Militias in Sudan are burning people alive, aid workers say.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Sudarsan Raghavan

NYALA, Sudan _ The boy doesn't wear shorts. He doesn't play with his friends. His heart wants to, but his legs won't let him. Only 12, Hussein Muhamed sits in the shade of his small hut, dressed in a pair of long khakis, a lost soul sidelined in a refugee camp full of them.

His scrawny legs are burned so deeply, from ankle to hip, that he hobbles like an old man _ a grisly testament to the day government-backed militiamen called the janjaweed raided his village.

"They grabbed me and yelled: `You are the son of slaves'," recalled Hussein, who is lean and shy with dull, charcoal eyes. "Then, they threw me into the fire."

Of all the horrors being unveiled in the western province of Darfur, nothing is perhaps more disturbing than what's happening to children. Young girls are raped. Young boys abducted. Babies are hacked or shot.

Now, reports are emerging that Arab janjaweed are burning black African villagers alive, including many children, despite ...