Peace accord in south, but atrocities in Darfur

NEW YORK, May 27, 2004 (HRW) — The Sudanese government’s signing today of a peace agreement to end the 21-year civil war in the south must not deflect criticism of its ongoing campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in the western region of Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today.

As recently as yesterday, Arab militias attacked five villages 15 kilometers south of Nyala in Darfur, killing 46 civilians and wounding at least nine others, according to local sources. The militias, known as Janjaweed, were accompanied by government soldiers in three Land Cruisers armed with antiaircraft artillery.

Human Rights Watch has extensively documented how the Janjaweed have been armed, trained, and uniformed by the Sudanese government.

“Ending the war in the south is a huge step forward, but in the western part of the country the Sudan government is taking a terrible step backward,” said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government’s campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Darfur raises real questions about whether Khartoum is really willing to comply with today’s peace accord in the south.”

The framework peace agreement to be signed today in Naivasha, Kenya, was negotiated between the Sudanese government and the southern-based rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). It brings the parties significantly closer to ending the civil war between the Khartoum government and the southern-based rebels that since 1983 has cost 2 million lives, most of them southerners. Negotiations on security arrangements and implementation remain.

The peace negotiations were conducted for nearly two years under the auspices of the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and with the mediation of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway. Although the agreement includes provisions on the structure of the Sudanese government and oil revenue sharing during an interim six-and-a-half-years’ period, no other rebel groups or political parties were included in the negotiations.

Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution requiring the Sudanese government to disarm, disband, and withdraw the Janjaweed from the areas they have occupied, and to bring them to justice for gross human rights abuses perpetrated against civilians. On May 25, the Security Council issued a strong presidential statement on Darfur expressing “deep concern” at reports of widespread attacks on civilians, rapes, forced displacement, and other violence, especially that “with an ethnic dimension.” It demanded that those responsible be held accountable. It failed, however, to identify any party responsible for the attacks, although it did condemn “these acts which jeopardize a peaceful solution to the crisis.”

Until recently, the European Union and the United States have been wary of pushing the Sudanese government too hard on its human rights performance in Darfur, despite the evidence of crimes against humanity. They apparently feared that the Sudanese government would react by balking at the peace agreement.

“Darfur remains a cloud over Sudan,” said Rone. “It would be inappropriate for the U.S. to hold a high-level celebration of the peace accord while the ethnic cleansing continues in western Sudan.”