Darfur rebels urge monitors to witness rural abuses
CAIRO, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Rebels in Darfur have called on African Union observers to fan out into its vast countryside to witness human rights abuses the rebels blame on Sudan’s government.
The observers are already in Darfur, but it remains unclear when they will begin monitoring a truce between Khartoum and two Darfur rebel groups who took up arms against the state in early 2003.
Three planes arrived in the region of western Sudan on Saturday loaded with supplies for the expected arrival on Sunday of an initial contingent of 274 Rwandan and Nigerian troops assigned to protect the 60 ceasefire observers from the Addis Ababa-based African Union (AU).
Rwanda has said its troops will intervene to protect civilians in danger.
“We hope… they will not confine their efforts to big cities and go to rural areas,” the rebel Justice and Equality Movement’s (JEM) spokesman Idriss Ibrahim said on Saturday.
“They should scatter all over Darfur, specially the north and west where there have been the most human rights violations,” he told Reuters from Asmara, capital of Eritrea.
Khartoum is under an ultimatum to prove within two weeks to the U.N. Security Council it is serious about improving the security situation in Darfur, or to face unspecified sanctions.
The United Nations says 50,000 have died amid fighting which pits the JEM and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) against the government and Arab militias. Khartoum says the casualty figure does not exceed 5,000.
Last week the government pledged to set up safe areas for the 1 million people the United Nations says have been uprooted in what it calls the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
DEATH SENTENCES
Rights groups and the rebels accuse Khartoum of arming Arab militias known as the Janjaweed — a term derived from the Arabic for “devils on horseback” — to loot and burn African farming villages as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
They say mass murders and rapes have driven many from their homes into squalid camps either inside Darfur or across the border in neighbouring Chad.
Ibrahim said on Saturday the Janjaweed had also destroyed ancient water wells in rural areas vital to local farming communities.
Sudan’s official news agency said late on Saturday a number of rebels had been sentenced to death for their part in a foiled attempt to capture North Darfur’s al-Fasher airport in April 2003 in which 32 government soldiers were killed.
Anxious to appear to be trying to quell the conflict, Sudanese authorities last month also convicted seven men of belonging to the Janjaweed to punishments ranging from execution and crucifixion to amputation and imprisonment.
Khartoum says it has deployed10,000 police to Darfur to help establish security and denies supporting the Janjaweed, describing them as outlaws.
A U.N. report received by Reuters on Saturday quoted women refugees in camps as saying police had sexually abused them.
Sudan has said the timetable imposed by the United Nations will be difficult to adhere to but that it is confident it will be able to meet the challenge.