AU: Darfur security situation deteriorates in past four months

By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press Writer

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb 6, 2005 (AP) — Darfur’s security situation deteriorated dramatically during the past four months but conditions in the war-torn region, where tens of thousands have been killed in the past two years, improved during the last week, the African Union said Sunday.

Camel riders pass in front of a Rwandan African Union soldier. (AFP).

Baba Gana Kingibe, the AU envoy in Sudan, also appealed to all parties to work together to find a peaceful solution to the Darfur conflict, which began after two non-Arab rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in a bid to win more political and economic rights for the region’s African tribes people.

“The security situation in North and South Darfur in particular had progressively deteriorated to appalling levels over the last four months with unacceptable consequences to the peace and tranquillity of the civilian populations,” Kingibe said in a statement.

Sudan’s government is accused of responding to the rebel counterinsurgency by backing the Janjaweed — camel and horse-riding Arab militiamen — in a campaign of wide-scale abuses against Sudanese of African origin. The government, based in the capital, Khartoum, denies backing the Janjaweed.

The AU statement said “militia activities” have on several occasions hindered AU officers monitoring two shaky cease-fire deals, plus United Nations workers and humanitarian agencies.

It urged the Sudanese government to “take steps to disarm and rein in the Janjaweed/armed militias.”

“While all sides to the conflict in Darfur were responsible for this situation, the worst perpetrators were mostly the Janjeweed/armed militia who appeared to enjoy immunity from their inhuman and brazen acts of destruction of life and property wherever they struck,” said the statement.

The AU statement said, however, that calm had been restored in the vast region over the past week, particularly during a recent two-day visit by Sudan’s first vice president, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha.

The statement follows the recent release of a U.N.-backed commission’s report that claimed government-backed militias are still involved in rape, mass killings and wanton destruction in Darfur. The conflict has left at least 70,000 people dead and forced more than 2 million from their homes.

The report also recommended 51 Sudanese — including high-ranking government officials, rebels and Arabs who served in the militia known as the Janjaweed — stand trial at the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges related to the two-year Darfur conflict.

The Sudanese government has ruled out handing over any Sudanese official or citizen to face criminal charges in an international court.

The international community, led by the United Nations and the United States, has called on the Sudanese government to halt the Darfur violence and use January peace deal reached to end the 21-year southern war to spread calm across Africa’s largest nation.