Sudan rejects UN request for second investigation into Darfur mass rape claims
December 5, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The United Nations said on Thursday that its inquiry into mass rape allegations in Darfur was inconclusive and requires further investigation as Sudan questioned the competence of the peacekeepers and told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that no-one was raped.
Following these allegations, Sudanese authorities initially prevented a verification team from the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from probing the claim but allowed them to visit the area one week later.
After the visit, UNAMID said they found no evidence confirming the mass rape claims.
However, Sudanese officials were angered by the remarks of UN officials who stressed the need for further investigation mentioning the heavy presence of military and police during the first probe.
Since then , Sudan refused to authorise a second investigation and called publicly for an exit strategy for the joint mission from Darfur.
The head of the UN peacekeeping department, Hervé Ladsous, said a team from UNAMID needed to return to Tabit “in part due to the heavy presence of military and police” during their first visit several weeks ago.
But Sudan’s ambassador to the UN, Rahmatallah Mohamed Osman, gave the UNSC Khartoum’s own report prepared by the prosecutor general for Darfur crimes, Yasser Ahmed Mohamed.
“The team pursued the presence of any physical proof such as victims’ clothes drenched in blood, broken doors at houses of families in the area, injuries of some women or men, yet we did not find any,” Mohamed wrote in the report obtained by Reuters.
Addressing the UNSC on Thursday, Ladsous urged the Sudanese government to allow immediate and independent access to Tabit for the UNAMID so the reports could be verified.
“Only an independent investigation by UNAMID will address the concerns over these serious allegations”, he added.
However, the Sudanese envoy questioned how it could be “conceivable that 200 women and girls could have been raped in a village without anybody avenging the honor of their daughter or their wife, without anybody reporting the incident”.
He described the allegations as “lies”, saying the UNAMID had enough time to investigate these claims without intervention from the Sudanese government.
Osman further told the UNSC that a need for investigators from UNAMID to return to Tabit “shows a lack of professionalism by the mission, which should have withdrawn immediately from the village if it had thought there was military presence or other presence hindering its work”.
He renewed Khartoum’s desire to put in place an exit strategy for the UNAMID, adding that no date has been yet set for the mission’s departure.
Ladsous, for his part, said that a UN strategic evaluation team is currently present in Khartoum to discuss the issue.
“The government has clearly established that it is not a matter of asking UNAMID to leave tomorrow but we must reach an agreement on an exit strategy,” he said underlining that the relations between the two parties remain tense.
He further disclosed that the Sudanese government informed them last week not to work with any Sudanese administration without first referring the matter to the foreign ministry – a measure that would slow the daily activities of the hybrid mission.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon and the UNSC had earlier called upon the Sudanese government to allow for full investigation into the alleged incident but to no avail.
The Sudanese army vehemently denied these rape accusations, describing reports about the incident as “baseless and without justification”.
(ST)