Darfur rebel group subjects 4 Sudanese officers to cruel treatment – Amnesty
February 29, 2008 (LONDON) — Amnesty International said today that the rebel Justice and Equality Movement in the war torn Darfur region are subjecting four Sudan Armed Forces officers to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Four Sudanese army officers held by the rebel JEM for several months are “suffering ill-treatment and their lives are in danger” the international rights group said on Friday.
Amnesty said cruel treatment and torture of captured combatants violate the Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime.
The four officers were captured in Darfur, Lieutenant Colonel Mahdi Hamed and Lieutenant Abdel Moneim Mohammed Zein in West Darfur in the area of Siniya in December 2007, Brigadier General Kemaleddin and Lieutenant Colonel Ihab in Haskanita area in South Darfur earlier that year.
Amnesty said it received alarming information about the Sudanese officers from three men, who were arrested with them, belonging to a splinter group, JEM Collective Leadership and managed to escape on February 7 from captivity.
“During JEM attacks, all seven were put in a truck which drove ahead of the attacking force, so that those inside were at particular risk of being blown up by mines or shot in crossfire. One of the men who escaped said that he feared that the four SAF detainees might be unlawfully killed.” Amnesty said.
Some 95,000 people have been killed in Darfur, and more than 200,000 may have died as a result of conflict-related hunger or disease. More than two million people have been forced to flee their homes since the start of violence in 2003.
(ST)