Sudan slams Darfur mass rape report as reproduction of lies
February 12, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Youssef al-Kordofani said that Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) report confirming allegations of a mass rape incident in North Darfur’s village of Tabit is an attempt to reproduce a closed issue that has been proven to be false.
The Sudanese official emphasised that the world is now convinced that the story is illogical and has no basis or credibility.
Yesterday, HRW released a report which was the result of 130 interviews, including with over 50 current and former residents of Tabit, via telephone with the assistance of an interpreter.
The interviewees included 17 women and a girl (15 of whom described being raped), 10 men who suffered abuses, eight men and one woman who witnessed abuses other than rape, and nine people who visited Tabit shortly after the attacks.
Twenty-three other “credible sources” provided information about an additional 194 incidents of rape, HRW said in its 48-page report.
Four soldiers from Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) who defected from the government battalion stationed in Tabit, including three who participated in the attack were also interviewed, HRW said
Based on testimony it collected, the rapes occurred in several neighbourhoods of Tabit including Hai Adan Barit and Hai Al-Fur.
“Two government soldiers who participated in the attacks told Human Rights Watch that they were directly given orders from superior officers to “rape women,” because the women were rebel supporters; three government soldiers said they witnessed other soldiers raping women”.
SAF troops reportedly entered the village in search of a missing soldier whom they believed was abducted and conducted house-to-house searches during three days of operations.
“The exact number of women and girls who were raped or subjected to sexual violence by Sudanese military personnel in Tabit will not be known until independent and impartial investigators with expertise in sexual and gender-based crimes are granted unfettered access to Tabit and town residents feel safe to share their experiences without fear of retaliation” HRW said.
Al-Kordofani expressed Sudan’s regret and condemnation for HRW’s adoption of these allegations saying that its main source is the Netherlands-based Radio Dabanga which has no credibility and is the mouthpiece of Darfur rebels.
He argued that reports of mass rape of 200 women is not compatible with logic and defies customs and traditions as Tabit is small village with a tiny population and that it is not conceivable that 200 women are sexually assaulted in one night without protests or demonstrations afterwards.
He also noted that most of Tabit’s army soldiers are married to women from that village or surrounding villages and staying with their families there.
The spokesperson noted that UN peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) had issued a statement at the time saying there is no evidence of mass rape cases in the village.
He accused rebels of making these allegations to suggest that the situation in Darfur is still unstable and that time has not yet come to repatriate IDP’s to their villages.
Al-Kordofani said that attempts to bring up this issue again aims at keeping UNAMID in Sudan and abort efforts to agree on its exit strategy from Sudan.
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 at the time that 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.
On Wednesday, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, called on Khartoum to allow a UNAMID mission to investigate the rape claims and to allow “safe, unhindered access to the town”.
(ST)