UN team probing Darfur atrocities abandon mission after Sudan refuses entry
GENEVA, April 16 (AFP) — A UN team probing alleged atrocities by government-backed militia in western Sudan has returned to Geneva after Sudanese authorities refused to let it enter the country, the UN said Friday.
The human rights mission had been in neighbouring Chad since April 5, interviewing Sudanese refugees who fled across the border to escape alleged ethnic cleansing by Arab militia in the western Darfur region.
But the team “has not received authorization to visit Darfur itself,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Jose Diaz told journalists here.
Most of the team returned to Geneva on Thursday and their head would return after meeting Chad government officials on Friday, he added.
A leading human rights group said it was dismayed at the news.
“The Sudanese are buying time to finish off the clean-up,” said Loubna Freih, a spokeswoman for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
She urged the UN Human Rights Commission, currently meeting in Geneva, to put pressure on Sudan.
“They have found it was a very bad situation and there’s a need for human rights monitors on the ground right now,” she said.
The year-old Darfur war has displaced about 670,000 people inside Sudan since it erupted in February last year and forced about 100,000 others to flee to Chad.
More than 10,000 people are thought to have died in the conflict.
Sudan’s government promised safe passage for international aid when a ceasefire was agreed with rebels last week, mirroring a similar statement earlier this year.
One of the rebel groups on Friday accused Khartoum-backed militia of violating the ceasefire deal for the second day running, killing nine civilians.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week urged the international community to consider decisive measures, including military action, if oil-rich Sudan fails to swiftly allow aid and human rights workers into the area.
UN aid officials and Sudanese refugees have reported “widespread atrocities” in Darfur in recent weeks, and Diaz said the mission’s stay in Chad had confirmed their concerns.
“There was a remarkable consistency in the stories heard. Clearly, however, the full picture can only emerge following an on the ground assessment in Darfur,” he said.
The non-Arab rebels, mainly drawn from the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa ethnic minorities in the largely desert region, complain of marginalisation by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.