Sudan army continues to kill civilians in Darfur
December 6, 2007 (GENEVA) — Sudanese armed forces continue to kill civilians in Darfur and all sides in the conflict still abuse human rights with impunity, according to the latest report by a group of U.N. experts.
“According to U.N. sources, from June 20 to mid-November 2007, at least 15 land and air attacks were made on civilian centers in all three Darfur states by the forces of the government, affiliated militia and the Minni Minawi faction of the [rebel] Sudanese Liberation Army,” the report said.
These attacks killed more than 170 civilians and injured around 30, while at least three women were raped, it said.
In several incidents, fighters on both sides “failed to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and used disproportionate and indiscriminate means of warfare,” the report said.
Sudan committed itself to increasing protection for the civilian population, especially women and children, after the experts’ last report in September, but the latest findings show scarcely any progress since then.
“Reports clearly indicate that, with very few exceptions, these efforts (by Sudan) have not yet led to an improvement of the situation of human rights in Darfur,” the experts said in an advanced version of the report, which will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council Tuesday.
The latest attacks cited by the report “led to widespread looting and destruction of civilian property, including hundreds of homes, the theft and killing of large numbers of livestock, as well as the displacement of thousands of people.”
The experts didn’t travel directly to Darfur for this current report but based their findings on reports from U.N. agencies in the field, as well as contacts with Sudanese government ministers and diplomats in Geneva.
The report did acknowledge a good “process of cooperative engagement” with the regime in Khartoum but stressed much more needs to be done, especially in delivering war criminals to justice.
“The government of Sudan informed the group of experts of its unequivocal refusal to accept the competence of the International Criminal Court to investigate cases in the Sudan,” the report said.
The ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court, was asked by the U.N. Security Council in 2005 to investigate and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Sudan’s secretary of state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun and pro-government Janjaweed militia leader Ali Koshieb have both been issued arrest warrants for war crimes by the ICC.
The experts urged the U.N. Human Rights Council, which meets in Geneva next week, to extend their mandate and allow for a further mission to Sudan in the first half of next year.
More than 2 million people have fled their homes and at least 200,000 have died from the combined effects of famine and conflict since Khartoum enlisted militia allies to put down a local revolt in Darfur in 2003, according to the U.N.
(AFP)