UN says children held over Khartoum attack in good health
June 1, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Some 89 children detained by Sudan on suspicion of taking part in a rebel assault on the capital Khartoum appear to be in good health and have not been mistreated, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said on Sunday.
UNICEF said that it was able to visit the children, all boys ranging in age from 10 to 17, on Saturday at a detention centre where they are being held about 100 km (62 miles) north of Khartoum.
“They appear to be in good health and physical condition, and there is no evidence of maltreatment,” UNICEF spokesman Edward Cawardine said. “We were satisfied that the children are being treated in an appropriate way.”
The children were detained in the aftermath of a May 10 assault on the capital that marked the first time in decades of civil war that rebels from Sudan’s peripheries brought fighting to Khartoum’s doorstep.
Rebel forces from Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) crossed hundreds of kilometres of desert and scrubland for a strike that was only halted at the bridge leading to central Khartoum, army headquarters and the presidential palace.
Hundreds of people were arrested after the attack, including the 89 children who the government said JEM had used as soldiers. JEM denied that.
Southern Sudanese leaders, rights activists and political groups have accused of Khartoum making “arbitrary” arrests and torturing suspects since the attack, which Sudan denies.
UNICEF said it was able to observe the conditions in which the children were being held, and met a small number of the boys individually.
It said it was pleased that they were being held separately from adult detainees in line with international standards on treatment of children linked to armed groups, and were supervised by unarmed guards and visited by social workers.
“Our position is that these children should be considered primarily as victims, and every effort must be made to enable their reintegration back into their communities,” UNICEF Representative Ted Chaiban said in a statement.
“We must not lose sight of the fact that the real guilt in such cases lies with those who recruited these children,” Chaiban said.
Most of the boys were believed to be Sudanese but some may hold Chadian nationality. Sudan cut diplomatic relations with Chad after the assault, in which Sudanese army officers have said more than 200 rebels, soldiers and civilians died.
International experts estimate that some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes in Darfur’s ethnic and political conflict since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in 2003.
Khartoum says only 10,000 people have been killed.
(Reuters)