United Nations rights probe meets witnesses in Sudan’s Darfur

GENEVA, April 27 (Reuters) – U.N. human rights investigators are interviewing witnesses to alleged crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region, where government troops and Arab militia stand accused of unleashing a “reign of terror”, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

A five-member team, who held extensive talks last week with officials in Khartoum, arrived at the weekend in Darfur, U.N. spokesman Jose Luis Diaz told a news briefing in Geneva.

It was spending the day in el-Fasher in northern Darfur after having been to Nyala in the south, and will later go to Al-Geneina, along the border with Chad. Alleged violations have been reported in all three towns in the arid region.

“We expect them back in Geneva early next week,” Diaz said.

In a report leaked last week, the U.N. rights team said that crimes against humanity were apparently being committed in a “reign of terror” against black Africans. Executions, rape and looting were cited in the report, which was based on interviews with Sudanese refugees in Chad.

Sudan’s government, which denies backing the militia, gave the U.N. investigators belated permission to visit last week.

The investigators will submit their final report to the acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, who will send it to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, according to Diaz.

Separately, James Morris, head of the World Food Programme who is leading a U.N. humanitarian mission, was due to arrive on Tuesday in Khartoum and reach Darfur on Thursday, spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.

The inter-agency mission will evaluate relief needs in Darfur, where 750,000 black Africans have been forced out of their homes. Some 110,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to Chad.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. coordinator for humanitarian affairs, has called Darfur one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters and accused the government of doing little to prevent the problems. He has described the violence as a “scorched earth” campaign of ethnic cleansing.