UN experts express concern over “systematic” rights abuses in western Sudan

NAIROBI, March 29 (AFP) — A group of UN human rights experts have expressed concern over “systematic” human rights abuses in Sudan’s western Darfur region and demanded punishment for those responsible for the violations.

“We are gravely concerned at the scale of reported human rights abuses and at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Darfur, Sudan,” eight experts of the UN Commission on Human Rights said in a statement sent to AFP in Nairobi on Monday.

“It is reported that the population in Darfur — mostly from the Fur ethnic communities of the Masalit, Dajo, Tunjur and Zaghawas — has been the victim of systematic human rights violations, committed by the government allied militia such as the Janjaweed, Muraheleen and the popular defence forces,” the statement added.

They said militias had killed civilians, attacked refugees, raped women and girls, abducted children, torched and looted villages and destroyed livestock.

On March 19, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, told journalists in Nairobi that the Darfur conflict, which erupted in February 2003, “is now the world’s greatest humanitarian and human rights catastrophe”.

“We affirm the absolute necessity of identifying the perpetrators and ensuring that they are held accountable in conformity with international standards,” the eight experts said in their statement.

Rebellion erupted a year ago in the states of North Darfur, West Darfur and South Darfur over allegations the government had neglected to develop the impoverished region neighbouring Chad, where tens of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge.

The war has killed over 10,000 people and affected more than a million others, according to UN estimates.

The conflict has intensified just as the Khartoum government and the country’s main rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, are finalising a deal to end Sudan’s wider civil war, which began in 1983.