NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A U.S. satellite monitoring group released images Thursday that it fears show a mass grave in Sudan, saying witnesses also have described 100 or more bodies being thrown into a pit in the same area.
The Satellite Sentinel Project images show what
appear to be freshly dug sites in Southern Kordofan state, where Sudan's Arab
military has been targeting a black ethnic minority loyal to the military of
the newly independent Republic of South Sudan.
"The DigitalGlobe satellite images contain
many of the details and hallmarks of the mass atrocities described by at least
five eyewitnesses to the alleged killings," said Nathaniel A. Raymond, of
the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which analyzes the project's images.
Fighting broke out in the region on June 5. Neither
the U.N., outside aid groups nor journalists have access to the region, raising
fears that more violence is being carried out than is known publicly.
A spokesman for Sudan's ruling party denied the
project's allegations and said the area is accessible to observers, though aid
groups say it is not.
"Even if there is any suspicion on such
pictures, people can go there and visit the area and see what is the actual
reality," said Rabie A. Atti, National Congress Party spokesman. "I
think this is only rumors trying to, you know, blacken the people of our
government."
Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in
Massachusetts who has written a book on the atrocities in the western Sudan's
Darfur region and is following the violence in Kordofan, said reports have been
coming out of the Nuba Mountains for weeks of targeted killings.
He had not seen the satellite photos when contacted
late Wednesday but said the satellite project had an "impeccable" record
of interpreting previous satellite images from Sudan, particularly the
contested region of Abyei.
"No one will be able to express skepticism
after the confirmation of mass graves. We've had these reports for weeks now,
and they keep coming," said Reeves. "We now have, if not a smoking
gun, satellite confirmation of ethnically targeted extermination efforts."
The satellite group said three excavated areas
measuring about 26 meters (yards) by 5 meters (yards) are visible near a school
in the town of Kadugli. The group said that an eyewitness reported seeing 100
bodies or more put into one of the pits on June 8.
After the violence broke out, the U.N. said at
least 73,000 people had fled the region. Many of the displaced are ethnic Nuba
who have long been marginalized. They are mostly seeking shelter in nearby
communities or hiding out in the Nuba Mountains where they have no access to
medical assistance, food and clean water.
The satellite project said it was told by an
eyewitness that Sudanese Armed Forces troops, militia fighters, men in brown
uniforms consisted with those worn by prisoners and individuals dressed in a
manner consistent with Sudan Red Crescent Society workers were seen driving
large green trucks close to the alleged mass grave site.
Because the authorities in Southern Kordofan are
barring international aid agencies from entering the region, and journalists
are not able to safely access it. Activists fear the Khartoum government is
carrying out targeted killings like those in Darfur over the last decade.
"Men at the site were reportedly unloading
dead bodies from the trucks and depositing them in the open pits. The
individual claims to have seen some bodies in what appeared to be bags,"
said the report.
The project did not identify any witnesses or its
means of communicating with them for fear of reprisal attacks.
Reeves said that his contacts in Kadugli have
reported security roadblocks, house-to-house searches for supporters of the
South Sudan military, and executions on the street.
"What's happening beyond Kadugli, beyond the
Nuba Mountains, in places we haven't heard of, is that these Nuba people are
being exterminated," he said.
The Nuba people have been targeted by Khartoum
before. Reeves said that during killings in the 1990s, information from the
region was sealed tight, and that no one knew the killings were taking place
for two or three yeas.
"It was a black box genocide, as Darfur is
becoming a black box genocide, and as I will predict will happen in Kordofan in
the next couple months."
Associated Press writer Maggie Fick in Juba, South
Sudan contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
Photo
Caption: In this Digital Globe satellite images made available by the US monitoring
group the Satellite Sentinel Project Thursday July 14 2011 and analyzed by the
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, a site in Kadugli town in a sealed-off region
of Sudan appears to be a mass grave, offering the first aerial photographs from
a conflict zone that outside observers can't access. The group said it had
photographic evidence and witness testimony indicating that systematic killings
and mass burials are taking place in Southern Kordofan state, where Sudan's
Arab military has been targeting a black ethnic minority loyal to the military
of the newly independent Republic of South Sudan. Text and graphics applied to
images by the source. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)
