Free Lance-Star's Rick Mercier interviews former Marine who was witness to genocide in western Sudan.

Free Lance-Star's Rick Mercier interviews former Marine who was witness to genocide in western Sudan.

Date published: 4/3/2005

By Rick Mercier

EN YEARS from now, when we reflect on the genocide in Darfur, we may well remember Brian Steidle as one of the reasons why we can't say we didn't know what was going on in that ravaged part of Sudan.

Few other Americans have had such an up-close view of the ethnic cleansing in Darfur. And only a handful of other Americans have worked as feverishly to educate their fellow citizens about the region's orgy of violence, which has claimed well over 200,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people (out of a population of about 7 million) from their homes.

Steidle, a former Marine, served as an adviser to African Union monitors in Darfur from September to February. While he was there, the 28-year-old Virginia Tech graduate encountered some of the Sudanese military officers and janjaweed militiamen who are perpetrating crimes against humanity--and he was repulsed by their air of invulnerability despite worldwide media coverage of their atrocities.

Steidle wants to see deployment of a large international force in Darfur that has an explicit mandate to protect civilians and ensure secure routes for humanitarian aid workers. He thinks that force may have to number in the tens of thousands. He also advocates enforcement of a no-fly zone over the region so the Sudanese government can no longer bomb and strafe civilians with helicopter gunships and warplanes.

Steidle has testified on Capitol Hill about Darfur and is working with members of Congress from both parties to craft a strategy for ending the ethnic violence in the western part of Sudan.

The Free Lance-Star's Rick Mercier caught up with Steidle last week in Arlington to discuss what he witnessed in Darfur and what he thinks needs to be done to stop the genocide there.

Here are excerpts from that interview:

Mercier: Could you explain what you were doing in Darfur?

Steidle: We were reporting on violations of the cease-fire [between rebels and Sudanese government forces].

[My job] was basically to assist in report-writing, assist in questioning, anything I could do.

Mercier: We hear about a mandate that limits what AU troops can do. And, of course, in your experiences, you saw abuses occurring but were unable to intervene.

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Date published: 4/3/2005