by Ray Black
As it became more apparent that Germany was going to be defeated, Himmler ordered an end to the final solution but such was the hatred for the Jews that this was mainly ignored. The gas chambers, however, were dismantled with the bodies that had been buried in the mass graves dug up to be cremated. Farmers were encouraged to plant crops on the sites in an attempt to hide the fact that the camps had ever existed, but it was an abomination that the Nazis simply could not hide.
The last tortuous fate that faced those that had survived the camps after they had been closed, was being forced to march miles to train stations in the dead of winter. Already weekend by hunger and disease, many fell along the way and were shot, with those who succeeded in making the trek being transported in open carriages. Once they reached their destination, they again faced a long march and around 100,000 Jews were killed in this manner towards the end of World War II. In the end, the camps were liberated but the scenes that awaited the Allied forces will never be forgotten by those involved. The survivors were malnourished and many had been driven insane by the conditions in which they were forced to exist. But they, unlike so many others of their faith, had at least survived to see the end of Adolf Hitler and his quest for world domination.
Of course there was a price to pay for this disregard of human life and many of the Nazi officers responsible for the atrocities were hunted down after the war. Rudolf Höß, the Commandant at Auschwitz who has since been labelled the world’s greatest ever murderer, later testified at the Nuremberg trials that he had killed more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews in three months of 1944. Höß himself was found guilty of crimes against humanity and was hanged on April 16, 1947.
Today, several of the former concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau are open to the public as museums and serve as a reminder of the atrocities that were committed there.
Darfur Atrocities
In May 2007, Sudan resisted calls to withdraw the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur and instead enlisted the help of the United Nations to put an end to the violence and abuse suffered by its citizens. As a reaction to this, the USA extended the sanctions already imposed following four years of fighting in the region.
Darfur – an area the size of France – is a western province of Sudan that is in turn the largest country in Africa. It is a country dominated by Arabs and there have traditionally been confrontations between the African farmers and the Arab herders as they compete for the best land around the Nile. The Fur people in the Marrah Mountains established an Islamic sultanate as far back as the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, but they have suffered at the hands of invaders many times over the intervening centuries. Oppressors have included a Turco-Egyptian army and even the British.
It was on February 26, 2003, however, that the most recent conflict truly erupted when rebels began attacking government targets, claiming that the authorities were neglecting the farmers’ rights. Credit for the attack in Golo was claimed by the Darfur Liberation Front, but in reality the rebellion ccould be traced back to an oath sworn by members of the Fur and Zaghawa tribes in July 2001, when they agreed to collaborate to end the attacks on their villages that were funded by the Sudanese government.
The rebels attacked police stations, army outposts and military convoys but the government ordered swift retribution with a massive air and ground attack on a rebel base in the Marrah Mountains. This failed to end the threat of more rebel action, however, as was demonstrated when they gained control of the garrison town of Tine. As well as replenishing their dwindling supplies, they also claimed a large quantity of arms. They began employing guerrilla warfare, using 4x4s to quickly get them to and from their targets, and it seemed that the government had no efficient response to these tactics.
As the conflict grew, so did the number of rebel factions opposing the government. The two main groups were the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, both of whom were fighting against the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia. The authorities had utilised the services of the Janjaweed (armed Baggara herders) before, when they helped prevent a Masalit revolt in the late 1990s, although they denied controlling the militia with President Oman al-Bashir labelling them ‘thieves and gangsters’.
That was little comfort to the Darfurians who accused the Janjaweed of riding into villages before butchering the men, raping the women and looting anything they could find of value. There were many reports of women who claimed to have been abducted by the Janjaweed and who held for a week or more while they were humiliated as sex slaves before their eventual release.
One particularly successful raid saw the rebels wipe out a garrison at al-Fashir where they destroyed planes and helicopters, killing seventy-five personnel in the process. The thirty-four out of their thirty-eight encounters with government forces during the summer of 2003, included killing 500 and capturing 300 at Kutum and killing another 250 in another successful raid on Tine. This forced the Sudanese government to change their tactics and they handed the responsibility for strategical decisions to the Janjaweed.
The militia soon turned things around, and within a few months had succeeded in killing several thousand people while driving 100,000 across the border into neighbouring Chad. They actually chased the refugees into Chad in an engagement that led to a clash with that country’s forces which left many dead. But it was the report by a UN observer that brought the wider world a true picture of the ethnic cleansing that was taking place in Darfur.
The twenty-three Fur villages in the Shattaya Administrative Unit had been completely depopulated, looted and burnt to the ground (the team observed several such sites driving through the area for two days). Meanwhile, dotted alongside these charred locations were unharmed, populated and functioning Arab settlements. In some locations, the distance between a destroyed Fur village and an Arab village was less than 500 metres.
The reign of terror and the fear of the militia forced many people away from their homes and into refugee camps, but they found they were not safe there either. With aid agencies unable to get to the region because of the fighting, there was a lack of water, food and medicine, while danger also lurked outside the perimeters of these camps. The Janjaweed patrolled the area and men who strayed too far were murdered, while women were, once again, the victims of rape. One report in July 2006 described how seven women, who ventured out in search of firewood, were gang-raped and beaten by the militia before being stripped of their clothing and jeered by their attackers as they fled.
The Janjaweed’s tactics have been compared to the genocide in Rwanda and the ethnic cleansing seen in the Yugoslav wars of the early to mid 1990s. These tactics have seen civilians murdered and dismembered including young children and babies. But they also used rape as a weapon of terror because in this culture a woman who has been raped is considered unclean and will be shunned by her community. In extreme cases, the militia also made the humiliation greater by raping the women in a public arena.
A UN party was sent to investigate claims that genocide was being systematically carried out but, while they did acknowledge that there were war crimes being committed, they didn’t find any intent to commit genocide. It was claimed, however, by western observers and refugees that there was a definite plan to rid Darfur of black Africans, and many have used the terms genocide and ethnic cleansing as they describe the atrocities they have witnessed.
A peace deal brokered in May 2006 had little impact on the fighting, as not all parties concerned were willing to sign up to the agreement; only Minni Minawi’s Sudan Liberation Army agreed to the terms but this organisation was then accused of collaborating with the government and attacking their former rebel partners. Indeed, Amnesty International accused the SLA of violence against opponents of the deal and Minawi was later installed as Senior Assistant to the President of the Republic and Chairman of the Regional Interim Authority of Darfur.
The 7,000 AU troops sent in to try and enforce the ceasefire, were given hardly
any powers and were too few in number to effectively patrol the area which is why there were calls from the international community to send in a UN peacekeeping force. Unfortunately, the calls for sanctions had no effect because Russia and China both exercised their right to veto at the UN Security Council. The USA have denied Sudanese firms the opportunity of trading in US dollars since 1997, because of the country’s ties to terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.
The conflict intensified following the supposed peace deal and was particularly horrific in July and August 2006. It prompted the UN Security Council to approve Resolution 1706 thus enabling a 17,300 peacekeeping force to be sent to Sudan. Unfortunately, the government did not welcome this news and reacted by stating that it objected to the resolution and would treat any UN troops as invaders.
The Sudanese government have themselves been accused of trying to keep the truth from the wider world by imprisoning or killing witnesses and even tampering with evidence. They have disturbed mass graves and so invalidated any forensic evidence that might have been found and that might have eventually led to war crimes convictions.
By the end of 2006 there were more rebel factions engaged in the conflict such as the National Redemption Front and the Popular Forces Troops and UN observers were having trouble keeping up with the widespread killing. Indeed, the latter organisation were comprised of Darfurian Arabs who claimed that the Janjaweed were merely mercenaries.
Louis Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, accused the Sudanese government in November 2006 of ‘a deliberate and unprovoked attack on civilians and their property in the town of Sirba . . . with extensive wanton destruction and looting of civilian property’.
While the majority of estimates of the number of civilians who have died since 2003 stand at around 200,000, the United Nations believes that a more realistic figure is nearer half a million, although this figure would also include those who have perished of starvation and disease as well as those who had been murdered. It is also estimated that there are around two and a half million people who had been displaced by the fighting while some 200,000 have sought refuge in Chad.
April 2007 saw several incursions into Chad by the Janjaweed which left many dead after villages were surrounded before the militia opened fire. This led to the Sudanese and Chad presidents signing a peace agreement on May 3, but Russia came in for criticism from Amnesty International when it was claimed that they were supplying Sudan with arms and munitions, but the Soviets repeatedly denied breaking UN sanctions.
Only once peace has been secured, over this on-going attorcity can the true facts regarding the genocide in Darfur be revealed to the world but even when the conflict is over there will always be an uneasy tension in a region that has seen many turbulent periods in its history.
PART SIX: Organisations
The Mafia
The word ‘mafia’ is a term used today to represent almost any organised crime group. The Mafia, which has been glorified by films and television, has controlled everything from street corner drug deals to the highest levels of government. It is a criminal organisation, or family, that is synonymous with oppression, arrogance, greed, power and violence that is governed by inexorable rules. Members of this family live by a ‘code of honour’ and usually have a brief, but violent existence.
The history of the mafioso can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily. The word ‘mafia’ is taken from an old Sicilian adjective mafiusu which means aggressive boasting or bragging. According to many mafioso, the real name is Cosa Nostra, which literally translated means ‘our way’, which was used to describe their way of life. Their activities have always been surrounded by a shroud of secrecy and members reportedly live by a code of silence known as the omerta.
By the early 1900s, organised crime had so thoroughly infiltrated Sicilian life, that it was virtually impossible not to come in contact with it in some form or another. Dictator, Benito Mussolini, tried hard to control the brutal methods of the Mafia by placing many of its top men in prison, but when US troops occupied Sicily during World War II, they mistook the men as political prisoners and set them free. To make matters worse many were appointed in positions of responsibility within the government and police and consequently it didn’t take long for the Mafia to get a firm grasp on Italy’s political scene.
The Mafia is not in fact a single group or gang, it is made up of many families that have, at times, fought long and bloody gang wars. As the violence spiralled out of control, these families realised that their constant fighting was costing them dearly in terms of money and lives, and they decided to call a ceasefire. They formed a group that became known as the Cupola, which oversaw all the families and took control of major enterprises and assassinations. They started to cooperate in the interest of greater profits and although they worked together, to a degree, for the most part they simply agreed to stay out of each other’s way.
Each group is made up of several different gangs, known as ‘families’ and the number of families can range from as little as ten to as many as one hundred. When a new family wishes to form, they need to be approved by the heads of other families, although as in any criminal setup there are often splinter groups that consolidate and form new families. Each family has their own separate business dealings, but needless to say, because of their close proximity to one another, these dealings often overlap causing friction. Each family is lead by the boss, or ‘don’, who is responsible for making all the major decisions. Their authority is vital to the smooth-running of the family, as they are needed to resolve disputes and keep the minions in line.
Directly beneath the don is the underboss. Sammy Gravano was a famous underboss for the Gambino family, who was notorious for turning state’s evidence against Mafia boss John Gotti. The underboss has varying roles to help take pressure off the don, and many are groomed to replace the boss if he becomes too old or has to spend a spell inside.
Beneath the underboss comes the ‘capo’. Their role can be described as a lieutenant who is responsible for leading one section of the family. The key to being a successful capo is making money for the family and this skill depends on the area to which they are designated. They usually organise rackets and illegal gambling and then pass their profits back up to the boss. The real dirty work, however, is carried out by the soldiers. They are the lowest rank in the family and hold little power. They are directly responsible to the capos and will be used on various criminal enterprises. In addition to the soldiers, the Mafia will also use associates. They are not actually members of a family, but merely someone who is prepared to work with the mob when required and can be anyone from a burglar, a drug dealer to a lawyer, banker, policeman or politician.
There is one final position within the family and that is the consigliere. He is a mediator who is there to act as an advisor who is supposed to leave personal feelings aside. Although, in reality, most consiglieres have shown that they are not always impartial.
Of course the Mafia is not strictly limited to Sicilian soils as many Sicilians and Italians immigrated to the United States in the nineteenth century. A huge proportion arrived on US shores early in the twentieth century and, although the majority just worked hard at building a new life for themselves, some of them brought the ways of the Mafia with them.
The first major incident of note, took place in New Orleans in the 1890s. A local chief of police was murdered after putting pressure on a particular Sicilian family. When the mobsters were tried, they managed to bribe many of the witnesses and the court had no choice but to acquit them. This resulted in much anti-Italian fervour and a lynch mob took the matter into their own hands, hanging or shooting sixteen men involved in the case.
Mafia families spread quickly throughout the USA in the first half of the twentieth century, emanating from New York City, where five families fought over who was to take control. Prohibition provided large amounts of money for the Mafia, as they sold illegal alcohol to the speakeasies and hotels and, as
their power grew, so did the wars between the families. The violence reached a climax in the early 1930s, when bosses and underbosses were assassinated on a regular basis. The Luchese family, for example, got through four bosses in 1930 alone.
Right in the middle of all this bloodshed was a mobster by the name of Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano. Luciano held a position of extreme power within the Cosa Nostra and he was behind the decision to form a multi-family commission to control Mafia activities nationwide. This idea was cemented at a meeting in Chicago where the commission was represented by five New York families, including the infamous Al Capone. They tried to iron out many of the problems surrounding the various Mafia families and decided that any large-scale money making activites, murders and kidnappings had to first be approved by the new commission. Membership of the commision was determined at national meetings that were held every five years.
One of these meetings became the scene of a famous event in the history of the Mafia – the Apalachin Raid – which took place on November 14, 1957. At the time Vito Genovese had recently taken over as boss of the Luciano family and in theory controlled almost half of New York’s underworld. All he needed was approval by the commission as head of his family and for Carlo Gambino to be approved as boss of the Anatassi family. A meeting had been scheduled to take place in Apalachin, a small village in upper New York, about two hundred miles northwest of Manhattan, in the home of Joseph Barbara. The commission were concerned about what was taking place in New York and they were about to demand some answers.
Joseph Barbara, who had links with organised crime, was president of the Canada Dry bottling company in the area at the time. The police were aware that Barbara had connections in the drug trade and bootlegging rackets and had been keeping an eye on him for quite a while. However, what the police didn’t know was that Barbara had also been made a member of the Mafia and had been asked to host the commission meeting. Barbara was flattered and arranged hotel accommodation for all the visiting dons and even invited some of them to stay in his own home. They came from as far away as Cuba, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Tucson, Kansas City and Italy – in fact all the big bosses were there.
