Charges mount of killing, rape in Darfur, of guilty joining security forces

KHARTOUM, Aug 11 (AFP) — Charges of killing, rape and looting in Sudan’s Darfur region, with the accused being given jobs in the very forces meant to restore security, increased on Wednesday, bringing calls from a rebel leader for US and British troops to intervene immediately.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Khartoum had failed to curb brutal repression by the pro-government Janjaweed militia of a black African rebellion started in February 2003 and was incorporating them in the regular forces.

“The Sudanese government needs to bring war criminals to justice, not recruit them into positions of responsibility,” it said, just days after Khartoum agreed to action to disarm the rebels and Janjaweed.

Khartoum claims it has started deploying 6,000 policemen in Darfur — a region the size of France — and was ready to double that number to help restore order.

It also said that more than 300 Janjaweed — Arab nomadic militias which have been used as a proxy by government forces — had been arrested in recent weeks and would be brought to justice.

But Human Rights Watch charged that “rape, assaults and looting continue daily even as more people are being driven from their homes”.

The United Nations also said that fresh violence had erupted in Sudan on Tuesday, with attacks by government helicopter gunships and the Janjaweed.

The UN refugee agency also warned that people were being pressed to return to dangerous areas.

“In west Darfur, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned that the local authorities and government of Sudan are continuing to put pressure on displaced people to return to villages,” UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis said.

On Wednesday, the leader of one of the two rebel groups in Darfur appealed for immediate US and British military intervention, before the expiry of the 30-day delay the UN granted on July 30 for Khartoum to make progress in ending the crisis.

“I am addressing a personal message to (US) President (George W.) Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, asking them to urgently send troops to protect the millions of displaced from the deadly danger threatening them,” Sudan Liberation Army leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur told AFP from Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, in a televised speech on Tuesday night, hit back at the growing criticism and accused the West of seeking to plunder Sudan’s wealth.

“America and Europe harbour objectives that do not include the safety and prosperity of the people of Darfur … they are in search of gold and petroleum,” he said.

In another accusation levelled at Khartoum, the London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the authorities of arresting civilians in Darfur if they had been speaking to foreign officials and journalists about the crisis.

Those picked up included people who had spoken to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, to French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, to members of the African Union ceasefire commission and to independent journalists, the group said.

In Washington, a US official said it was looking into the accusations.

The European Union insisted on Tuesday that Sudan’s repression of the revolt did not qualify as “genocide”, a distinction which affects the legitimacy of any potential foreign intervention there.

US Senate majority leader Bill Frist expressed his disagreement, warning the international community not to “turn its back” on the crisis.

According to the United Nations, more than a million civilians have been displaced and 30,000 to 50,000 people have been killed.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail charged on Monday that the UN figures were grossly exaggerated, and put the number of dead at 5,000.

A Khartoum daily quoted the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia Wednesday as saying that half of a 300-strong African protection force would be airlifted by the Netherlands to Darfur on Saturday.

The 150 Rwandan troops will be followed by another 150 Nigerian soldiers later this month. They have the job of protecting a group of African Union observers monitoring an April ceasefire which has been repeatedly violated.