Sudan jails Darfur militiamen, orders amputations
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, July 19 (Reuters) – A Sudanese court sentenced 10 Arab militiamen to amputation and six years in jail in the first conviction of Janjaweed fighters for looting and killing in the Darfur region, according to a ruling seen by Reuters.
The court in Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur state, also said proceedings would begin on Monday to try other Janjaweed militiamen accused of burning Holouf village north of Nyala in the remote region.
After years of conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers, rebels took up arms last year, accusing Khartoum of arming Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The fighting has driven more than one million people from their homes, triggering what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The government denies the rebel charges and describes the Janjaweed as outlaws. Khartoum vowed to disarm them after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Darfur earlier this month.
The Nyala court made the ruling on Sunday. It was the first conviction of Janjaweed for their role in the conflict.
“Judge Mukhtar Ibrahim Adam meted out a sentence of six years, cross amputation, the seizing of arms and a fine of one million (Sudanese) pounds ($384.62) each to 10 individuals from the Janjaweed militias who are accused of exacerbating the conflict in Darfur,” the ruling said.
It said the militiamen were convicted under articles pertaining to waging war, killing, armed looting and the possession of weapons without a licence.
Rights group Amnesty International, in a report released on Monday based on hundreds of interviews with some of the 200,000 refugees encamped in neighbouring Chad, said the Janjaweed were systematically raping, killing and abducting women and girls in Darfur.
African Union-brokered talks to find a political solution to the conflict collapsed in Addis Ababa on Saturday as the rebels walked out, demanding six preconditions including disarming the Janjaweed and allowing an inquiry into genocide charges.
The head of the government delegation to the talks, Minister of Agriculture and Forests Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed, said on arriving back in Khartoum that the rebels were in disarray and had quit in a bid to have U.N. mediators.
“The withdrawal of the Darfur rebels from the talk in Addis Ababa was a tactical stance trying to relocate the (talks) from the African Union to the United Nations,” he said.
“The delegation of the (two rebel groups) were obviously not in full agreement or coordinating with each other. We view this withdrawal … as confirmation of the lack of a comprehensive strategy and the lack of political vision in the leadership of the rebels,” he told reporters.
($1=2,600 Sudanese pounds)