Janjaweed militias are being reined in, insists Sudan’s FM
By Jonathan Steele, The Guardian
LONDON, May 13, 2004 –The Sudanese government last night strongly denied it had been running a “scorched earth campaign” in the western Darfur region, where entire villages have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.
Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, have been accused by the UN as well as several western governments of terrorising African villagers through rape, murder and pillage. With up to one million Sudanese displaced inside Darfur or escaping into Chad, the plight of the villagers has been termed the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.
In combative mood, the country’s foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, told the Guardian that though the militia activity might not be over it had been “reduced by 80 per cent”. The government was taking action to rein in the militias, the minister said.
Mr Ismail added in a rare interview with the western media: “We need to register [the militias] and try to collect their weapons and incorporate them into ordinary life. If you leave them unemployed, it will be a timebomb.”
His comments, during a three-day visit to London, followed public criticism from the British government and two blistering UN reports.
“I made clear that the human rights abuses and breaches of international humanitarian law are unacceptable and must stop, and that the Sudanese government has a responsibility to rein in the Janjaweed militias which are responsible for many of the worst atrocities,” said Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, after his meeting with the minister.
The UN’s acting high commissioner for human rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, made the “scorched earth” accusation last week after a fact-finding mission went to Darfur and refugee camps in Chad. Although Mr Ramcharan blamed rebel groups for starting the conflict to press for better treatment for the region from Khartoum, he made it clear the government’s response had been excessive.
“It is the manner of response to this rebellion by the government of Sudan which has led to the current crisis. There is a reign of terror in Darfur,” said Mr Ramcharan’s report. There had been repeated attacks on civilians and “use of indiscriminate aerial bombardments and ground attacks on unarmed civilians, and use of disproportionate force by the government of Sudan and Janjaweed”.
Mr Ramcharan said his mission had met men in uniform on horseback referring to themselves as Fursan. “The Fursan said they were all Arabs and had been armed and paid by the government [and] acted upon government instructions.”
Declining to confirm a link between the militias and his government, Mr Ismail yesterday claimed they were self-defence units created by four of Darfur’s main tribes, which did not support the rebels. He told the Guardian: “The government is fighting the rebels. The militias are also fighting the rebels. The government and the militias are not enemies.”
The government could move towards disarming the militias thanks to a ceasefire signed between government forces and rebel movements in April, which appeared to be holding, he said. He insisted law and order could be restored.
But the head of the World Food Programme, James Morris, has also made blunt statements after visiting Darfur a fortnight ago. “What we witnessed throughout Darfur and in Chad is a dramatic humanitarian crisis, no doubt one of the worst in the world today, a crisis of massive displacement, critical humanitarian needs and extreme levels of violence and fear.”
His team, visiting many camps for villagers officially labelled internally displaced persons, saw dozens of burned villages. Using emotional language rare for a UN official, Mr Morris said: “In all my travels as the head of the World Food Programme, I have never seen people who are as frightened as those displaced in Darfur.
“Around most of the camps, there is a constant threat of further attacks by the Janjaweed militia. Most [people] are too scared to return home. Time and again, they told us that they wanted to go home but could not without credible assurances of protection and security. It is hard to overstate the level of fear we witnessed.”
The situation had improved since the ceasefire and the WFP could now take food to about half of the million people displaced. But the government was preventing access for NGOs, he said.
The foreign minister agreed last night there were “urgent humanitarian needs”.
Darfur has seen clashes between pastoral nomads and farmers for decades. But an overtly political conflict, developed last year, has increasingly become ethnic with the Arab Janjaweed fighting African rebels. Aircraft of the Islamist government in Khartoum have bombed African villages.
The foreign minister said yesterday that the UN reports concluded that there had been no genocide and no ethnic cleansing. He said: “Only 1,000 people have been killed … we challenge anyone to tell us which ethnicity has been removed and which one has replaced it.”