Sudanese authorities do little to combat rape as a weapon of war

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Knight Ridder Newspapers

KALMA CAMP, Sudan, Oct 29, 2004 — As she ran across the powdery soil toward her flimsy hut, praying her rapist wouldn’t give chase, Awatif Abdallah’s face was bloody, her left eye swollen and her clothes tattered, according to witnesses and a medical report.

Awatif Abdallah, 19, holds a letter from the police with a medical report scrawled on it saying she was raped and beaten. (KRT)

She felt shame. She felt fear. But instead of keeping silent, she took a path that countless violated women in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region rarely take: She sought justice.

Abdallah, 19, filed a complaint against the soldier who brutalized her. What happened next opens a window onto how rape is being brushed aside by officials in Sudan.

Over the next days, Abdallah’s claim would be dismissed without a proper inquiry, even though a doctor determined she was raped. The police and a judge covered up the matter by handing Abdallah $52 and some secondhand clothes, knowing she was too poor and powerless to refuse.

Human rights groups, State Department investigators and United Nations officials have concluded that government-backed Arab militias called the janjaweed are using rape against black Africans as a weapon of war in Darfur. The Bush administration used the prevalence of rape as a key reason for describing the violence as genocide.

Sudan’s officials have done little to stop rape, describing it as a minor phenomenon or saying it doesn’t exist.

“The government as a whole is in denial about the scale and the severity of the problems,” said Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, who visited Darfur earlier this month, where U.N. officials estimate that more than 70,000 people have died and 1.4 million have been displaced by a conflict that pits black African rebels against Arab militias who have targeted civilians.

Arbour said she saw “no evidence on the ground” that a government rape-inquiry commission, set up because of international pressure, was working in refugee camps. She said she was unable to meet anyone from the commission.

Most rape victims, the vast majority of them black Africans, have little trust in the government. They fear the police, believing there are janjaweed among its ranks. Shame and stigma add more barriers to reporting rape.

The legal system poses hurdles, too. Islamic sharia law, which holds great influence over Sudan’s courts in Muslim regions, places a huge burden of proof on the victim. She has to provide at least four witnesses to testify that they saw the rape.

Receiving medical attention is equally difficult. Under Sudan’s criminal code, a woman can’t be treated for rape unless she has filed a complaint with the police. So, many victims remain silent and in pain – or ignored.

“At this stage, what we see is that in the cases where attempts are made by women to report (rapes) to the police, they are disbelieved, or in any event no further action is taken on their report,” Arbour said.

Abdallah’s case suggests that at least some women are trying to fight back, despite their meager odds of success.

Seated in her hut made of plastic sheeting and twigs, Abdallah, wearing a green shawl and a pained expression, recalled the late August day that she was brutalized.

She had arrived at the Kalma refugee camp recently with her family after the janjaweed, backed by Sudanese troops, attacked her village of Arba Gemeiza, north of here. With her father sick and her mother caring for five younger siblings, it fell to her to make ends meet.

On that day she went to a nearby farm to pull weeds. After earning $2 for 10 hours of work, she made her way back to the refugee camp with another woman.

Moments later, they noticed a soldier running toward them. The women split up. The soldier pursued Abdallah.

“He kicked me down, and gave a blow to my face,” said Abdallah, who is small with dark eyes as downcast as her spirit. “I said, `Release me.’ But he didn’t release me until he did what he intended to do.”

The next morning, Abdallah went to Sheik Isa Adam Ahmed, a senior leader in the camp. He was shocked to see her.

“Her eye was swollen,” he recounted. “She wanted to report the matter, so I accompanied her to the police post.”

The police refused to open a case. So they went to another post in another part of the camp. This time, the police officer, a black African like them, was sympathetic. He wrote a letter urging the police chief to begin an inquiry. Letter in hand, they went to see a doctor.

“There’s swelling inside the left eye. There are bruises inside the vagina. The bruises are causing weakness all over the body,” the doctor wrote on the police officer’s letter. He urged more treatment and further examination.

Abdallah’s older sister and brother went with the letter to the police chief, Maj. Mark Taban, who was from southern Sudan. The soldier, who was a guard at nearby Nyala airport, was taken into custody. But Taban refused to go further.

“He took the letter and put it down,” Abdallah said, hunched and staring down at the sand. “He said there would be no case.”

He handed her sister $8 and told her to buy some medicine for Abdallah. They bought grapefruit, lemons, sugar – and four tablets to kill the pain. She hasn’t seen a doctor since.

Days later, a judge made it final: He awarded Abdallah’s family another $44, and some secondhand clothes. Then he dismissed the case, despite rape being a crime punishable by 100 lashes and up to 10 years in jail under Sudanese law.

The family didn’t contest the decision.

At first, Taban said in an interview with Knight Ridder that they had “never received any cases of attacks” on refugees and “rapes have never been reported.”

“They don’t like the police,” he said. “They feel the police are all janjaweed. We have nothing to do with the janjaweed.”

When confronted with Abdallah’s case, he acknowledged the rape had been reported and confirmed the judge’s award and dismissal of the case.

“He was trying to rape her. He tore her dress,” Taban said, referring to the soldier. “When he didn’t succeed, he hit her in the eye. But she was not raped.”

Moments later, he added: “They came to a compromise.”