Darfur JEM rebuts report by UN panel of experts

November 17, 2009 (PARIS) – The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) today issued a long winded rebuttal of a report compiled by a UN panel of experts that accused the rebel groups of breaching international law through activities that primarily include recruiting child soldiers.

The statement by JEM recounted a number of technical of factual errors it claims to be contained in the UN report saying that the latter “fails to adhere to its [own] guidelines”.

The powerful rebel group also highlighted the resignation of two members from the panel namely Bernard Stuart Saunders and Kuldip Sharma suggesting that it undermines the credibility of the report.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) established the panel to monitor compliance of warring parties in Darfur with its resolutions particularly pertaining to arms embargo.

The report laid the larger blame on the Sudanese government for violating the sanctions and massive abuses of human rights in Darfur.

On child soldiers the panel pointed out that JEM contested their previous reports on the issue saying that owing to “very few cases of mistaken recruitment, some children might have fallen through the Movement’s screening system”.

A table was included showing a list of 54 soldiers the panel says are children fighting in the ranks of JEM.

In its response signed by its leader Khalil Ibrahim, JEM said it was “bizarre” that the commission incorporated the list saying it never handed to the panel adding that it does maintain any “list of its soldiers who are readily known to their commanders and sub-commanders”.

“It is difficult not to conclude that the Panel built its conclusion on a fake list provided by a source other than JEM”.

JEM also said that the locations identified in the report as ones where the child soldiers took part in the fighting did not exist.

“As a matter of fact, these locations do not exist at all in Darfur. The authoritative Darfur Field Atlas compiled by Humanitarian Information Centre for Darfur also does not include these place names. This is not an issue of misspelling as even an intelligent guess simply fails to identify these locations. It is not known to us whether the Panel was lured into receiving information from a fake informant”.

“By listing place names that cannot be located on any good map, the Panel displays a level of incompetence that can hardly be expected of a first year college researcher, let alone investigators labeled as “UN Experts”. Moreover, if places displayed in Table 3 do not exist, what credibility can we attach to the list of child soldiers referred to in the same Table and whose names the Panel claims to keep”.

JEM also blasted the panel for not offering them “opportunity to respond to allegations…. direct breach of the methodology and working principles” that oblige the Panel to offer interlocutors an opportunity to respond to allegations and in writing”.

The rebel group also rejected allegations on endangering lives of civilians during battles in Muhajriya town earlier this year.

“We commend the Report for not blaming JEM for any direct attack on civilians. Nonetheless, we deplore failure of the Report to indicate that it is the Khartoum GoS that had declared all pre-DPA ceasefires null and void and that JEM has no choice but to take pre-emptive strikes against Khartoum irrespective of where its build-up of arms takes place”.

Furthermore, JEM said that claims that its fighters are among those involved in carjacking stressing that “not a single NGO has ever been able to claim that we have willfully carjacked their vehicles”.

“JEM often goes out of its way to retrieve cars belonging to INGOs stolen by other people. A well-publicized case exists where our troops lost lives, including that of a commander in an effort to retrieve an NGO stolen vehicle. The UN Panel should have taken note of that”.

Despite the violations outlined in the report by both sides to the conflict, it is not expected that the UNSC would take any actions owing to the backing by China and Russia to Khartoum.

(ST)