Introduction

In June and July 2007, an Article 1 team member conducted a three week fact-finding mission to Eastern Chad. The aim of the mission was to assess the humanitarian, human rights and security situation in the region and to collect testimonies from Darfuri refugees and Displaced Chadians.

While collecting testimonies from adults, women told our researcher how their children had witnessed horrendous events when their villages were being attacked. This prompted her to talk to the children. She gave the children aged 6 to 18 paper and pencils and asked them what their dreams were for the future and what their strongest memory was.

When the children handed our researcher their drawings, she was shocked to see the details of their memories of the attacks. While a handful of children had submitted drawings of daily life in the village or in the refugee camp, the majority of the drawings described the attacks on their village by Sudanese Government forces and their allied Janjaweed militia. Many of the drawings depict adult men being killed, women being shot, beaten and taken prisoner, babies being thrown on fires and Government of Sudan helictopters and planes bombing civilians.

The five hundred drawings collected by the Article 1 team amount to a form of criminal evidence from silent witnesses. The killings, bombing and looting shown in the drawings directly contradict the Government of Sudan's version of events over the last four years of bloodshed. The pattern that emerges from these drawings corroborates what we know has been taking place in Darfur and shows a worryingly similar pattern of attacks developing in Eastern Chad.

The drawings have been accepted by the International Criminal Court as contextual evidence of the crimes committed in Darfur. The have also been exhibited in London and throughout the world to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur.

Please see the page “Exhibit the drawings near you” to find out how you can organise an exhibition of the drawings in your town.