Sudan rebels accuse pro-government militias of killing 300 in Darfur

CAIRO, Aug 11 (AFP) — Sudanese rebels accused pro-government militias Monday of killing some 300 civilians in Kuttum, the second largest town in North Darfur state.

“We call on international organisations to investigate what happened in Kuttum,” Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Secretary General Mani Arkoi Minawi told AFP here by telephone.

Minawi charged that some 350 pro-government militiamen entered Kuttum on August 5 after the SLM pulled out of the town. “They killed some 300 civilians they accused of sympathising with us,” he said.

“They burnt and destroyed houses and shops,” added the rebel chief, who said he was speaking from an area near Kuttum.

He said Khartoum’s air force bombed the town and neighbouring villages causing casualties and destruction, before the militiamen entered Kuttum.

The SLM announced on August 5 it had pulled out its forces from Kuttum “voluntarily” in order to spare its inhabitants a government assault to recapture the town, seized by the rebels on August 1.

Amnesty International reported last week that Khartoum had stepped up “arbitrary arrests,” particularly in Darfur, an isolated and partially desert region on Sudan’s border with Chad.

The SLM began life as the Darfur Liberation Movement in August 2001 before re-emerging under its current name last February when it began claiming responsibility for a series of anti-government attacks.