Bashir sets up panel to probe human rights abuses in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan, May 9, 2004 (PANA) — Against the backdrop of increasing
international pressure, President Omar Hassan el Bashir announced
the setting up Saturday of a human rights panel to probe
allegations of human rights violations in the restive Sudanese
region of Western Darfur.

The move follows accusations from UN and human rights
organisations that Khartoum was in league with Arab militia that
has torched villages and killed thousands of people in the
troubled region.

The panel, led by the former Chief Justice Dafaallah Alhaj
Yousif includes senior legal advisors, consultants, experts and
university professors.

It would probe especially claims relating to killings, torture,
the burning of villages and the seizure of property.

“This is a purely Sudanese initiative,” Foreign minister Najeeb
Alkhair Abdelwahab told reporters after the panel was announced
here.

The minister took issue with the report of a UN inquiry, which
indicted the authorities in Khartoum and their Janjaweed militias
of committing human rights abuses in Western Darfur.

He also faulted the European Union (EU) and US, charging that
economic sanctions they slapped on Sudan only helped to aggravate
the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, undermining efforts to
development the country’s impoverished areas.

“Those sanctions primarily constituted a punishment for the
regions of the country, particularly Darfur, where development
assistance were cut off,” the minister charged.

“The situation in Darfur is neither one of ethnic cleansing nor
genocide. It is primarily a clash over resources,” Abdelwahab
said of the fighting between pro-government Arab militia and two
rebel movements that accuse Khartoum of marginalisation and
neglect.

The revolt by the indigenous Fur Massalite and Zaghawa minorities
in Darfur, which began in February last year is spearheaded by
the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM).