Google satellite focuses on the atrocities in Darfur
Thursday, 12 April 2007
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An insight into the violence and chaos in Darfur has been provided through a new project in which the public can use online satellite imagery to view destroyed villages and obtain information about refugee camps and other humanitarian efforts.
The project is a joint effort undertaken by the internet search giant Google and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington DC. It utilises the Google Earth service which allows users to view high resolution satellite images by moving their computer mouse.
For the new project, the company has updated its service with even higher resolution images and has integrated the pictures with icons that represent destroyed communities and displaced people across the Darfur region of southern Sudan.
By clicking on an icon, users can access more information, eyewitness testimony and photographs about what has happened in specific locations.
The violence in Darfur is estimated by the United Nations to have claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people over thepast four years and displaced 2.5 million people. The bulk of the violence has been carried out by the Janjaweed Arab militia - armed and supported by the government of Sudan - carrying out a scorched-earth policy that has destroyed villages across the western region.
The Bush administration has declared the human rights abuses in Darfur to be genocide, and a UN panel accused the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed of "widespread and systematic" abuse.
"We decided the situation in Darfur was a genocide crisis back in the summer of 2004 based on a wealth of evidence," said John Heffernan, a spokesman for the Holocaust Memorial Museum. "We are trying to honour the memory of the Holocaust by responding to what is happening today. We felt we needed better visual representation and that was when we teamed up with Google Earth."
