U.S. says Sudan breaks promises on Darfur

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Sudan’s government and the militia it supports persist in committing atrocities in the Darfur region despite repeated promises to end brutal abuses and killings, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Kozak, meets reporters at the State Department in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 to discuss the State Department’s 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.(AP).

Tens of thousands of people have been killed over the past two years, many as a result of disease and hunger, and more than 1.8 million displaced from Darfur in fighting which the United States has called genocide.

“Despite the government’s repeated commitments to refrain from further violence in Darfur, the atrocities continued,” said the State Department’s annual report of human rights abuses worldwide.

“In Darfur, government and government-supported militia (Janjaweed) committed serious abuses during the year, including razing hundreds of villages of African tribes,” said the report.

The Janjaweed, often in concert with regular government forces, typically conducted attacks under cover of military aerial support, it said.

Last year, then Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded genocide was being committed against the people of Darfur and that Sudan’s government and the Janjaweed militia bore responsibility.

The United States wants the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions against Sudan but China and Russia have opposed such penalties, particularly on oil.

The report said government forces in Darfur “routinely killed, injured, and displaced civilians, and destroyed clinics and dwellings intentionally during offensive operations.”

Women in Darfur were particularly vulnerable and the State Department said there were many reports of women who were raped if they left their camps to gather food or wood.

The Sudanese government had been slow to acknowledge the severity of this problem, although it eventually appointed a commission to investigate rape allegations. “The commission was neither active nor effective in stopping assaults against women,” the report said.

The State Department said negotiations related to the north-south conflict in Sudan provided some hope for peace and improvement of human rights practices in other areas of the country.

“By year’s end, the State Department saw significant movement on the preliminary accords between the Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Army after 21 years of low intensity conflict,” said the report.

Other human rights complaints included prison conditions, which remained harsh and life-threatening, and the continued obstruction of humanitarian groups, particularly in Darfur.