Satellite images show destroyed and threatened villages in Darfur (Forwarded)

American Association for the Advancement of Science
Washington, D.C.

Contact:
Ginger Pinholster, AAAS
202-326-6421

Earl Lane, AAAS
202-326-6431

Suzanne Trimel, Amnesty International
212-633-4150

June 6, 2007

Satellite images show destroyed and threatened villages in Darfur

AAAS provides technical aid for Amnesty International USA Monitoring Effort

A pioneering AAAS program that provides technical expertise to human rights
groups is helping Amnesty International USA with a new online effort to
monitor threatened settlements in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan and
provide evidence of destroyed villages.

High-resolution commercial satellite images, analyzed by AAAS researchers,
will be posted after 12:01 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time Wednesday, 6 June to
Amnesty International's new "Eyes on Darfur" Web site
(www.eyesondarfur.org). The project is at the forefront of efforts by human
rights groups to use satellite cameras to help protect vulnerable
populations. It will allow computer users around the globe to visually track
the status of settlements Amnesty International considers possible targets
of attack.

The new site includes up-to-date images on 12 intact but vulnerable villages
as well as archival satellite photos documenting the destruction of a dozen
settlements in Darfur since January 2005. Lars Bromley, project director for
the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, said the commercially available
photos can show objects as small as two feet across, sufficient to show
destruction of huts and other structures.

"We provide the geospatial support," Bromley said. "We're just providing a
new form of content," but content can have dramatic impact. "By analyzing
geospatial images, we can see that whole villages, some with more than 1,000
homes, have been destroyed" since the beginning of 2005, Bromley said. The
images also show the appearance of makeshift settlements of displaced
persons in close proximity to the small contingent of African Union
monitoring forces in Darfur.

AAAS is a nonprofit, non-advocacy group, Bromley said, but it has long
sought ways to use scientific methods, including forensic sciences and
statistics, to help advance human rights.

Although the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement with the main
rebel group in May 2006, the violence in the Darfur has continued.
Pro-government Arab militias called janjaweed have been accused of genocide
against non-Arab Africans who live in the region.

The new online monitoring program, which Amnesty International officials
hope will increase pressure on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to help end
the violence, was funded by the Save Darfur Coalition. The nonprofit
advocacy group has been urging the United States and others to back a larger
multinational peacekeeping force in Darfur.

The Eyes on Darfur Web site will be launched 6 June to coincide with a
presentation on the project during the Fifth International Symposium on
Digital Earth on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Ariela Blatter, director of crisis prevention and response for Amnesty
International USA, and Bromley of AAAS will discuss the project during a
session from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., U.S Pacific Time.

The Darfur images are being collected by a AAAS program, begun in January
2006, that has been exploring how satellite imagery and other cutting-edge
geospatial technologies can be used to help assess human rights violations
and stop others before they occur. The program received a one-year pilot
grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and that
recently was renewed for three years.

"The imaging initiative is an excellent example of how science and
technology can be applied to help expose human rights violations," said Mona
Younis, director of the Science and Human Rights program at AAAS. "The
project is the latest in a 30-year effort by AAAS that has included
documenting atrocities from Guatemala to Kosovo, while also working to
promote basic human rights worldwide."

Last year, the imaging program -- in cooperation with Amnesty International
in London and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights -- produced satellite
images showing strong evidence the government of Zimbabwe had destroyed a
settlement west of Harare and relocated thousands of residents as part of a
political campaign against opponents.

For the Eyes on Darfur project, Amnesty International researchers provide
Bromley with the names of villages of interest, gathered from media reports
and other sources. Geospatial coordinates for the villages rarely are
available. Also, the spelling of place names can vary or names can be
changed altogether after a village is overrun. "The process is laborious."
Bromley said. Even when village locations are mapped, archival satellite
images may not be available for a specific locale and time. When trying to
document a past incident, it is crucial that there be images available
before and after the attack.

The archival section of the new online site shows the sort of destruction
that already has occurred throughout Darfur. A village called Donkey Dereis,
in south Darfur, was intact when photographed at the end of 2004. An image
two years later shows the near total destruction of the village, with 1,171
homes classified as "definitely destroyed." Most of the huts have
disappeared, Bromley said, and homestead areas have become overgrown with
vegetation.

Photos in 2004 of an area called Ishma show a series of villages that were
destroyed or heavily damaged during a road clearing operation. One of the
villages is essentially gone. "It was just scorched out of the area,"
Bromley said.

Some of the archival images starkly show the movement of displaced persons
in the area. While many have fled to refugee camps in eastern Chad,
makeshift settlements also have grown within Darfur. A plain outside the
city of Tawilla is empty in 2003. By the end of 2004, some scattered huts
have appeared and by February, 2006, hundreds of structures are crammed up
against the wall of a base occupied by a small monitoring force from the
African Union.

The sites that will be monitored for any evidence of violent change include
a settlement in northern Darfur called Malam el Hosh that is in a very dry,
arid location. Nearby is a fairly large water source-essentially a village
well-that might be attractive to militias.

In addition to Amnesty International USA, the AAAS geospatial imaging
program's partners include the U.N. Special Advisor for the Prevention of
Genocide; the National Resources Defense Council; the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum; the U.S. Campaign for Burma and EQUITAS, the international
center for human rights education. Three satellite image companies --
DigitalGlobe in Longmont, Colorado, GeoEye in Dulles, Virginia and ImageSat
in Netherlands Antilles -- have provided images at discounted prices. In
addition to Zimbabwe and Darfur, the AAAS program also has done some work on
Lebanon and will be turning its attention to Burma (also known as Myanmar).

The Eyes on Darfur project largely involves providing technical expertise
and analysis with techniques that are now mature, Bromley said. In the
coming months, the AAAS program will explore other imagery tools that might
be useful for human rights monitoring, including sensors that can pick up
use of fire in conflicts or night-time light monitors that can detect
habitation patterns.

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[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia...php?from=96252
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia...php?from=96252
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia...php?from=96252 ]