Amnesty: Khartoum still protecting Darfur militias
May 23, 2007 (LONDON) — Amnesty International has sharply criticised Sudan for failing to disarm Janjaweed militias and for not probing complaints of atrocities in Darfur, in its 2006 annual report published on Wednesday.
“A government promise to disarm the Janjaweed was broken, as it had been after numerous previous agreements,” the London-based human rights group said.
“Rapes of women by Janjaweed militias in Darfur remained systematic … The perpetrators benefited from almost complete impunity,” it added.
“Authorities routinely took no effective action to investigate women’s complaints of rape. At worst, raped women were arrested for adultery,” it continued.
The conflict in the western Sudanese region erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels attacked an army garrison in Darfur. Government forces backed by Janjaweed militias responded with a scorched-earth campaign.
Once just raiding nomads, the Kalashnikov-wielding Arab tribesmen were transformed into well-armed militias during the brutal suppression of the rebellion, which Washington has said amounted to genocide.
Khartoum has repeatedly denied charges that it sponsored the militias.
One rebel faction signed a May 2006 peace deal with the government, one clause of which required the government to disarm the Janjaweed.
“Some Janjaweed were incorporated into the armed forces or remained in paramilitary units and continued receiving financial and material assistance from the government,” the Amnesty report said.
“The government took no action to halt cross-border Janjaweed attacks against targeted ethnic groups in Chad, which resulted in the death of hundreds of civilians and tens of thousands of displacements during the first half of the year,” it added.
The report also accused the government of having “indiscriminately or directly bombed civilians.”
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes since the conflict erupted.
Khartoum has disputed the figures but some sources say the death toll has been much higher.
(AFP)
Sudan’s report is available at