Transcript for Sudan: Another Darfur?

[♪ Pop music playing ♪] With Fareed Zakaria

The conflict in Darfur has overshadowed deadly strife in East Sudan.

Eastern rebels, like their counterparts in Darfur, complain that successive regimes in Khartoum

have marginalized the impoverished region, which is home to 4 million people.

Some peace talks promise an end to this decade-old conflict.

But if conditions on the ground do not improve, the armed struggle may yet explode.

Christopher Milner traveled where few reporters have ventured to show us the situation on the ground in East Sudan.

[Sounds of car driving by]

"The Next Darfur?" Reported by: Chris Milner, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

[Narrator speaking] This desert region of Sudan is plagued by famine and war.

Yet we are far from Darfur, this is the troubled land of East Sudan.

[Singing in Ta Bedawie, translated] We are the Beja, we are smart

We are the Beja, we are not afraid.

We are not afraid of fire and guns

The Beja have heavy weapons

The Beja have grenades

We are the Beja, we are smart

We are smart on the battlefield

We are the Beja, we are not afraid.

We are not afraid of fire and guns

Tahir Mohamed, President, Beja Youth Organisation

I can surely say

that groups in Sudan like the Beja

have been impoverished by the policies.

of successive governments in Khartoum.

[Narrator speaking] For decades, the people of East Sudan have complained that Khartoum

exploited their natural resources, without developing their region.

In 1994, after 50 years as a non-violent movement,

the Beja congress decided to pick up arms,

and fight the Sudanese government for better conditions.

[In Ta Bedawie, translated] Now, after 10 years of war

Professor Feki, Chairman, Liberated Territories, East Sudan

the humanitarian situation is getting worse.

People need guaranteed safety from harassments,

and help setting up homes because most

property has been systematically destroyed.

[Narrator speaking] Khartoum responded with daily arial bombardments of civilian targets.

Some 250,000 people have taken their refuge in the rebel hell territority so far

their homes and livestock destroyed.

Sayeed Bel'eid, Chariman, People's Committee of Rassai

My family escaped to this area from the war

and the fire that shows no mercy.

Now my children suffer from malnutrition.

We returned but our houses are burned,

and the government mined our village.

So now we are displaced.

We came to see the Professor (Feki)

Mohamed Isaa, Bel'eid Family Member

and he said we could stay here,

but there are no services here, none at all.

Back home . . . mines are everywhere,

even in our house of worship.

I don't understand why?

They came and slaughtered our animals, and seized our property.

The people always pay the price for war.

[Man and woman speaking in Ta Bedawie]

There is no school for our children

The school was destroyed.

We need help, help us help us!

There is not enough food, we need food, and corn.

And drinking water.

It's the same for drinking water.

[Narrator speaking] Decades of neglect and conflict

have left a region rich in natural resources on the verge of collapse.

In rural Eastern Sudan, illiteracy reaches 90%

Trade has been strangled.

The average income for a Sudanese is $300. In the East, it is just $90.

[Sounds of car running]

Primary Health Care Unit, Balastaf

Tahir Mohamed, Medical Assistant, Balastaf

We have malnutrition, and anemia,

and dysentery, and giardia

All our medical equipment is destroyed,

we don't have the tools to treat people.

We don't even have toilets

not in the women's ward, or the men's.

No latrines!

[Man speaking in Ta Bedawie]

[Narrator speaking] Crude mortality rates here double those of Darfur.

The Beja are nomadic and depend on animals

but the East is prone to drought.

Drought has starved all we had left

resulting in famine and disease,

and malnutrition related diseases are chronic

[Narrator speaking] Malnutrition rates are the highest in Sudan,

well above world food program emergency levels.

>>Donors and national organisations

need to cooperate to develop this region

as well as Darfur.

Assistance has reached, at most,

a quarter of those in need.

Talks between the Eastern Sudan front and the government are ongoing.

It remains to be seen whether Khartoum is actually serious about helping the Beja people.

[♪ Soft guitar playing ♪] With Fareed Zakaria

PAST IS PRESENT The Beja are found mostly in Sudan, but also in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Egypt

Source: Wikipedia.org

For 4,000 years the Nomadic Beja have lived mostly as camel herders

The Beja speak Ta Bedawie, an Afro-Asiatic language

With Fareed Zakaria

Reporter / Editor: Chris Milner

Videographer: Christian Bitsch, Kassim Ghebru Photography: Thomas Goisque

Translation: Mohamed Said, Hassan Kasrawi

"Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria" is produced by Azimuth Media

Special thanks to: Native Voice Films, London Beja Relief Organization, Eritrea

Produced in association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

www.pulitzercenter.org