Google Earth Shows the World Inside Darfur

As of today you will be able to log onto your computer, click on Google Earth and be able to get a first hand view of the Darfur Genocide for yourself. With the click of a mouse, you will be able to use the new initiative called,"Crisis in Darfur" it enables Google Earth users to visualize in detail the region,including the destruction of villages and the location of displaced people in refugee camps.

The Google Earth mapping service combines 3-D satellite imagery, aerial and ground level maps and the power of Google to make the world's geographic information user friendly. Since it first launched back in June 2005, nearly 200 million users have downloaded the free program.

Using high-resolution imagery of Google Earth,users will be able to zoom in and out on the region of Darfur for a better understanding and the reality of what is going on. They will be able to see the scope of destruction first hand.

Right now as the estimate stands 400,000 people have been killed and more than two million innocent people have been displaced in refugee camps in the Sudan or neighboring Chad. There are 3.5 million men,woman and children that rely on international aid for survival each day.

Since 2003,The Sudanese armed forces and the Sudanese government backed militia known as the "Janjaweed" have been fighting , two different rebel groups in Darfur. The Sudanese Liberation Army and The Justice Equality Movement. The Sudanese governments regular armed forces and the Janjaweed -largely composed of fighters of nomadic back rounds have mostly targeted civilian populations. The Sudanese government's and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of villages. The killing of tens of thousands of people and the rape, torture, and assault of thousands of woman and girls.

In an effort to bring more attention to the ongoing crises in Darfur the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has teamed up with Googles mapping service to map out and raise awareness to what is going on in the Darfur Region. Elliot Shrage,Google's Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs,joined Museum Director, Sara J. Bloomfield and made the official announcement of the new feature. "At Google, We believe technology can be a catalyst for education and action",Schrage said.

The museum also announced Tuesday the creation of a mapping project of Google Earth on the holocaust when Nazi's killed six million Jews during World War two.