Attacks in Sudan’s Darfur may be crimes against humanity: UN mission

GENEVA , April 21 (AFP) — Refugees who fled western Sudan’s Darfur region have given consistent accounts of attacks by Sudanese troops and government-backed militia on civilians which may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, according to a UN draft report.

The draft report by a United Nations human rights mission, which has just flown to Sudan to continue its delayed investigation, called for an international inquiry into the allegations.

“The mission was able to identify disturbing patterns of massive human rights violations in Darfur, many of which may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity,” the report obtained by AFP concluded.

“An international commission of inquiry is required given the gravity of human rights violations in Darfur,” it added.

It also urged the Sudanese government to “publicly and unequivocally condemn all actions and crimes” committed by the militia and to ensure that they were immediately disarmed and disbanded.

“The patterns of violence point to an intent on the part of the Sudanese authorities to force the population to disperse,” it warned.

The Sudanese government and local rebels in Darfur are holding talks in Chad to end their year-long conflict.

About 10,000 people are thought to have been killed while about 670,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. More than 100,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad.

A UN spokesman declined to comment on the leaked text.

The UN has postponed releasing the document to the UN Human Rights Commission, which is currently meeting here, until the team finishes its second trip to the region in Sudan, officials said.

Khartoum had initially blocked the five-person mission from entering Darfur but the government reversed its decision late on Monday. The team is now heading for the region.

The mission spent more than a week in neighbouring Chad earlier this month interviewing Sudanese refugees who escaped alleged ethnic cleansing by militia in Darfur.

UN aid officials and humanitarian workers have already publicly warned of “widespread atrocities” or “ethnic cleansing” on the basis of similar testimony from refugees.

But the unreleased draft report raised the prospect of the more serious allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes, which carry legal weight, a legal expert said.

The mission, which interviewed some of the estimated 110,000 refugees in neighbouring Chad earlier this month, also exposed a high proportion — about 80 percent — of women and children among the refugees.

“The mission was not able to establish a clear reason for the gender imbalance,” the report said, raising the possibility that men had either stayed behind in Darfur to tend to livestock or take part in the rebellion there, or had been targeted.

“There was a remarkable consistency in the witness testimony received by the mission in all places visited,” the report said, insisting that the UN team needs to continue its investigation inside Darfur.

It outlined a pattern of air raids followed by ground attacks by militia or soldiers, with indiscriminate killings of civilians, multiple rape, and pillaging, from the separate accounts.

“It is clear that these attacks fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants and are disproportionate in nature,” the report said.

“These forces indiscriminately attacked those who had not fled, such as the elderly and disabled and, it seems, with particular emphasis on men and boys.”

“Many witnesses” were able to name individuals who had been killed although “a sizeable number of refugees” seemed to have fled because they said they had heard of killings, according to the report.

“A policy of using rape and other serious forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war seems to exist,” the report said, citing at least 10 women who said they had been raped as well as many more reported cases.

“Rape was often multiple, carried out by more than one man,” it added.

The report said the conflict in Darfur appeared to have its roots in the lack of development in the rest of the country compared to the capital, Khartoum, but had “developed worrying racial and ethnic dimensions”.