Large-scale attacks against civilians continue in Darfur – UN’s Annan
Dec 29, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — After nearly three years of civil war in Darfur, the Sudanese government has yet to make real gains in ending militia attacks that have left tens of thousands dead, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported on Thursday.
“Large-scale attacks against civilians continue, women and girls are being raped by armed groups, yet more villages are being burned, and thousands more are being driven from their homes,” he said in a report dated December 23 and circulated at the United Nations on Thursday.
The government has not yet been able to even identify militia leaders, and a power struggle among rebel leaders has meant the two sides remain far apart in peace talks, Annan said in his latest monthly report on Darfur to the U.N. Security Council.
Conditions on the ground continue to deteriorate in a “deeply disturbing trend” that began in September amid growing inter-tribal conflict and banditry, Annan said, adding that a recent influx of military deserters from neighboring Chad has made the situation worse.
His glum assessment comes as the African Union, which has deployed 6,800 peacekeepers in Darfur, reassesses its mission.
The AU Commission sent a delegation to the region earlier this month, accompanied by officials from Canada, Britain, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, in search of ways to make the peacekeeping force more effective.
Among the options being examined are a major expansion of the force and converting it to a U.N. mission.
Tens of thousands have been killed in Darfur since the conflict broke out in February 2003.
The violence threatens one of the world’s largest humanitarian operations. More than 11,000 aid workers are trying to feed, clothe and shelter the more than 2 million Darfuris who fled to miserable camps to escape the fighting.
The United Nations says the Khartoum government armed Arab proxy militias to fight the rebels who say their needs are ignored by the central Arab-dominated government. The militias stand accused of a widespread campaign of rape, killing and looting, which the United States calls genocide.
The Security Council has repeatedly called on Khartoum to disarm the militias, to no avail, and the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur.
“The vast majority of armed militia have not been disarmed, and no major steps have been taken by the government to bring to justice or even identify any of the militia leaders or the perpetrators of attacks,” his latest report said.
“I strongly urge the government of the Sudan once again to take decisive steps to address these manifest failures.”
A series of mid-November militia raids on more than a dozen villages in southern Darfur, in an area policed by AU peacekeepers, was “a shocking indication of the government’s continuing failure to protect its own population,” Annan said.
The raids killed more than 60 people and drove another 15,000 people from their homes, he said.
While aid workers were able to carry out emergency relief efforts, Annan said he was alarmed by “numerous reports” of the deliberate destruction and burning of vast areas of cultivated land, threatening future food supplies.
(Reuters)