TED2017
Anjan Sundaram: Why I risked my life to expose a government massacre
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A war zone can pass for a mostly peaceful place when no one is watching, says investigative journalist and TED Fellow Anjan Sundaram. In this short, incisive talk, he takes us inside the conflict in the Central African Republic, where he saw the methodical preparation for ethnic cleansing, and shares a lesson about why it's important to bear witness to other people's suffering. "Ignored people in all our communities tell us something important about who we are," Sundaram says. "A witness can become precious, and their gaze most necessary, when violence passes silently, unseen and unheard."
Anjan Sundaram - Author, journalist
TED Fellow Anjan Sundaram has spent the last decade writing about 21st century dictatorships, forgotten conflicts and discrimination around the world – from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda and India. Full bio
TED Fellow Anjan Sundaram has spent the last decade writing about 21st century dictatorships, forgotten conflicts and discrimination around the world – from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda and India. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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What does it mean to be a witness?
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Why is it important to bear witness
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to people's suffering,
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especially when those people
are isolated from us?
are isolated from us?
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And what happens when we turn away?
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Three years ago, I traveled
to the Central African Republic
to the Central African Republic
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to report on its ongoing war.
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I'd heard warnings of massacres
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in the country's jungles and deserts,
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but no one could locate these massacres
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or tell me who was killed, or when.
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I drove into this war
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with little information.
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I witnessed scenes
that were tragic and unreal,
that were tragic and unreal,
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and only at the end did I realize
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that I had witnessed
the slow preparation of ethnic cleansing.
the slow preparation of ethnic cleansing.
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The Central African Republic
is a country of about five million people
is a country of about five million people
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the size of Texas
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in the center of Africa.
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The country has known chronic violence
since French colonial rule ended in 1960.
since French colonial rule ended in 1960.
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The war I reported on
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was between the minority
Muslim government,
Muslim government,
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called the Seleka,
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and citizen militias,
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mostly Christian,
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called the anti-balaka.
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The first sign of the impending cleansing
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was the breakdown of trust
within communities.
within communities.
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Three days after I arrived in the country,
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I watched the small city
of Gaga be abandoned.
of Gaga be abandoned.
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A battle was about to break out.
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And to save themselves,
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many people were working
as government spies,
as government spies,
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identifying friends and neighbors
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to be killed.
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Cities and towns,
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any place with humans, had become unsafe.
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So people moved to the jungle.
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I felt strangely isolated
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as pigs and livestock
moved into the empty homes.
moved into the empty homes.
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In a war zone,
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you know that you are near the killing
when people have left.
when people have left.
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The war moved across the jungle
and reached Gaga,
and reached Gaga,
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and I was surrounded
by the thunder of bombs.
by the thunder of bombs.
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Government forces drove into the jungle
to attack a town sheltering a militia.
to attack a town sheltering a militia.
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I rode on motorcycle for hours,
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crossing jungle streams
and tall elephant grass,
and tall elephant grass,
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but I only got to the town
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after the government had burned it
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and its people were gone.
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To see if I could speak to someone,
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I shouted out that I was a friend,
that I would not hurt them.
that I would not hurt them.
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A woman in a red shirt
ran out of the forest.
ran out of the forest.
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Others cautiously emerged from the trees
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and asked, "Est-ce les gens savent?"
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"Do people know?"
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The question surprised me.
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Their children were hungry and sick,
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but they didn't ask for food or medicine.
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They asked me,
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"Do people know what is happening to us?"
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I felt helpless
as I wrote down their question.
as I wrote down their question.
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And I became determined
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that this moment in their lives
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should not be forgotten.
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In bearing witness to their crisis,
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I felt a small communion
with these people.
with these people.
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From far away, this war had felt
like a footnote in world news.
like a footnote in world news.
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As a witness,
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the war felt like history unfolding.
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The government denied
that it was committing any violence,
that it was committing any violence,
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but I continually drove through towns
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where people described
government massacres
government massacres
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from a day or a week before.
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I felt overwhelmed
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and tried to calm myself.
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As I reported on these massacres,
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I bought and ate
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little sweets,
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seeking the familiar
comfort of their taste.
comfort of their taste.
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Central Africans ate these sweets
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to ease their hunger,
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leaving a trail of thousands
of plastic wrappers as they fled.
of plastic wrappers as they fled.
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On the few radio stations
still operating in the country,
still operating in the country,
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I mostly heard pop music.
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As the war mounted,
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we received less information
about the massacres.
about the massacres.
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It became easier
to feel a sense of normalcy.
to feel a sense of normalcy.
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I witnessed the effect
of this missing information.
of this missing information.
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Two weeks later, I slowly and anxiously
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drove into an isolated
militia headquarters,
militia headquarters,
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a town called PK100.
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Here, Christian fighters told me
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that all Muslims were foreigners,
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evil and allied with the government.
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They likened Muslims to animals.
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Without neutral observers or media
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to counter this absurd narrative,
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it became the single narrative
in these camps.
in these camps.
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The militias began to hunt down Muslims,
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and emptied the capital, Bangui,
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of nearly 140,000 Muslims
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in just a few months.
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Most of the killing and fleeing of Muslims
went unrecorded by witnesses.
went unrecorded by witnesses.
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I'm telling you about my reporting
in the Central African Republic,
in the Central African Republic,
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but I still ask myself why I went there.
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Why put myself at risk?
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I do this work
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because I feel that ignored people
in all our communities
in all our communities
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tell us something important
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about who we are.
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When information is missing,
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people have the power
to manipulate reality.
to manipulate reality.
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Without witnesses,
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we would believe that those thousands
of massacred people are still alive,
of massacred people are still alive,
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that those hundreds
of burned homes are still standing.
of burned homes are still standing.
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A war zone can pass
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for a mostly peaceful place
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when no one is watching.
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And a witness can become precious,
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and their gaze most necessary,
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when violence passes silently,
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unseen and unheard.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anjan Sundaram - Author, journalistTED Fellow Anjan Sundaram has spent the last decade writing about 21st century dictatorships, forgotten conflicts and discrimination around the world – from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda and India.
Why you should listen
Anjan Sundaram is the author of Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship (Ingabire prize, PEN America prize finalist, Amazon Best Book of 2016) and Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo (Royal African Society Book of the Year in 2014, BBC Book of the Week). His writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Review of Books, the New York Times, The Guardian and Foreign Policy. His war correspondence won a Frontline Club award in 2015 and a Reuters prize in 2006. Sundaram is a TED Fellow. He graduated from Yale University.
Anjan Sundaram | Speaker | TED.com