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By David F. Dawes
THE IMAGES bear all the hallmarks of typical children's art: bold use of
colours; carefree disregard for perspective; crude but charming likenesses
of buildings, animals and people.
But some of the people are bleeding; others are shooting them. Welcome to
the world of Darfur's children.
These images are part of an exhibition titled 'The World Must Know:
Children of Darfur Speak.' They are the dramatic centre of a December 10
event at Vancouver's Jewish Community Centre, featuring four speakers:
former Secretary of State David Kilgour; a survivor of the Darfur
conflict; Holocaust survivor Bob Waisman; and Anna Schmitt, affiliated
with Waging Peace Canada.
Schmitt, who attends an Anglican church, collected the children's art
while doing research in Darfur. Obtaining the images "was not that
difficult," she told CC.com. "I was interviewing the men and women. One
woman said: 'You should speak to the children, if you want to know the
truth.'"
She decided to do so, and went to the children with a simple request.
"I wanted them to share in writing," she said. However, "one boy said,
'May we draw?'"
Art, she soon learned, "is their way of expressing themselves." While some
gave written accounts, most created pictures. She collected some 500
drawings -- "mostly Darfur children in camps in eastern Chad, and some
Chadian kids."
The frankness of the images had an immediate impact on her. "You can
imagine, I was quite shocked. Their drawings were quite telling; 98
percent of them were about attacks. I had to control my emotions. I'm a
mother. To see these images from small children . . . I had to choke back
tears. No child should have to carry around such memories."
Despite the emotional power of the images, she strove to approach the
project logically. "I wanted to make sure it was their own testimony, not
a collective memory," she said. "So I talked to individual children about
their drawings, to confirm the details. I spoke to approximately
two-thirds of the 500."
The drawings are part of the case being made against the government of
Sudan at the International Criminal Court. "Supporting evidence is
probably too strong a term" for the images, Schmitt said. Rather, the
drawings were a means of "weaving a picture" of Darfur's strife.
Court officials, she said, are using the drawings rather than testimony,
because they "don't want to subject the children to re-opening their
wounds." The alleged perpetrators of those wounds, known as 'Janjaweed,'
have yet to be apprehended.
"Janjaweed means 'devils on horses,'" said Schmitt. "They are mercenaries
paid and armed by the Sudanese government; but the government denies any
involvement." Many of the drawings, she said, depict both mercenaries and
Sudanese military personnel committing atrocities.
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The janjaweed, she contended, "are brainwashed that this is a jihad ['holy
war']; they are doing it for Allah." However, she noted a tragic irony:
"Most of the victims are Muslims."
Increased attention on the situation, she said, has had some effect. "As
long as we have our eye on them, a full-fledged attack may be prevented."
But the measures which have been taken so far, she said, are inadequate.
A United Nations resolution was proposed, which would have made Darfur a
'no-fly zone,' and disarmed the janjaweed. The Sudanese government
objected to these conditions; they also stipulated that no Western nations
be involved in the UN operation. The government, she maintained, has been
"stalling" the UN.
A Hybrid Force, combining UN and African Union troops has been proposed,
and is scheduled to go to Darfur early next year. They will be able to
protect civilians, but not respond to any attacks with force.
Consequently, she contended, the Hybrid Force is "a tiger without teeth. I
think they should have the power to disarm the janjaweed."
Schmitt is not entirely pessimistic. "I do see hope -- if the Western
governments have the political will to do something." Failing that, she
maintained, "this is on its way to becoming another Rwanda. It's a slow
ethnic cleansing -- a slow genocide."
While her faith has sustained her in this endeavour, she said she had not
initially sought to do this kind of work for God. "I didn't go looking for
it; it came looking for me. I was pretty naive about what was going on in
Darfur.
"I was reminded of the work of Brother Andrew, and of how Dutch people
helped hide Jews during World War II. It seemed the Lord was putting this
in front of me."
Aside from the difficulty of the task, she was daunted by the response of
some fellow believers. "Some in the Christian community, at one time,
opposed my work; but now they don't. At first, they couldn't understand
why I would put myself in harm's way."
The work will likely get more intense. "My promise to the children was to
give them a voice." The next step, she said, will be to provide a similar
platform for some of the adult victims -- specifically, "the women, many
of whom have suffered from rape."
December 6/2007
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