UN experts urge UN Security Council action in Darfur

GENEVA, March 17 (AFP) — A group of UN experts called Thursday for concrete action by the UN Security Council to end the civil war in the western Sudanese region of Darfur which has killed 180,000 and displaced 1.8 million people.

A newly arrived refugee woman from the Sudan region of Darfur crosses into Chad in the direction of the improvised Tine refugee camp. (file/AFP).

“Despite efforts by the international community to commit troops and assistance to the region, the violence continues virtually unabated … and the threat of famine is looming,” the experts said in a statement released on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.

Among the experts were the UN human rights expert in Sudan, Emmanuel Akwei Addo; the UN secretary general’s special representative for displaced people, Walter Kalin; and the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler.

Extra-judicial executions, rape, torture, abductions and forced displacement of civilians have taken place in “a widespread and systematic manner and continue on a daily basis” in Darfur, the experts said.

“Even with the deployment of African Union troops, in the past nine months the number of displaced people has continued to rise and attacks on civilians have persisted,” they said, adding: “We urge the Security Council to act immediately to adopt concrete measures to end the violence.”

The Darfur case should also be referred to International Court of Justice, they said.

More than 180,000 people have died in the Darfur region over the past 18 months while 1.8 million have been displaced, UN humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland said Monday.

After black African rebels in Darfur rose up against Sudan’s Arab-led government, Khartoum turned to proxy militias — the Janjaweed — to put down the rebellion, and those militias have been blamed for a scorched-earth campaign of murder, rape and pillage.

Peace talks between the government and the Darfur rebels are at a standstill.

The UN Security Council has passed several resolutions ordering Sudan to rein in the Janjaweed and improve security in Darfur. These have had little effect, however, and the top UN body is struggling to find ways to give new urgency to international efforts to help the Darfur population.

The Sudanese government on Monday rejected international pressure at a meeting of the UN rights commission here. “Unmeasured, uneven and unbalanced pressure and signals have exacerbated the already volatile situation in Darfur,” said Sudan’s Justice Minister Ali Yassine.