The grimmest fucking places on earth: a picture thread.

Place: Darfur Region, The Sudan

Reasons Why: Arab vs. Non-Arab conflict supported by government; genocide; displaced persons; spillover into Chad.

Quote: Human Rights Watch: Between 2003 and 2005, the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias burned and destroyed hundreds of rural villages, killed tens of thousands of people and raped and assaulted thousands of women and girls. The government's campaign forced more than two million Darfurians from their homes.

Place: Buffalo County, South Dakota

Reason Why: After the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and the subsequent mass execution (America's largest), some Dakota where forced to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, located here; with a per capita income of $5,213, the poorest county in the United States (Marin in CA is the richest at $44,962); unemployment is at 70%.

Quote: Minnesota Public Radio: "Census figures show 21 percent of the homes in Fort Thompson don't have a kitchen or plumbing. 'There are some homes that I know that may not have running water. But more of what I see is lack of housing, multiple family households - sometimes having 15 or close to 20 people in a home,' says Smith."

Minnesota Public Radio: "The reservation is almost $35 million in debt. Ashley says he's found many examples of wasteful, possibly fraudulent, spending. He says in one case, the tribal council paid off the gambling debt of one of its members."

Place: Liberia

Reason Why: Massive civil war throught 1990s that left a quarter million people dead and the capital, Monrovia, without electricity or drinking water, which is still lacks today. Liberia has the highest unemployment rate -- 85% -- in the world, and it is overrun with guns.

Quote: Eric Margolis: "The US dollar was Liberia's currency; English the language of its elite. Liberia became a virtual American colony in West Africa. The economy of this rubber republic depended on the Firestone Company. CIA and NSA ran major stations in Monrovia. Tiny Liberia became the largest recipient of US aid in Africa. ... [But] Liberia's snoozy colonial status ended abruptly when Sgt. Doe seized power in 1980. He executed the entire government on Monrovia's beach. ... Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe was overthrown in 1990. Doe, an illiterate and remarkably murderous thug, enjoyed personally shooting or bayonetting political enemies and cabinet ministers. He was captured by rebels led by a certain Prince Johnson. who forced Doe to eat his own ears and genitals. His captors then cut Doe up into bit-sized chunks and ate him with pepper sauce."

Reuters: The conflict ended two years ago, but few people have jobs. On the streets of Monrovia, young girls sell their bodies for less than a dollar a time to earn money to go to school.

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Place: S-21/Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Reasons Why: Former Khmer Rouge prison; now museum memorializing the Cambodian genocide where approximately 1.5 million died; former home of a now-dismantled map of Cambodia made of three hundred skulls.

Quote: From "The Security of Regulation": "6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all."

Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe of Liberia, the one who ended up as goulash, was, it hardly needs to be said, the recipient of a half billion dollars of US arms and training.

OSSUARY IN KUTNÁ HORA
A cistercian monastery was founded near here in the year 1142. One of the principal tasks of the monks was the cultivation of the grounds and lands around the monastery. In 1278 King Otakar II of Bohemia sent Henry, the abbot of Sedlec , on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. When leaving Jerusalem Henry took with him a handful of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the cemetery of Sedlec monastery, consequently the cemetery became famous, not only in Bohemia but also throughout Central Europe and many wealthy people desired to be buried here.The burial ground was enlarged during the epidemics of plague in the 14 th century (e.g.in 1318 about 30 000 people were buried here) and also during the Hussite wars in first quarter of the 15 th. century.

After 1400 one of the abbots had a church of All -Saints erected in Gothic style in the middle of the cemetery and under it a chapel destined for the deposition of bones from abolished graves, a task which was begun by a half blind Cistercian monk after the year 1511. The charnel-house was remodelled in Czech Baroque style between 1703 - I710 by the famous Czech architect, of the Italian origin ,Jan Blažej SANTIM-Aichl. The present arrangement of the bones dates from 1870 and is the work of a Czech wood-carver, František RINT (you can see his name, put together from bones, on the right-hand wall over the last bench).
Our ossuary contains the remains of about 40 000 people. The largest collections of bones are arranged in the form of bells in the four corners of the chapel.

http://images.google.ca/images?svnum=100&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=ossuary+Kutna+Hora

Place: Unit 731, Manchukuo, China

Reasons: Pathogen and freezing experiments were the kindest experiments practiced by Unit 731. Its Nazi counterpart was almost humane compared to it. The Nazis engaged in mainly high altitude/low pressure testing, freezing, and some biowar tests. The Japanese Unit 731 committed far worse atrocities, not excluding the areas that the Nazis researched in, but they also dissected and vivisected patients while they were still alive, without anesthetic for "research" purposes. They performed this not only on Chinese peasants but also American and Russian POW's.
These experiments were very well-documented, and yet the Americans exchanged the information for the freedom of the doctors, who practiced their grisly "art" with pleasure. They infected prisoners with various diseases then proceeded to carve them open while still alive to see the results. There are even photographs of them doing this. Over 3000 people were killed by Unit 731 alone in medical experiments.

In addition to this, Unit 731 also performed field tests of both biological and conventional weapons. They tested their weapons on live prisoners after letting them loose in a field. They also used planes to drop plague and other diseases all over China, in areas that have already been conquered by the Japanese. Historians estimate that around 200,000 Chinese died in these experiments.

And that's not all. Rookie doctors practiced surgery on live patients, then killed them afterwards. A favorite of these "doctors" was raping Chinese girls then dissecting them alive later to see the development of the fetus. They even photographed themselves doing this and kept it in their wallets. Unit 731 attempted a final scheme, codenamed "Cherry Blossoms at Night", in 1945 to launch plague at California. The plan was abandoned when Japan surrendered. They then used dynamite to blow up all the evidence.

Quote: "Vivisection should be done under normal circumstances. If we'd used anesthesia, that might have affected the body organs and blood vessels that we were examining. So we couldn't have used anesthetic."

The site is now a small, underfunded memorial museum

http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/thth/projects/thth_projects_2003_parkeun/thth_p3.jpg

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Place: Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing centre, AKA Woomera Detention Centre (no longer exists)

Reasons:
A prisonlike babrbed wire hell in the middle of the South Australian desert where refugees arriving "illegally" were locked away, 1500 in a 400-capacity facility.

From Wikipedia:

In June 2000 there were two days of protests. Approximately 480 detainees broke out and walked into the township.

In August 2000 there were three days of riots and fires. 60-80 detainees were involved, and tear gas and water cannons were used.

In November 2000 there was a hunger strike involving more than 30 detainees, some of whom were force fed in hospital.

Throughout 2001 there were repeated riots and confrontations between ACM guards and detainees. Water cannons and tear gas were used.

During 2002 there were a number of riots, hunger strikes, and lip-sewing, which included children. In January 2002 over 200 detainees started a hunger strike. Some threatened suicide in violent ways. Some swallowed poisons. Refugee advocates argued that this showed the desperation of detainees. The refugees complained that conditions were harsh, that it took up to three years for their claims to be processed and that processing their claims had been suspended.

The same cannot be said for any of the other places mentioned here. And yeah, Unit 731 does *not* make me proud to be an American, even though it was supposed to be used for anti-Soviet purposes (but utilizing Chinese help IMO defeats the purpose of that so it's not even like it was anti-communist in spirit). Those poor, poor souls. One can only hope they are among the ones being pampered like royalty up in Heaven.

Place: Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Washington State

Reason Why: Supposedly the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere. Until 1987, a site for the refinement of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Nuclear waste is stored underground tanks, some of which are now leaking, containating soil and ground water and threatening the Columbia River, crucial for farm irrigation, hydroelectric power, and salmon. Clock's ticking.

Hanfordwatch.com: Over the years 70 of the tanks have leaked about one million gallons of waste into the soil. At least some of the leaked tank waste has reached the groundwater, which eventually flows into the river. Estimated time for the tank waste to reach the river is anywhere from 7 to 20 years to a couple generations. How badly it damages the river depends on how much gets there and when.