RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Racial Targeting of Sexual Violence in Darfur] John Hagan. PhD. Wenona Rymond-Richmond. PhD, and Alberto Palloni, PhD

Few quantitative studies have examined sexualviolence associated with intemadoiial warcrimes, and, to our knowledge, no peer-reviewed studies have examined sexual vio-lence in the Darfur region of western Sudan.'-^Two exct;[>tional studies focused on SierraLeone"* and sotithtím Iraq."" The latter uniquelyidentifies a goveninieut role in rape prior to theAmerican occupation.

Quantitative i esearch on intemationa] waroinies most often focuses on forced migrationand mortality. •' ' Total estimated mortality inDaiilir for a 33-nionÜi period ñ'om 2003 to2005 exceeded 200000; crude mortality rateswere 4 to 6 times higher than expected in peacetime, and more than 2 million persons in theregion have been di^laced.^ Sexual violence,althüLiji present in the region, is rarely reportednimierically. A UN inquiiy found Ihat 'varioussources reported widespread rape" in Sudan, andthe inquiry warned that "many cases went un-i-cported due t(.i the sensitivity" of the subjetl'*

Siîxual violence rfôults in physical harm,reproductive ti auma, the communication ofsexually ti"ansniitted diseases {including HIV),pregnancy, and feelings of helplessness andhumiliation that pei-sist as posth-aimiatic stressdisorders. ^ For example, the sequelae of sexualviolenœ, such as traumatic fistula or inœntinenceof urine or stooL often leave victims physicallytraumatized, shamed, and ostracized. In contextsof warfai'e or scraetal disintegration, intergroupra{.K; is often used as a means of controllingreproduction and is a powerful weajion fordestruction of stxial groups, llie Inti mationalCrmiinal Tiibunal's verdict in the Jean-PaulAkayesu case in Rwanda identified rape as an "anintegral part of the process of destruction" out-lawed hy Ihe Genodde Convention." '

Studies of sexual violence are complicatedby societal taboos I'egarding rape. These tabooshave not completely silenced advocacy onbehalf of rape victims,"*^ but they do disœur-age victims from reporting rajjes. It has beenaiiecdolally observed, however, that people aremore comfortable reporting the rapes of others,and these repoils can be cross-validated. In our

Objectives. We used the Atrocities Documentation Survey to determinewhether Sudanese government forces were involved in racially targeting sexualvictimization toward ethnically African women in the Darfur region of westernSudan.

Methods. The US State Department conducted the survey by interviewing arandomized multistage probability sample of 1136 Darfur refugees at 20 sites inChad in 2004. For a subset of 932 respondents wbo had fled from village clustersthat accounted for 15 or more respondents per cluster, we used hierarchicallinear models to analyze village-level patterns of reported sexual violence. Westatistically controlled for individual sexual victimization to remove bias.

Results. Respondents reported being subjected to racial epithets associatedwitb sexual victimization significantly more often during combined attacks bySudanese government forces and Janjaweed militia forces than during separateattacks by eitber force.

Conclusions. Combined attacks by Sudanese government forces and Janja-weed militia forces led to racial epithets being used more often during sexualvictimization in Darfur. Our results suggest that the Sudanese government isparticipating in the use of sexual assault as a racially targeted weapon againstethnically African civilians. (Am JPubí/cHea/í/i, 2009:99:1386-1392. doi:10,2105/AJPH.2008.141119)

study, we accounted for these considerations byanalyzing central tendencies in reported rape.taking into account individual- and village-love!vari^on and bias.

The origin of the Darfur conflict has beentraced to rebel attacks on Sudanese govern-ment forces iii the region in 2003.''* However,gi'oup polarization in Dadlii- dates at least as fai-hacJt as the mid-1980s, when violence beganbetween Arab nomadic heixiers and non-Arabfamiei-s.''' Desertification and famine intensifiedcompetition ovei' gi'azLig areas and land, v/hich iswhy the most amimon crimes involve crops andlivestock.' ' Libya's dictatorial leader, Muammaral-Gaddafi. exploited the 1985 famine in Sudanby biTiiging guns to the Arab herders in Dartitrand trying to create an "Arab belt" aa oss siib-Saharan Africa. Another cause of group polari-zation was the 198t) election of Sadiq al-Mahadias prijne minister of Sudan. Mahadi sou^t toform an "Arab and Islamic Union.""'

Gaddafi latei- adopted a more pan-Airicanforeign policy, and al-Mahadi did not entirelyexclude non-Arab groups from his regime, butOmar al-Bastiir, who was installed as presidentof Sudan by a military coup in 1989. morebrutally excluded non-Arabs from governance.

Bashir's government armed and trained land*less Arab pastoralists who were giowiiig moredesperate for access to water and pastures.Desertification intensified the dichotomybetween nomadic, pastoralist "Arabs" andsedentary, fanning "non-Arabs" or "Black•Mhcans."'' /Mthou^ br th gi'oups were pa--dominantly Muslim, the Black Africans were lesslikely to understand or speak Arabic Thesecontentious differences of livelihood and lan-guage were linked to variations in skin tone anddefined as racial characteristifs.'"

In 2003, Sudanese government forceslaunched the firet of 2 major offeiLsives againstrebels in Darfiir.'' In 2004, the US State De-partrnent accused Sudan of joining its govern-ment mÜitary fo) ces with the . I'ab Janjaweed("men with guns on horses or camels") militias totai' et and carr)' out genocida! violence againstAfrican tribal viU^es populated by BlackAfricans. ' ' Sudanese government forces be^anbombing Za^awa villages in north Dailiu' andsubsequently extended groiuid and bombingattacks to Fur and Masalit villages in west andsouth Darfijr. '' '* *'*""" Fur and Masalit womenwere especially vulnerable to sexual violenceduring ground attacks."'

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Attackers often shouted radal epithets thattiesignatfifl Zaghawa. Fur. and Masalit groups astargets lor attacks because they were BlaekAfricans. These epithets were forceilil attribu-tions of radal difference intended to cause hami.Sudi evidence of radaliy spedfic intent is at thecore of the legal definition of genodde. Judges intiie Rwandan Afiayesu genodde case deddedtliat "the use ot derogatory language toward .. .the targeted group" provides "sufRdent evi-dence of intent.""" '"^ ^^•^-' •'' and judges in theBosnian/efe) genodde case dted "words" and"remarks" as evidence of radal intenf^"

We hypothe.sizei] that in the Darfur conflict,Sudanese government forces joined withArabjanjaweed militia in radaliy tai;geting non-Arab Black African villages for violence thatincluded sexual victimization, while at the sametime sparing Arab villages from sexual violence.

METHODS

We analyzed a US State Department Atroc-ities Documentation Survey (ADS) contluctedfrom July 12 through August 18, 2(X)4. with arandomized multistage probability sample of1136 Darflir refugees at 20 sites in Chad. ^Ilie fiuiding oï tliis State Department survey($858 322) was provided by the United SlatesAgency for International I>'velopment throu^the American Bar Assodation and the CoaUtio»for International Justice, whidi supervised datacollection in eastern Chad. ITie Unitetl Nations(UN) used lettered grids to subdivide refugeecamps into sedors. with eadi sector led by areajgnized chief or other leadership figure. TheADS team proportionately sampled the camps'sed:ors by size and ethnidty. Informal refugeevillages (reftigee camps not recognized by the UN)were similaj-ly sampled, with landmarks servingas sector boundaries. Interviewers followed ran-dom routes from leaders' households and selectedinterviewees from every tenth ocaipied livingspace. Interviewers used a Kish grid to randomlysekxl 1 adult to interview in each household.

The questionnaire was d(!veloped by theState Department's Bureau of Intelligence andResearch, witli input from international lawadvisors on victim and peqietrator mine code^.With the aid of cartogr^hers and translators,interviewera identified 90% of the villagesIroin which refugees fled. -'"'' ' We thus iden-tified 932 re^ndents who had fletl from 22

originating village dusters (henceforth called"villages") that had 15 or more respondents each(Figure 1).

Population pyramids from refugee and dis-placement canrps inside Dai'fur are similar withregard to age and gender to those in Chad. Inboth Chad aiul Darlur there is a dispropor-tionate absence of fighting-age men (aged 18-

29 years). There are no indications that theDai-liir refugees in Chad differ in significantways from internally displaced Darfuris in thebordering areas.

Table 1 indicates ttiat the averse refiigee inthe sample was 37 years old. Tbe sample wasabout (SOo/i. female (N-559) and 4O'Vu male(N=373), reflecting the absence of fighting-age

Near Umm BourouKarnoi

Tirn_Near Karnoi

^-'TandubayahGir^ira

ChadKoulbous Abu Gumra Kutum

Adar

Seleya^ :Near

AbuSttba

AI Geneina(I Kebkabiya

Masteri

BeiclaJ

rHabilah

; ForoBurunga

Garsita

i t :

Percent Reporting Rapesand Sexual Assaults

0 - 15%

16-30%

Betidesi

0 10 20 40 /60Miles

31+%

FIGURE 1-Map of rapes and sexual assaults: Atrocities Documentation Survey of DarfurRefugees, Chad, 2004.

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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

TABLE 1-lndivldual-Level and Village-

Level Profiles: The Atrocities

Documentation Survey of Darfur

Refugees, Chad, 2004

Mean (SD)

Viltage-level racial intention: 0.312 |0.144)

racial epithets heard

Individual-level characteristics

Respondent attributes

Age. y 37.100 (14.634)Male 0.400 (0.491)

African ethnic group memberehip

Zaehawa 0,527 (0.550)

Fur 0.055 (0.288)

Masalil / r 0.275 (0.447)

Others (Ref) 0,143 (0.330)

Attacking group(s)

GoS Of Janjaweed militia (Ref) 0.328 (0,345)

GoS and Janjaweed militia 0.672 (0,470)

Ethnic exception: Arab 0.063 (0.244)

villages spared

Racial intention: heard 0.343 (0,475)

racial epithets

Reported sexual victimization

Reported victimization of œlf 0.04 (0,205)

Reported victimization of others 1.184 (2.539)

Alofe. GoS = government of Sudan militaiy forces,

N-932 individuals (level 1) and 22 village clusters

(levei 2), Data are expressed as percentage of

respondents unless otherwise irtdicated.

men. About one half were Zaghawa

N=485), about one quarter Masatit (27.5%.

N=256) . and about one twentieth Fur (5.5* /0,

Ni=51), vvitii tiie remainder from other ethnic

groups (14%. N=140), More than two thirds of

the respondents (67.2%) reported attacks by

combined government and Janjaweed forces,

nearly one lilîh (18,8%) reported attacks by

government forces aione, and one tenth (10"A))

reported attacks by janjaweed forces alone.

Tlie survey collected infonnation about

criminal events perpetrated against inter-

viewees, their families, and their villages. De-

mographic information collected by the survey

included respondents' date and place of birth,

gender, ethnidty. tribe, clan, education, and

emphjyinent. Responses wt^re categorized

and coded according to when and why the

respondents, their fajnilies, and fellow vill-

agers left Dariur. Answers fiom 35 crime

victiinization codes—including codes for rape of5elf, rape of others, rape with object, and sexua]humiliation—were cross-validated by readingthe interviews and were recoded into sexualvictimization of self and sexual victimization ofothers, as defined below. Answers from 10perpetrator codes were similarly cross-vali-dated by reading the interviews and wererecoded into attacks by separate and combinedgovernment and Janjaweed forces.

It has been argued that traumatic events andother significant life events can be reliablyreported for up to 10 years/'' The maximumrecall period for this study was 44 months, datingfrom January 2001.

InterviewersThf-re were 6 ADS teams. Each team was

composed of 4 inten/iewei^s. 4 uiteqjreters, and1 core staff member. A fypical interview teamincluded a male international prosecutor, afemale refugee and trauma worker, a femaleinvestigator experienced in gender crimes,and a male genodde scholar. Interpreterstranslated I'esponses in 10 different languages.Training of the interpreters was conductedwith the interviewers and was directed by alinguistics professor and an expert on inter-viewing sex-crime victims for international tri-bunals. The training emphasized œmplete andexact language. One interpreter was dismissedfor including personal opinions as part of theüanslations.

An average of 5 interviews per interviewerper day were conducted. At Ihe end of eachday, each interviewer-inteipreter pair reviewedeach interview to clarify ambiguities. Analystsin die united States rev-iewed the interviews,and coders from a researdi organization per-formed a third check. TTie study's legal Focusencouraged conoborative coding.

Statistical AnalysisThe quantitative challenge in this study was

to analyze both individual and village-leveldynajnics of sexual violence- In analyzing data,we used hierardiical linear modeling (llLM)designed for multilevel duslered samples. ^ HLMyields robust standard errore adjasted for non-indqxindenœ and allows analysis within andbetween villages. We analyzed the combined roleof government forces operating with janjaweedmilitias in radal targeting of sexual violence

(as well as in the sparing of Arab villages) in an "usvereus them" dynamic of ethnic deaising. *^

First we used a logistic regression to modelbinary reports of whether individuals heardradal epitheLs during attacJ^s by government orjanjaweed forces. Then we estimated joinedindividual and village-level PoLsson regressionequations of sexual victimization (with robuststandard errors and adjustments for dispersionand months of exposui'e before ilight). Thedependent vaiiable, sexual victimization, wasthe count of the numher of other personsreported by each individual (i.e., the count ofthe number of persons other than the respon-dent) in the village to have been sexuallyattacked, as fuitlier defined below.

HLM allowed simultaneous analysis withinand between villages. Thus, oiu- within-villagePoisson model first regressed the individual-level reports by the 932 respondents reportingsexual victimization of others on tlieir individ-ual reports of raual epithets, their own sexualvictimization, and other independent variablesdefined below. Our between-village Poissonmodel then regressed the average sexual vic-timization of othc;rs for the 22 villages (after theindividual-level variables were taken into ac-count) on the proportion of the res|K)ndeiiLsreporting tliat they heard attackers using racialepithets in each village during attacks. Tlieaveraging of the dependent variable victimiza-tion scores within vill^es prevented over-counting of ovei^l^ping reports.

The equations for the hierarchical Poissonmodel were

(1)

(2)

]i and

where /¡j was the rate of sexual victimization ofothers reported by individual i in settlement j ,ßcj was tJie regi ession coeffident for vainables kin settlement j , X j, was the individual-levelcovariate. Y, represented the proportion ofindividuals in settlement j that heai'd attackersuse radal epithets during altai:k.s, n,,,, was aconstajit term ibr the entire sample, Ji„i was theeffect assodated with the proportion hearingradai epitlieLs, and e,, and 0, were Poisson andnormally distribtited errors.

Poisson models assume independence ofevents, which in our case were the respondent'sreports of others being sexually victimized.

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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Because reports about others being sexuallyvictimized may include events that are associ-ated witJi a common source or with a propen-sity to report, causing either fewer or moreevents to be reported, such reports could par-tially reflect the occun ence of noniiidependentevents. To partially purge such underlyingdependence, we controlled for the respondent'sreport of her own sexual victimization. We alsoI eported robust standard errors and an ad-justment for overdispersion to limit furthersources of dependence (infonnation availableas a supplement to the online version of thisarticle at http://www.ajph.org)-

The joint analysis provides infonnation notonly about individual sources of reported sex-ual victimization in DaHiir but also about theinfluence of aggregate differences in the distri-bution of racial epithets between villages onse-vual victimization, with individual-level vari-ables controlled. The models we estimated thusconsidered (1) whether combined governmentand nongovernment involvement in attacksand in the sparing oi' nearby Arab villagespredictiîd rrpoils of radal epithets being used(luring attacks. (2) whethei- repoits of racialepithets were miequally distiibuted across vil-lages ajid whetlier tJiis was an inipoitant de-terminant of the effects epithets had onreported sexual victimization, and (3) whethercombined government and nongovernmentattacks in conjunction with higher prevEilenœof racial epithets at the village level predictedgreater sexual vicdniization.

Key Definitions[n Dai-lur. attackers created radal terror by

targeted shouting of radal epithets. Some ofthese epithets wei'e generic, such as "kill all theslaves" and "kilt the Blacks." Others distin-guished Arabs from Black Africans in terms ofskin tone: "We will kill all men and rape thewomen. We want to change the coloi'. Everywoman will deliver red. Arabs are the hus-bands of those women." ' ** The depiction ofrajje as leading to tlie changing of diild colormakes dear that the reference to "husbands" inihe preccxiing report reflects an involimtaryrelationsliip.

We identified attackers as belonging to ei-tluT government forces or Janjaweed militia byclotJúng and equipment reported by inter-

s. We defined sexual victimization to

indude rape, sexual assault, acts of sexualmolestation such as insertion of foreign objectsinto the genital opening or anus, and sexualslavery. Four percent of the full sample and7 percent of women reported peiîonal sex-ual victimization. The latter proportion

approximated that found in Sierra Leone."Nearly one third of the respondents (29.1%)indicated that other villager were sexually victimized during attacks. Others' sexual victimiza-tion was coded from 1 to 10 other personsvictimized, with a mean of 1.1Ö. As noted above,

TABLE 2-Loglstic Regression Model of Racial Epithets Heard During Attacks: The Atrocities

Documentation Survey of Darfur Refugees, Chad, 2004

OR (95% CI)

Respondent attn'butes

AgeGenöer

African etfitiic group member^ip

Fur

Uasallt

Zaghawa

Attacking groups: CoS and Janjaweed militia

Ethnic exception: Arab villages spared

Intercept

-0.005 (0.005)

0.655**' (0.185)

0.679" (0.252)

0.384* (0-192)

0.652"* (0.165)

1.123*»» (0.231)

-1.737 (0.288)

0.995 (0.985.1.005)

1.925 (1.339,2.766)

1.973 (1.206, 3.231}

2.070 (1,398, 3.064)

1.469 (1.008, 2.141)

1.920 (1.389, 2.653)

3.074 (1.957, Í.830)

0.176 (0.097, 0.320)

Note. OR=oddsfalio; CI-confidence interval; GoS=govemment of Sudan military forces. N-932 individuals (level l)ancl22 village clusters (level 2).

TABLE 3-lndlv1dual-Levei and Village-Levei Modeis of Sexual Victimization, Adjusted

for Exposure and Dispersion: The Atrocities Documentation Survey of Darfur Refugees,

Chad, 2004

b(SE) ER (95% 0)

Individual-level cluracterfsth»

Respondent attributes

-0.019'* (0.006)

0.235 (0.183)Gender

African ethnic group membership

Fur ' -0.235 (0.379)

Masalit -0,380 (0.335)

Zaghawa -0.514 (0.285)

Attacking groups

GoS and Jarjaweed militia 0.345* (0.164)

Ethnic exception: Arab «liages spared 0.196 (1.66)

Reported sexual victimization: reported vicEimizalion of self 1 .180" ' (0.229)

Racial intention: heard racial epithets 0.290 (0.188)

Village-level characteristics

Racial intention: mean heard racial epithets 2.518'* (0.905)

Intercept -3.660 (0.100)

0.981 (0.969. 0.994)

1.265 (0.882,1.812)

0.791 (0.376, 1.663)

0.683 (0.355. 1.318)

0.598 (0.342. 1.045)

1,412 (1.018, 1.958)

1.217 (0.881, 1.681)

3.254 (2.078, 5.094)

1.337 (0.924, 1.935)

NA

0.981 (0.969, 0,994)

Note. ER-event ratio; Ci-confidence interval; GoS-govemment of Sudan military forces; NA=not available. N-932individuals (level 1) and 22 village clusters (level 2).*/><.O5; **P<.01; * ' * f < . 0 0 1 .

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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

others' sextial victimization was our tiltimaieoutcome variable. Self-reports of sexual victimi-zation were used as a control variable for un-measured heterogenei^' or reporting bias.I iguie 1 indioites that .sexual violence was mostcommonly reported in villages m west Darftirwhere Tur and Masalit tribal groups went con-centrated. The IilJVl reliability score resultingfrom the partitioning oi' the variance of others'st;xuat victimi/ation within and between vill£ ;(5was 0.906, indicating prt«ision at the villagelevel.

We used village-level proportions of re-spondents hearing racial epithets to measurea^egadon and concentration of radal target-ing. Iliese scores ranged from zero to 5O.2"/Ü.As a further measure of the "us versus them"dynamic, we also included the respondents'reports of nearby Arab villages being sparedfrom attacks.

RESULTS

Table 2 presents a logistic regression modelof hearing racial epithets during attacks. ITiemodel indicated that men were more likelythan women (b=0.66, /•'<.OO1) to hear epi-tliets. Nearly three fourths (72.8%) of theiemale reFugees had no schooling, and less thanone twentieth (4.5"/()) had attended Islamicschool; sli^tly more than one third (35.6%) ofmale refiigees had no sdiooling, and more thanone quarter (26.0%) had attended Islamicschool. Men were thus more likely to under-stand and report racial epithets spoken inArabic.

The model fiirther indicated that Fur(b=0.68; P<.OV. Masalit (b-0.73; P<,001),and Zaghawa (b=0.38; /^.05) group mem-bers were also more likely than others to hearradal epithets. The Zaghawa experienced morebombing than ground attacks, whith may ex-plain why they were less likely than the Fur andMasalit to report hearing radal epithets, liiereis mutJi attention in human-rights reporting tothe specific targeting of the Fur." ' An addedlinding in the model is tiiat respondents whorepollad that nearby Arab villages were sparedalso were more likely to report hearing radalepilliets (b-1.12; P<.001). Tlie linal iinportantfinding in the model was that radal epithets weremore likely to be heard during joint Sudanesegovernment and janjaweed attacks (b=0.65;

P<.Ot)l), indicating government involvement inradally targeted violence.

It is possible that combined forœs shoutedepithets in several languages, increasing thelikelihood that the epithets would be under-stood. Yet this would not account for an effectof combined forces on sexual victimization; norwould it accoimt for the persistence of an effectof radal epithets on sexual victimization afterstatistically controlling for combined attacks.The latter relationships are a focus of Table 3.

Table 3 presents tlie Poisson model of sexualviolence, with robust standard enors and ad-justment for dispersion and for months ofexposure before fii eing. A significant age effect(b=-0.019: P<.Ol) indicates that younger re-spondents reported more sexual victimization.More striking is tlie direct and significant role(b-^0.35; P<.05) of combined attacks bygovernment and Janjaweed forces in explainingsexual victimization. More striking still is thesimtjltaneousiy significant role of radal inten-tion (b=2.52; P<.01) when measured as theproportion of respondents hearing radal epi-thets at the village level during attacks. Thiseffect was net of all other variables, includingradal epithets measured at the individual leveland as respondents' own reported sexual

1,892

1.540

1.144

cu

o 0.792cu

ce

0.010

victimization. As expected, self-reports of sex-ual victimization have a highly significant effecton the reported sexual victimization oí' othei-s(b=1.18; P<.001). The effects of combinedgovernment and janjaweed attacks and village-level radal intention remain statistically signif-icant, withstanding controls for bias and un-measured heterogeneity in reports of sexualvictimization.

Results from the Poisson model of sexualvictimization are summarized graphically inFigure 2. The lines in this figure show thepredicted number of other pereons sexuallyvictimized in the villages when the model usedthe proportion of respondents in each villagewho reported hearing rada] epithets duringattadcs and who reported that the attackingforces were a combination of government andJanjaweed forces (and when we set other var-iables in the Poisson model at their meanvalues). Thus, tlie top line in this figure indi-cates that an average of more than 1 and asmany as 2 persons were reported to havebeen sexually victimized when half or moreof the respondents from a village re[)ortixlhearing radal epithets during stacks by a)m-bined government and janjaweed forces. Sex-ual victimizations wcrc reported less often

Combined GoS/Janjaweed attacks

Separate GoS/Janjaweed attacks

0.000

Note. GoS-government ot Sudan.

0.122 0.252 0.372 0.502

Village Level Racial Intention

RGURE 2-Addltive effects of combined GoS and Janjaweed militia attacks in viiiage-levei

raciai targeting of sexual victimization in Darfur: 2004.

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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

ivhen the attacks were conducted by govem-incnt or Janjaweed forces sepai'ately andwhen attackers used no radal epithets duringattacks.

DISCUSSION

Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, hasasserted tliat "II is nol in the Sudanese culture< ir people of Darfur to rape. It doesn't exist. Wedon't have it.'""' In October 2007. the UnitedStates ind'nduced a UN rcstiíiition œndenminggovemmenta) tise of rape and sexual violence forpolitical or military objectives. '" However, sev-eral nations succeedai in having references togovernment responsibility removed from thei-esolution.'" In June 2008, the UN Socuntj'Council adopted a US-sponsored i"esolution thatsays. "Sexual attadcs in conflict zones may becoiisiderei.1 war crimes,"'' In Darflir. the UN1 Iigti Commission on Muinan Rights dtes con-tinued eyewimess reports of "œnsistent andcredibie aecoiints of r^p" by government andJanjaweed forces."'"' Ihe government of Sudanpersists in denying these diarges.

The June 2008 UN Security Coundl reso-lution calls for better documentation of"sexualviolence. A public health perspective identi-fies the political sources ofthe urgent, se-vere medical problems that follow sexualviolence as aii instrument of war. We arguethat the tirgency of doctimendng rape de-mands a new research methodology. Our ap-proach broadens the measurement of sexualviolence by emphasizing the victimization ofothers, which mitigates self-reporting prob-lems while revealing broader patterns,

Our results suggest that Sudanese govern-ment forces joined janjaweed militia forces inconducting attacks with a concentraied racialintent that created terror tlirough the shoutingof radat cpitliets and tliat provoked sexualviolence against radally targeted African vil-lages. Our results also suggest that this racialtenor was intensified near Arab villages thatwere spared such violence. This evidence oftheselective sparing of Arab villages and the tar-geting of radal epitliets toward Black Africanvillagers, leading to sexual violence, supportstlie charge oían organized Sudanese pattern ofradaiiy targeted rape in Darfur.

Our study had several limitations. n"ie in-terviewers did not speak the languages of the

Darfur reüigees, so interpreters wererequired. The interpreters contributed to thestudy in another important way however.they introduced interviewers to the refugeesand used knowledge of local customs toestablish trust. The investigators expressedh i ^ satisfaction with the interpreters'work.

Shared method bias may result from re-spondents reporting both predictor variablesand sexual violence outcomes. However, ag-gregated reports oï sexual violence acrossvillages yielded liighly reliable repoiting. Wealso conti olled for the respondents' reports oftheir own sexual victimization to minimizepotential cijmmon sources of bias and hetero-geneity,

An indirect survey of Darfur villagers whofled from Sudan could introduce selectivitybias. Yet the Chad sui'vey displayed demo-gi'aphics similar to those from Sudanese campsurveys. The refugee survey allowed questionsabout sexual victimization unasked in Suda-nese camps- finally, the adjustment for monthssince fleeing to Chad was a partial control forselectivity.

Government of Sudan forces joined withArab Janjaweed militia in radally targetingBlack African women with racial epithets dur-ing attacks on Darfur viilages. This led toheightened sexual victimization, whidi in turnprodLiced terror and physical and mentalti'auina. 'n"ie reported spaiing of r)earby Arabvillages from these attacks broadened the evi-dence tliat the sexual violence was a selectiveand targeted pait of the conflict The demon-strated involvement of Government of Sudanforces in tlie racially targeted perpetration ofsemal violence in fJarfur is o\'idence that thisvictimization plays an important role in inter-national conflict zones. The involvement ofSudanese military forces in these attacks indi-cates governmental knowledge, partidpation,and resulting resposibility for sexual victimiza-tion. Rape and sexual violence are oftenemployed as instruments of state and inter-gioup conflict aiitl lead to major heaith prob-lems in intemationa] settings. •

About the Authorsfolin Hag(m and .'\lberio Palloni are with tlie Departtnenl ofSodologf, Northwestern University. Etianslon. IL. fohn

n is ako with the American Bar Founclatiùn. Chicago.!L IVenona lii/mond-Richmond is with the Department ofSadohgif. University of Mossachisetts-Amherst.

Correapondence. should he sent to John Hagan. Depart-ment of Sociology, Northieitstem Uniixrsity. ¡812 ChicagoAve. liotm 203. Evanston. II 60208-1330 (e-mail:f-hagan@7iorlhuHsilcm.eiiul. Reprints am he urdereä athttp://uMw.ajph.org hy d\cking on the "Reprints/Eprints"link

This ariicle was accepted November 25. 2008.

ContributorsJ. Flagan nnginaiod the study, siijji rviswl all aspects of iteimplcmpntalioii, and led Ihe aiialyses ajid tlie writing. W.líjTiioncI-Uií-hniond assisted wit]i the study and helpedannpU'te Ihe dialyses. .\. Palloni assi.stcd with the sludyand analysts. A!l authors helptd concepliialize ideas,interpret findings, and review drafts of the article.

AcknowledgmentsThi."; research was siipportiid by the National ScienceFoundation (grant LSS 05ÍÍ0299) and the American BarFoundation.

'Hie authors have no conflicts of interest or önandalinterests related to this research.

Human Participant Protection"I'his siLidy was tqjpioved by tlie American Rar Fimndn-lion's institubonal rp\'i('w board, liach ol' ihe participantsprovidcîd oral conseni t(» pmticipale in ihe study.

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