When Niemat Ahmadi speaks about Darfur, people listen. On Tuesday, she spoke to leading international diplomats during a special session of the U.N. Security Council.

Ahmadi, a women's rights activist and Save Darfur Coalition employee, spoke for millions of Darfuris who live in circumstances that one Belgium diplomat called "worse than hell."

U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson's declared that the U.N. "has failed" Darfur. Niemat voiced the ramifications of such failure.

The U.N.'s impotence has "further emboldened the Sudanese Government to expand its attacks on Darfuris to Khartoum itself," she said.

Niemat told the story of "Adam," a Darfuri man living in Khartoum who was beaten by Sudanese officials for his identity. Adam watched others die at the hand of Khartoum's indiscriminate campaign of terror.

The full text of Niemat's prepared statement follows:

My name is Niemat Ahmadi and I am the Darfuri Liaison Officer at the Save Darfur Coalition (SDC). Thank you for allowing me to share with you today two alarming trends that continue to threaten the lives of Darfuri civilians in Khartoum and Darfur. The first is another government offensive against not just rebels but also helpless civilians as the war in Darfur enters its sixth year. The second is the continuing and wide-ranging incommunicado detention of an unknown but large number of Darfuris and others mistaken for Darfuris in response to the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel attack on the capital on May 11.

As you know, the war has displaced well over 100,000 civilians just since the beginning of this year-that's nearly a thousand a day-many for a second or third time, as the Secretary-General told the Council on April 4th of this year. They are added to the over 2.5 million displaced in Darfur and eastern Chad as well as the hundreds of thousands who have been killed. The recent attack on the defenseless village of Shigeg Karo in North Darfur, which resulted in the deaths of six children, illustrates that the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in its current state is not capable of satisfactorily fulfilling its mandate. Some wounded civilians who survived the attack reportedly had to drive themselves to distant hospitals, as UNAMID and International Committee of the Red Cross personnel did not arrive at the village until 48 hours after the attack.

Today, untold thousands of Darfuris, and other citizens from the south and elsewhere who were mistaken for Darfuri because of their appearance, are being held incommunicado and under horrific conditions. I hold in my hand today testimony from men and boys, some as young as 14, who have been brutalized and in some cases killed for one reason: their appearance.

Because of the time allotted to me, I will share with you just a brief portion of one such tragic case in the voice of its victim who has since been released. Untold numbers remain under those conditions as I speak to you right now. I have changed the names of all the individuals to protect their identity. "Adam" is 25 and is a steelworker who is Masalit. He has lived in the capital for some time.

"They bound us with ropes and loaded us onto two trucks and headed to the police station at al-Shigla [a residential area in Omdurman]...they brought a boy into the room...he was about 14 years old or maybe 15. He was being led by policemen who were hitting him and ordering him to "point at the ones that are part of your group, or any person that you recognize." When he said that he didn't know any of us, they all started beating him ferociously. Then they tried again. This time he chose me and my colleague "Ismail" and another guy who is a southerner-who also works with me for the same company and pointed at us. The guards then tied us back up with the ropes and proceeded to punch and kick us and beat us with black water hoses. Each of us was getting pummeled by four guards. There were also two officers who were sitting and watching the entire episode unfold. The officers kept telling us to confess as we were getting beaten. They told us to confess and to not be afraid, because they were going to do us no harm. They told us to confess so that we'd be able to go home. They told us to confess that we were with "those people" [meaning JEM]. I pleaded with them-telling them that I didn't know JEM people. They insisted that there was no need for torture and all I had to do was admit to what "I had done," so that I could go back home. They continued to beat me and at that point, a colleague of mine called "Abdel Hafiz" told them that he, "Ismail", the southern guy, and me had all been working at the same location that day and that we were in no way affiliated with any group. At this point they stopped beating me and turned their attention to him... [later on] they released all of us into a courtyard and gave each person two loaves of bread, some lentils and a small cut-off bottle of water...(This is after 21 hours of thirst in the hot weather of Sudan at this time of year). This is what we received each day for the next four days...I personally witnessed three deaths with my own eyes. The first was a man from Zalingi who worked as a water carrier in the Libya market [a market in an area of Omdurman, occupied primarily by Darfuris and others from western Sudan]. He was begging the guards for water, and they kicked him and spit in his face. He protested being spit at and they kicked him in the stomach until he died. Another man was found lying dead in the big room we were being held in. I think he died of thirst. A third man died when he drank so much water [out of a barrel the guards had brought later]...after nearly an entire day without any water and just collapsed on the spot.

This is just one story of many we have collected. "Adam" remained in captivity for well over a week before he was released. Others remain. The testimonies you are hearing today attest to the gravity of your responsibility. Whether "Adam" and thousands of others live or die will be affected by the choices you make today. For their sake, I hope you make the right decisions.

As described in the just released report by SDC and the Enough Project, the failures so far emphasize the need for this Council to ensure that all the necessary resources required for UNAMID deployment be immediately provided and that sanctions be placed on those Sudanese government officials responsible for obstructing deployment. There is no good reason that UNAMID still does not have the helicopters, trucks, or personnel that it requires to have an even minimal impact on the ground.

The continued failure to fully deploy UNAMID has further emboldened the Sudanese Government to expand its attacks on Darfuris to Khartoum itself.

Thank you.