U.N. Rights chief details Sudan atrocities
By PRISCILLA CHEUNG, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS, May 8, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese forces are helping Arab militias drive black Africans out of the country’s Darfur region, the U.N. human rights chief said, but he stopped short of blaming the government for what he described as widespread atrocities.
Bertrand Ramcharan and James Morris, chief of the U.N. World Food Program, spoke to reporters Friday after they briefed the Security Council on U.N. missions they recently led to the region.
“First, there is a reign of terror in this area; second, there is a scorched-earth policy; third there is repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity; and fourth, this is taking place before our very eyes,” said Ramcharan, the acting U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
“The government clearly has supported the militias, organized the militias, and this is taking place with the knowledge and support, and active complicity of the government,” he added.
But when asked if he held the government of Sudan responsible for the atrocities, Ramcharan said: “I condemn the government of Sudan and I do not think it was responsible.”
Several Security Council diplomats, who were present at the closed-door briefing, said they would not seek any immediate action against Sudan, but would instead work with the government to bring about an end to the violence and a negotiated peace.
In a report released Friday, the rights group Human Rights Watch said Sudanese soldiers and nomadic Arab militiamen, known as janjaweed, have killed thousands of black Africans and driven more than 1 million from their homes.
It accused the Arab-dominated government of providing weapons and air support to the janjaweed, who often sweep into villages riding camels and horses, and called on the Security Council to step in to help stop the bloodshed and look for evidence of crimes against humanity.
In his report, Ramcharan said it “is clear that there is a reign of terror in Darfur” and characterized the violence as “largely ethnically based.”
He pointed to “a pattern of attacks on civilians including killing, rape, pillage, including of livestock, and destruction of property, including water sources.”
The janjaweed “have operated with total impunity and in close coordination with the forces of the government of Sudan,” according to the report, drawn in part from interviews with some of the estimated 110,000 Sudanese who have fled across the border into Chad.
German Deputy Foreign Minister Kerstin Mueller, who recently visited the Sudanese refugees in Chad, said the refugees confirmed that “there is a policy of ethnic cleansing going on in Darfur” and several human rights groups — as well as U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland — have also said there is ethnic cleansing there.
“I respect those who go out and say this is ethnic cleansing. My job with the United Nations is to present the facts and leave it to others characterize them,” Ramcharan said. “If you go to the law books, you will not find any authoritative definition of what ethnic cleansing is.”
The report said the Sudanese government has had a hand in some of the atrocities, including “indiscriminate aerial bombardments and ground attacks on unarmed civilians.”
Ramcharan called on the government to step up efforts to help refugees return to their homes, cooperate with humanitarian missions and regional monitors, and seek a peace settlement.
James Cummingham, the United States’ deputy U.N. ambassador, said the council would “watch the response of the government and other militia groups” before deciding on further action.
“We believe that the janjaweed militia is responsive to the government,” he said. “We would ask the government of Sudan to exercise control within their territory over the militia.”
Mueller said the Security Council was not debating a resolution on the Darfur crisis “at the moment” but called on Sudan “to fulfill our demands.”
Sudan’s foreign minister denied that government forces are engaged in a campaign of “ethnic cleansing.” “What is happening in Darfur is neither ethnic cleansing nor genocide,” Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told the official Sudan News Agency on Friday. “It is a state of war, which resulted in a humanitarian situation.”
In its report, Human Rights Watch likened the Darfur situation to the beginning of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 500,000 people were slaughtered by a government-backed, extremist militia.
The international community has been widely criticized for not intervening to stop that bloodshed.
“Ten years after the Rwandan genocide and despite years of soul-searching, the response of the international community to the events in Sudan has been nothing short of shameful,” the human rights watchdog said.