviews, Steidle discussed his delicate assignment as an unarmed monitor in Sudan. The son of a Navy admiral, Steidle said he left the Marines in late 2003. From January 2004 to February 2005, he served as a U.S. representative to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Sudan. Steidle said his employment was arranged through a private contractor, which he would not identify.
According to Steidle, he wore plain khakis and traveled with African Union troops. He interviewed the victims of atrocities, including rape victims. His primary duty was taking photographs, and he took about 1,000 of them. He was tear-gassed, threatened, occasionally shot at and briefly held hostage by villagers who didn't know whether to trust him, he said.
Steidle said he saw Sudanese government soldiers fighting side by side with Janjaweed militias, burning and looting villages. He said that the Sudanese employed Soviet Antonov planes and helicopters to bomb, strafe and burn villages, "shooting indiscriminately with their anti-personnel rockets into a village of 20,000 ... I saw 37 villages burned in one day."
Steidle said he also witnessed complicity in the attacks by Sudanese telephone companies, which routinely shut off their service just before planes and helicopters attacked a village.
"In a country like that, the government has say over what the companies do," Steidle said. "That's just the way a military dictatorship works. They drive around and pick people up on the street, and you never see them again."
Steidle said the Bush administration has not pressed Sudan authorities because of the war on terror and its desire to gain intelligence on al Qaeda, which provided a safe haven for Osama bin Laden in Sudan in the 1990s.
"The United States is getting good intelligence from the Sudanese government," Steidle said, "and the U.S. doesn't want to destroy that network."
The witness-turned-advocate has lobbied the United Nations to send to Sudan a multilateral peacekeeping force of sufficient strength to stop atrocities rather than simply monitor them.
"We need a force on the ground that can stand in the way and protect these people from being killed," he said.
Steidle chalks up the world's tepid response to Sudan's genocide as "disinterest in another African tragedy. The White House isn't feeling any heat on it. We should be taking the lead on this."
As for photography, Steidle brought his digital camera on the multi-city tour and plans to take it with him soon to Rwanda.
"I saw things that should never be talked about, never be seen and never be experienced," said Steidle. "I hid behind my camera and took my pictures. I'm trying to take this horrible experience and turn it into something good."
E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.
Ellie
Stunning photographs show the horror of genocide in Darfur
Former U.S. monitor is touring Bay Area to appeal for action
- Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006
Brian Steidle, a former Marine captain, enjoyed photography as a lark. Then he began shooting images of genocide in Sudan. Now he recalls the awful buzz of flies in a village that was looted and burned after its inhabitants were killed.
As a U.S. representative to the African Union peacekeeping mission, Steidle had access to certain areas of Sudan's troubled Darfur provinces that are restricted to journalists. The Sudanese government reluctantly allowed him to be a witness.
After resigning from his job last year as a neutral observer, Steidle is on a 25-city national tour sponsored by the humanitarian group Save Darfur -- showing his photographs of atrocities and imploring Americans to help stop the killing.
"I was tired of taking pictures of dead bodies, tired of seeing maggots foam out of their mouths," Steidle said. "I was tired of hearing those stories of women who had lost everyone in their families, and then gang-raped. Tired of looking into their eyes and telling them there was nothing I could do for them."
Steidle, 29, has made numerous appearances this week in the Bay Area, speaking at Ascension Church in Saratoga before a crowd of 350 and talking with students Wednesday at UC Berkeley. He appeared Wednesday evening at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, where he showed about 65 digital images and spoke.
His riveting photographs are being exhibited at Cornell University, UCLA, and -- later this month -- Princeton, and have also appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress, the United Nations and the British House of Commons.
Steidle said he has also lobbied the inner sanctum of the Bush administration, but has been asked repeatedly by U.S. officials to stop showing his photographs.
The ethnic genocide began in February 2003 after rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan stepped up their attacks against military bases. The Arab-dominated Sudanese government and Arab militias responded with a campaign of violence against non-Arab Darfurians, most of whom observers said had no affiliation with the rebels.
During the noon hour Wednesday, he stood on the steps of Sproul Plaza, speaking into a microphone, pointing to his photos and imploring students and other passers-by to "spread the word" about Sudan's genocide.
Some of his images capture the beauty of tribal African women and children, standing or huddling together on the stark desert floor. Other photos show crowded refugee camps. One image revealed a burned corpse.
When several students stopped to see what was going on, Steidle told them: "Darfur is a region in Sudan, the largest country in Africa. They're killing people there. They're hacking them alive.
"Darfurians are the nicest people you'd ever want to know," he added. "They're being killed because they're black. This is a man who was locked in a hut and burned alive. These people would give anything to be homeless in Berkeley."
In a series of interviews, Steidle discussed his delicate assignment as an unarmed monitor in Sudan. The son of a Navy admiral, Steidle said he left the Marines in late 2003. From January 2004 to February 2005, he served as a U.S. representative to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Sudan. Steidle said his employment was arranged through a private contractor, which he would not identify.
According to Steidle, he wore plain khakis and traveled with African Union troops. He interviewed the victims of atrocities, including rape victims. His primary duty was taking photographs, and he took about 1,000 of them. He was tear-gassed, threatened, occasionally shot at and briefly held hostage by villagers who didn't know whether to trust him, he said.
Steidle said he saw Sudanese government soldiers fighting side by side with Janjaweed militias, burning and looting villages. He said that the Sudanese employed Soviet Antonov planes and helicopters to bomb, strafe and burn villages, "shooting indiscriminately with their anti-personnel rockets into a village of 20,000 ... I saw 37 villages burned in one day."
Steidle said he also witnessed complicity in the attacks by Sudanese telephone companies, which routinely shut off their service just before planes and helicopters attacked a village.
"In a country like that, the government has say over what the companies do," Steidle said. "That's just the way a military dictatorship works. They drive around and pick people up on the street, and you never see them again."
Steidle said the Bush administration has not pressed Sudan authorities because of the war on terror and its desire to gain intelligence on al Qaeda, which provided a safe haven for Osama bin Laden in Sudan in the 1990s.
"The United States is getting good intelligence from the Sudanese government," Steidle said, "and the U.S. doesn't want to destroy that network."
The witness-turned-advocate has lobbied the United Nations to send to Sudan a multilateral peacekeeping force of sufficient strength to stop atrocities rather than simply monitor them.
"We need a force on the ground that can stand in the way and protect these people from being killed," he said.
Steidle chalks up the world's tepid response to Sudan's genocide as "disinterest in another African tragedy. The White House isn't feeling any heat on it. We should be taking the lead on this."
As for photography, Steidle brought his digital camera on the multi-city tour and plans to take it with him soon to Rwanda.
"I saw things that should never be talked about, never be seen and never be experienced," said Steidle. "I hid behind my camera and took my pictures. I'm trying to take this horrible experience and turn it into something good."
E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.
Ellie