Background: Phil Cox and Darfur
In the summer of 2003 I came across some Amnesty International reports citing thousands of refugees were fleeing an unknown area called Darfur. I began research and was the first video journalist to make contact with Africa’s newest rebel group – the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) who were fighting the Sudanese Government in Darfur.
With conflict raging in Afghanistan and Iraq there was no media interest in this new African conflict. In late 2003, and without a commission, I travelled alone to Chad and with my SLA contacts smuggled myself across the border and into Darfur – where no independent journalist or diplomat had been allowed access for 2 years.
Over the following months I shot the first images of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing bitter fighting through sandstorms and dramatic desert terrain. I filmed Sudanese Antanov bombers as they attacked their own villages. I recorded testimony from captured Sudanese soldiers saying they were ordered to kill civilians as well as the SLA in combat. I also spent a considerable time and built a strong rapport with the current SLA General Secretary Minni Minnawi who has now emerged as the leader of the rebel movement.
These pictures and reports went out on networks around the world. From the impact of these films I was asked to appear before the UN in Geneva and also before the EU and UK parliaments. My involvement in Darfur has continued since 2004 and I have returned numerous times to film the conflict. I am currently a witness for the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. I continue to produce and organize access and security for broadcasters and NGOs into Darfur and still hold excellent contact with the rebels there and government in Chad.
