The situation in Sudan’s Darfur region is deteriorating with violence on the rise despite claims to the contrary by the Khartoum government, a coalition of rights groups said Tuesday in a report.
The report rejected Sudanese government statements that conditions were improving in war-torn Darfur and accused authorities of waging war, obstructing humanitarian aid and trying to persuade the United Nations Security Council to suspend an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against President Omar al-Bashir.
The rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch, the Save Darfur coalition and Human Rights First, issued their report titled Sudan: Rhetoric versus Reality in Darfur before the ICC’s prosecutor is due to brief the Security Council on his investigation on Wednesday.
”The international community has an unfortunate record of judging Sudan by its words rather than its actions,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch, in a statement announcing the report.
”The Security Council must not allow itself to be hoodwinked by Khartoum into handing al-Bashir impunity in return for empty promises,” he said.
The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in July announced he was requesting a warrant for the arrest of the president on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
If granted, the warrant would be the first ever issued by the Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.
Al-Bashir has rejected the allegations against him as fabricated and Arab and African leaders have warned of the dangers to regional stability of arresting the Sudanese leader.
The rights groups issuing the report rejected comments from al-Bashir that conditions in Darfur were normal, saying civilians were being displaced by violence and sometimes cut off from aid.
”Millions of people are living under daily threat of violence and are dependent on humanitarian aid that is hindered or entirely blocked by ongoing insecurity and endless bureaucratic hurdles,” said Julia Fromholz, director of the Crimes Against Humanity Programme at Human Rights First.
Sudanese government bombing and fighting from July to October had forced 90 000 people to flee their homes, the report said.
And after the government’s declaration of an ”unconditional ceasefire” in November, the Sudanese army kept up the bombing of villages in North and West Darfur, the report said.
The report says Khartoum ”continues to obstruct the delivery of assistance through bureaucratic constraints and harassment of humanitarian staff”, adding that 170 aid workers have been abducted and 11 killed since January.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003, when two rebel groups in the western part of the country rose up against the Arab-led Sudanese government.
UN officials estimate that up to 300 000 people have died, 2,7-million have fled their homes and that 4,7-million receive aid in the world’s biggest humanitarian relief operation.
Sudan, whose government has been criticized in the West for brutally trying to suppress the uprising and unleashing Arab proxy militias, insists the death toll stands at 10 000 and dismisses other statistics as a conspiracy. – AFP
