Brian Steidle

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Brian Steidle (born 1976) is a former Marine Corps captain, military and security operations expert, and author who had worked on publicizing the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Steidle wrote a book, The Devil Came on Horseback , [1] about his experience, which was turned into a documentary film that premiered at Sundance in 2007.

Contents

Steidle has shared his experience in Darfur with heads of state in the United States and abroad, addressed the U.S. Congress [2] and the United Nations, and serves both as lecturer and advisor to several non-government organizations regarding their humanitarian efforts in Africa and other nations.

Prior to his work in Darfur, Steidle, the son of a high-ranking U.S. Navy officer, served in the United States Marine Corps from 1999 to 2003 as an infantry officer, completing his service with the rank of Captain.

Work in Sudan

After his service he took a contract in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan working for the Joint Military Mission, a collaboration between 12 European nations, the US and Canada, monitoring the North-South Cease fire, now Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Starting as a team leader of a four-man team directly negotiating tense situations, he advanced to a sector commander and on to the Senior Operations Officer for the entire Joint Military Mission within 7 months.

Darfur

In September 2004, at the age of 27, Steidle accepted an assignment as one of three U.S. military observers for the African Union (AU) in the Darfur region of western Sudan. [3] His role was to monitor the cease fire between the two main rebel groups and the Sudanese Government. Additional roles included advising the AU on US personnel, operations, logistics and intelligence. Steidle witnessed the murders of thousands of people, but was not permitted to intervene, though he photographed what he witnessed. After his 13-month contract in Sudan was completed, he resigned the position and returned to the United States.

Steidle returned to Chad in 2006 to further document and publicize the events taking place there. He wrote of his experiences in Darfur in his book The Devil Came on Horseback , a reference to the Janjaweed faction that has been responsible for much of the genocide in Darfur. An award-winning and Emmy nominated documentary film of the same title was also produced about Steidle's story. The film is a Break Thru Films production in association with Global Grassroots and Three Generations. [4] The film received significant charitable funding including grants from the Save Darfur Coalition and the Sundance Film Festival. Steidle appears throughout the film, narrating what he witnessed and interviewing survivors in Darfur.

Quote: “Darfur is more than an occasional headline in the newspaper or 20 seconds on a forgotten nightly newscast. It is where genocide continues to happen while the rest of the world goes through the motion of concern but does nothing of substance to stop it. Will the world ever wake up?”

United States

Since his return from Sudan, Steidle has spoken at more than 500 venues including Harvard Law School, Princeton, UCLA, West Point and the US Naval Academy. His book has been incorporated into the curriculum of several of these schools. He has testified in the US Congress, UK Parliament, and at the UN Human Rights Council, providing expertise on Sudan and raising awareness of human rights violations and atrocities. He acted as Security and Logistics officer for several NGOs during trips to Chad, Kenya, and Rwanda, coordinating all aspects of route planning, contingency planning, evacuation plans, security threat, criminal or enemy situations, and situational updates. Steidle is a proven African expert, providing guidance and strategic advice including intelligence gathering, NGO Operations, AU effectiveness, war crimes, human rights violations and Sudanese military operations to NGOs, The International Criminal Court, Department of State, DOD, SOCOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM, and DHS ICE. He has also conducted Peace Support Operations Training for the Malawian Defense Force in 2009 prior to its deployment to eastern Chad.

Haiti

From Jan–May 2010, Steidle acted as a consultant and volunteer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the devastating earthquake. He assisted US security forces in implementation of force protection plans for US government and NGO agencies, and developed, planned, coordinated, and implemented evasion plans and a personnel recovery capability for several NGOs. He conducted search and rescue and recovery efforts at the Hotel Montana, Pétion-Ville, Haiti. In addition to this he coordinated transportation, security, support and guidance to NGOs and volunteers. Using his military experience and desire to help those less fortunate he advised the Haitian Ministry of Justice, Police Chief and SWAT Commanders during human trafficking investigations. In addition, he helped with the installation of solar lighting and charging stations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; constructed slow-sand water filters and provided them to communities; field tested the Seldon Technology Water Box and providing insight on possible improvements; provided clean drinking water to hundreds of families through the use of the Water Box; and conducted an initial analysis of plastic recycling facility in PaP for potential investors.

Brian continues to advise NGOs and Government organization on humanitarian affairs, peace support operation, policy, security, investigations, intelligence gathering and domestic and foreign operations.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Sudan</span>

Sudan's human rights record has been widely condemned. Some human rights organizations have documented a variety of abuses and atrocities carried out by the Sudanese government over the past several years under the rule of Omar al-Bashir. The 2009 Human Rights Report by the United States Department of State noted serious concerns over human rights violations by the government and militia groups. Capital punishment, including crucifixion, is used for many crimes. In September, 2019, the government of Sudan signed an agreement with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to open a UN Human Rights Office in Khartoum and field offices in Darfur, Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan and East Sudan. In July 2020, during the 2019–2021 Sudanese transition to democracy, Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari stated that "all the laws violating the human rights in Sudan" were to be scrapped, and for this reason, Parliament passed a series of laws in early July 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omar al-Bashir</span> President of Sudan from 1989 to 2019

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced President Ahmed al-Mirghani as head of state. He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. On 11 February 2020, the Government of Sudan announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC for trial.

The Janjaweed are a Sudanese Arab militia group that operates in Sudan, particularly in Darfur, and eastern Chad. They have also been speculated to be active in Yemen. According to the United Nations definition, Janjaweed membership consists of Sudanese Arab tribes, the core of whom are from the Abbala Arabs, traditionally employed in camel herding, with significant recruitment from the Baggara, who are traditionally employed in cattle herding.

The Tripoli Agreement was signed on February 8, 2006, by Chadian President Idriss Déby, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, effectively ending the Chadian-Sudanese conflict that has devastated border towns in eastern Chad and the Darfur region of western Sudan since December 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War in Darfur</span> Genocidal conflict in Southwestern Sudan

The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting against the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save Darfur Coalition</span> Advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of the War in Darfur</span>

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<i>The Devil Came on Horseback</i> 2007 American film

The Devil Came on Horseback is a documentary film by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg illustrating the continuing Darfur Conflict in Sudan. Based on the book by former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle and his experiences while working for the African Union. The film asks viewers to become educated about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and laments the failure of the US and others to end the crisis.

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Jane I. Wells is a documentary filmmaker and activist whose films focus on global human rights and social justice issues. She has produced over 40 short films including the award-winning shorts I'm a Victim, Not a Criminal (2010), Lost Hope (2012) and Native Silence (2013). She is also a producer of the feature documentary films The Devil Came on Horseback (2007), Tricked (2013), A Different American Dream (2016), and Lost in Lebanon (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig E. Steidle</span>

Rear Admiral Craig Eugene Steidle, USN, Ret., served as the first associate administrator of the Office of Exploration Systems at NASA, an organization formed to implement NASA's human exploration of the solar system as announced in the Vision for Space Exploration. Admiral Steidle also served as program manager of the Joint Strike Fighter Program. He is currently serving as a distinguished visiting professor in Aerospace Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Throughout the ongoing Darfur genocide in the Darfur war there has been a systematic campaign of rape, which has been used as a weapon of war, in the ethnic cleansing of black Africans from the region. The majority of rapes have been carried out by the Sudanese government forces and the Janjaweed paramilitary groups. The actions of the Janjaweed have been described as genocidal rape, with not just women, but children also being raped, as well as babies being bludgeoned to death and the sexual mutilation of victims being commonplace.

3 Generations is a non-profit documentary film production company based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darfur genocide</span> 2003–present violence against Darfuris in Sudan

The Darfur genocide is the systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people which has occurred during the ongoing conflict in western Sudan. It has become known as the first genocide of the 21st century. The genocide, which is being carried out against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, has led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict several people for crimes against humanity, rape, forced transfer and torture. An estimated 200,000 people were killed between 2003 and 2005.

References

  1. Gretchen Steidle Wallace; Brian Steidle (2007). The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur . New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN   978-1-58648-474-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. "A Global Review of Human Rights: Examining the State Department's 2004 Annual Report". United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. 2005-03-17. Archived from the original on 2009-01-30. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
  3. Brian Steidle (2005-03-20). "In Darfur, My Camera Was Not Nearly Enough". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  4. "The Devil Came on Horseback (2007) - IMDb". IMDb .