Wednesday 4 March 2009

BBC: Child Drawings of Darfur

Heart wrenching sketches displaying the plight in Darfur, the power of art and its responsibility.


The International Criminal Court is accepting supporting evidence of children's drawings of the alleged crimes committed in Darfur. This sketch by Abdul Maggit depicts a typical scene of destruction.


Rights group Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad. Abduljabbar's picture shows someone being thrown into a fire and a soldier who appears to be cutting off a man’s head.


This picture by Mohamat shows another village attack. Next to each civilian who has been shot is the word "Morts", which means dead people in French.


Mohammed's drawing shows Janjaweed militia in two pick-up trucks using machine guns on civilians. He also shows a tank. The Sudanese government has always denied using heavy artillery in Darfur.


Adam, 15, shows shot civilians' bodies being tossed into the river. On the back of the drawing, he wrote: "Look at these pictures carefully, and you will see what happened in Darfur. Thank you."


Ismael, also 15, drew a Sudanese helicopter bombing his village, torching houses and killing civilians and a donkey. He said the armed men on horseback were Janjaweed.


Bakhid was eight years old when he saw his village being attacked and burned by Janjaweed forces on horse back and Sudanese forces in vehicles and tanks.


One young artist named Aisha said: "It is very kind to send us food, but this is Africa and we are used to being hungry. What I ask is that you please take the guns away from the people who are killing us."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7923247.stm

3 comments:

michelle kuen suet fung said...

Your post reminds me of what I heard over the weekend about the social responsibility of a photographer. Artists have social responsibilities too!

Camila y Andrea said...

me gustaa tu blogs lo malo es que no entiendo los contenidos :(

Juanjaime said...

muchas gracias, soy chino con Hong Kong, pero estudio espanol por dos anos. Me gusta tu blogs tambien!