Sudan extends crackdown on Darfur militias
By Nima ElBagir
KHARTOUM, July 22 (Reuters) – A court in the Darfur region of western Sudan has convicted seven men accused of membership in an Arab militia at the centre of a conflict that aid groups say is causing the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
The court in the South Darfur state capital of Nyala sentenced the men, accused of membership in the so-called Janjaweed militia, to execution, crucifixion, cross-amputation, imprisonment or fines, a statement from presiding judge Mukhtar Ibrahim Adam said.
Local police said they have detained 100 Janjaweed and other outlaws, official sources said on Thursday.
The international community has been pressing Sudan’s Khartoum-based government to disarm and crack down on the Janjaweed, whose raping, looting and pillaging in black African villages have helped displaced more than a million people.
Members of the international community have said they have doubts that the men in government captivity are genuinely Janjaweed members.
“At best those being captured are opportunists who have profited from the outbreak of conflict to loot and pillage and at worst these men are petty criminals who are being scape-goated. I don’t think the government has the ability to really take on the Janjaweed leaders,” said one source at an international organisation working in Sudan.
Human rights groups say the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed have worked together to drive people from their homes but Khartoum says the militiamen are outlaws and must disband.
The court in Nyala have already sentenced 10 suspected Janjaweed to stiff sentences, bringing the current total to 17.
Cross-amputation means the amputation of a left hand and a right foot, or the other way round. It is the punishment prescribed in the Koran for “those who wage war against God and his Prophet and strive to make mischief in the land”.
South Darfur police commander Osman Abdullah told reporters in Nyala his forces had captured the 100 Janjaweed and other outlaws in a number of recent clashes.
A senior military intelligence official told Reuters that the government would find it difficult to take on the influential tribal leaders involved in a conflict pitting ethnic Arabs against black Africans in the western Sudanese region of Darfur on the border with Chad.
“The tribe in Darfur is the law. The problem we are facing is that the tribal leaders here are the government,” he said.
“You take someone like Musa Hilal (an Arab tribal leader). He has 12,000 fighters loyal to him. How are you going to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do?
“America itself couldn’t do it? They see no logic in disarming while the rebels are armed. I myself can see that they would be slaughtered,” he added.