After visiting Sudan last week, Amnesty International has refuted the Khartoum government’s claims that it is taking action against the Janjaweed militia who have been accused of raping, killing and scattering the people of Darfur.
Amnesty International is the first foreign human rights NGO to have been given free rein to travel through Darfur and meet with senior members of the Sudanese government.
The delegation saw the distress of people whose lives and livelihoods had been destroyed; heard the denial of responsibility of the Sudanese government and experienced the disappointment at the slow progress to resolve the crisis. “The authorities told us they have arrested, prosecuted and punished some Janjaweed, but the cases we tracked with the judicial authorities in El Jeneina and Nyala confirmed our impression that impunity remains largely unaddressed,” said Amnesty International general secretary Irene Khan.
The delegation found that the “safe areas” designated by the government do not provide real safety to those living there. The existence of these areas leads to the impression that those living elsewhere can be attacked with impunity, and is a disincentive for restoring security.
Despite full and free access, the delegation concluded that the humanitarian situation in Darfur remains extremely precarious.
“The region does not have the infrastructure to allow a humanitarian operation on this scale to be run for a long period of time,” the report said.
“If displacement continues, access is lost, international assistance and attention drops, there is still a possibility that the crisis could turn into a catastrophe.”
The delegation saw several sites where villages had been burnt to the ground or abandoned and which were now almost overgrown with vegetation.
“While we found engagement and admission of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by some members of the government there was total denial by others. Such denial is insulting to the victims,” said Khan.
Not for the first time Sudanese President Omar el Bashir has been caught in a pincer movement of the African Union and the United Nations.Â
In July his failure to curb the Arab militia in Darfur had some members of the UN Security Council threatening sanctions.
He responded by saying he would abide by any decision taken by his African peers on controlling the militia.
When the Security Council was unable to agree on sanctions, El Bashir effectively told the AU to get knotted.
He failed to meet the UN’s August 30 deadline to restore order in Darfur. And he rejected the call by AU president Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria to send in 3 000 African peacekeepers to do the job for him.
At the weekend the UN renewed its threat of slapping a ban on sales from Sudan’s vital oil industry and ordered an inquiry into whether the atrocities in the region constitute genocide.
The UN resolution, sponsored by the United States, was passed by 11 votes to zero, with China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria abstaining. Â
Meeting in Pretoria, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) agreed on a report laying the blame for what is being called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Darfur directly at El Bashir’s door.
With the African Peace and Security Council in place, the ACHPR report will not be shelved until the next AU summit.
The eight ACHPR members worked into the early hours of Monday to complete consideration of their report on a visit to Sudan and Darfur in July this year.
The commission’s work has not been without hitches. “They spent most of Saturday talking about their payment. The members get an honorarium of $1 500 for attending the two sessions a year of the commission. These last for two weeks,” an NGO representative explained.
“The members wanted to be paid the same amount for the Pretoria meeting that lasted just two days. The NGO representatives were very unhappy with this and took the commission members to task.”