WASHINGTON, April 10, 2007
Google To Highlight Darfur Atrocities
Mapping Service To Provide Higher Resolution Images And Icons Of Burnt Villages And Refugee Camps
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An elderly Sudanese refugee sits in her tent in the Oure Cassoni Refugee Camp in Bahai, Chad, Nov. 25, 2007. (GETTY)
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A child in rags rests in an open-air makeshift camp of villagers who escaped an attack that left 40 dead in the latest cycle of ethnic violence that has spilled over from Sudan's Darfur province into eastern Chad, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
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Interactive Struggle In Sudan Five-year conflict in Darfur region has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced millions.
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Photo Essay Darfur Protests Thousands of people join celebrities and lawmakers in urging a greater U.S. role in effort to end genocide in the troubled region.
In a project with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, inaugurated Tuesday, the Internet search company has updated its Google Earth service with high resolution satellite images of the region to document destroyed villages, displaced people and refugee camps.
Google Earth allows those who have downloaded its free software to focus on satellite images and maps of most of the world. When users scan over the Darfur region, where the United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of carnage, Google Inc. hopes to attract their gaze with icons.
The icons represent destroyed villages with flames and refugee camps with tents. When users zoom in to a level of magnification that keeps most of Darfur on a computer screen, the icons seem to indicate that much of the region is on fire. Clicking on flame icons will open windows with the village's name and statistics on the extent of destruction.
Google enhanced the resolution for certain areas of the region so that users can zoom in to see the burnt remnants of houses. Google says it will periodically update the images.
The online maps of the region also include an icon that links to a presentation by the Holocaust museum on the crisis in the region with photos, video, historical background and testimony on atrocities.
Sara Bloomfield, the museum's director, said museum staff members had approached Google about the project as they sought ways to highlight what they believe is genocide to many people who remain unaware. In Google Earth, which the company says has been downloaded by 200 million people worldwide, they found an ideal medium.
“This is like the world's biggest bulletin board,” Bloomfield said.Visit the Holocaust Museum’s Web page on the project.
Sudanese officials, including President Omar al-Bashir, have denied that widespread atrocities have occurred in Darfur. But The Hague-based International Criminal Court has accused officials and militias of orchestrating massacres, mass rapes and the forcible transfer of thousands of civilians from their homes. The United States characterizes the massacres as genocide; other countries and international organizations do not.
Daowd Salih, a native of Darfur and a former officer for the German Red Cross, who spoke Tuesday at a presentation by Google and the museum on the new project, said he hoped that Google Earth would help document atrocities for millions of users.
“We need President Bashir and other perpetrators to know they are being watched,” he said.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Posted by newster1 at 12:57 AM : Apr 11, 2007"
It's not like you could care about Darfur even if you wanted to? LOL
Those with a relatively narrow beastly mentality can only be expected to care about their immediate and and extremely narrow space of misery.
Posted by ncolsens at 07:36 PM : Apr 10, 2007"
It's called propaganda.
The downside is that the propaganda generates ignorance among Americans; because American minds are led deceptively to believe that others are so bad and we are so good. LOL
Shining the light on Darfur is a good thing.
Shining a light on New Orleans and other parts of the gulf would be a good thing also; since it would keep America up to date about the 'progress' there. LOL
About a decade ago, the muslim based government took care of all the Christians. Now they are dealing with the non-Christains.
This is Islam at its finest.
Posted by ncolsens"
Exactly! why the he11 can't we worry about
*OUR OWN* people living HERE FIRST??? why is it we always have to go find some kraphole halfway around the globe to pour money, food and all else into, who hates our guts, gives us nothing when we have an estimated 250,000 HOMELESS people living here??
I don't care about Darfur, it can drop off the face of the earth for all I care, I care about what happens HERE, in the country I have to pay taxes to and live in.
Why? They Show New Orleans as it was before Katrina