Khartoum “lying” in denying ties to Janjawid: McCain

WASHINGTON, July 7 (AFP) — Khartoum is “lying” when it claims to oppose Arab militias responsible for attacks on Sudan’s black population in Darfur, US Senator John McCain said.

The attacks on black inhabitants of western Sudan are “designed to ethnically cleanse Darfur of black Africans,” McCain said, accusing that government of waging a “scorched earth campaign.”

“The government and its militias have bombed villages, engaged in widespread rape, looted civilian property and deliberately destroyed homes and water sources,” the Arizona Republican said on the Senate floor.

“The government does not oppose the militias as they suggest. The government and the Janjawid are on the same team,” he said, accusing the government of “lying about its role in the scale of the crisis.”

An estimated 10,000 people have died in the region, a million have been driven from their homes to other parts of Sudan, and 120,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad as Arab Janjawid militias attacked villages, killing, raping and burning.

McCain read portions of a letter sent to him last month from Sudan’s ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed, in response to a newspaper opinion piece the lawmaker wrote condemning government’s failure to respond to the crisis.

In the letter the envoy suggested that black rebels bore a great deal of the blame for recent events, after launching an uprising in February 2003.

He also expressed “respect and admiration for your concerns about the plight and suffering of my fellow citizens who are affected by the rebellion.”

The diplomat lumped the rebels together with the Janjawid as “outlaws and bandits that burn, rape and loot.”

“President Al-Bashir is working to disarm all of them and bring these criminals to justice,” the ambassador wrote.