Amnesty accuses Sudan of failing to prosecute human rights crimes in Darfur

By JASPER MORTIMER, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Dec 2, 2004 (AP) — Amnesty International has accused the Sudanese government of allowing people to get away with murder, torture and displacement in the Darfur conflict.

Scales of justice in al-Geneinah, western Darfur. (AL).

In a report made public Thursday, the London-based organization said the rights of the victims must be addressed in any peace negotiations on the conflict, which has been described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“Peace mediators must look beyond simple power-sharing and economic arrangements and address the legitimate demands for justice of millions of victims of gross human rights abuse,” the report said.

The Darfur crisis began in February 2003 as a rebellion by ethnic Africans against a government they accused of neglect and discrimination. It quickly triggered a counterinsurgency in which the Arab Janjaweed militia, allegedly backed by the government, conducted a campaign of murder, rape and eviction. Thousands have been killed and an estimated 1.8 million people driven from their homes.

“Hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur are being denied justice and left without protection from killings, torture, rape and displacement,” the report said. “This sharply contrasts with the widespread impunity of those responsible for such human rights violations and the policy of incorporating them into state security forces.”

The Associated Press could not reach government officials to respond to the report Thursday.

However, on Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail denied that the government lets people get away with such abuses.

“We don’t believe in impunity,” he told reporters. “We believe that anybody who commits a crime should be tried.

“Now, for example, we have got soldiers who are in prison. We have got some policemen who are in prison,” Ismail said, without giving figures.

However, it was only in October _ 20 months after the conflict began _ that the Ministry of Justice announced that a Janjaweed leader had been convicted and sentenced for looting and arson. The ministry said Mohammed Barbary Ahab el-Nabi was the first Janjaweed leader to be prosecuted.

In its report, titled, “Sudan: No one to complain to, no respite for the victims, impunity for the perpetrators,” Amnesty quoted the testimony of a man in Darfur who said he complained that soldiers had tortured his brother to death. The man, whom the report does not identify to protect him, said that after paying the police and the armed forces to investigate the death, he was arrested in August 2003.

“The armed forces took me to a military camp outside Kebkabiya (in North Darfur) and beat me, tied my feet and arms and hung me up from a tree from the morning to the evening. They were saying: ‘You and your brother support the armed opposition. Where did you find the lorry and the goods?’ ”

He told Amnesty investigators that he was detained for 12 days and beaten five times a day, and released after one of his brothers paid seven million pounds (US$2,700 or A?2,000) to a man working for the military intelligence.

Amnesty called on the government to repeal laws “which allow the security forces to keep people in prolonged incommunicado detention and gives them immunity for their actions.”

The group also demanded “a clear public announcement from the government that torture or other ill-treatment will not be tolerated in any detention center and will be prosecuted.”

For a copy of the report: Sudan: No one to complain to, please see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr541382004