“Hundreds of Darfur civilians killed in August”
Islamonline.com
Acessed on 13/10/2006 at 10:50.
Several hundred Darfur civilians have been killed in violent attacks in August, far more than previously estimated, a recent UN report said, according to Reuters news agency.
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Louise Arbour said the attacks have been carried out by up to 1000 militiamen with the “knowledge and material support” of the Sudanese government.
"The attacks ... were massive in scale, involving a large number of villages, and were carried out over only a few days. Government knowledge, if not complicity, in the attacks is almost certain," stated the OHCR report.
The OHCR said the attacks took place in 48 villages in the Buram area of South Darfur. It also said that many of the 10,000 civilians targeted in the attacks, which started on August 28 and lasted into September, were forced to escape their homes.
The agency had previously thought that 38 people had died in the attacks. But it later revised the death toll in its latest report, which was conducted in cooperation with United Nations Assistance Mission in Sudan and based on interviews with some of the survivors of the attacks.
The attacks were carried out by militiamen wearing government-style uniforms, the report said, adding that there was no evidence of any rebel activity in the area.
"The large-scale assaults resulted in chaotic displacement, widespread separation of families and scores of missing children," the report said. "Most of the villages attacked were under government control," it added.
Arbour urged the Sudanese government to launch an independent investigation into the “recent militia attacks that may have left hundreds of civilians dead in South Darfur”, and called for the prosecution of all those responsible.
Sudan disputes report
Sudan's Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi disputed the report’s findings, saying that Arbour's office wasn’t using reliable sources, adding that the government doesn’t support the militias in Darfur.
"The sources ... are not reliable and they have become very ready to accept whatever is said to them," al-Mardi said. "They declare what they have heard and after some time it turns out to be not true," he said.
The Sudanese government, which accuses the rebels for starting the Darfur conflict, has always denied backing the Janjaweed militias, accused of committing the atrocities in the western Sudanese region.
The rebels, on the other hand, say that they are defending the "African" farmers against the government and the Janjaweed militia.
Khartoum is opposed to plans to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur, saying that such a move would infringe on its sovereignty.
Last week, the Sudanese government suggested that the UN could provide training and logistics support to the 7,000 African forces deployed in the region.
The United Nations, which has said that Darfur is suffering "the greatest humanitarian disaster in the world", estimates that about 180,000 people have lost their lives since the conflict began in 2003.
A further two million people have been forced to escape their homes.
Islamonline.com
Acessed on 13/10/2006 at 10:50.
Several hundred Darfur civilians have been killed in violent attacks in August, far more than previously estimated, a recent UN report said, according to Reuters news agency.
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Louise Arbour said the attacks have been carried out by up to 1000 militiamen with the “knowledge and material support” of the Sudanese government.
"The attacks ... were massive in scale, involving a large number of villages, and were carried out over only a few days. Government knowledge, if not complicity, in the attacks is almost certain," stated the OHCR report.
The OHCR said the attacks took place in 48 villages in the Buram area of South Darfur. It also said that many of the 10,000 civilians targeted in the attacks, which started on August 28 and lasted into September, were forced to escape their homes.
The agency had previously thought that 38 people had died in the attacks. But it later revised the death toll in its latest report, which was conducted in cooperation with United Nations Assistance Mission in Sudan and based on interviews with some of the survivors of the attacks.
The attacks were carried out by militiamen wearing government-style uniforms, the report said, adding that there was no evidence of any rebel activity in the area.
"The large-scale assaults resulted in chaotic displacement, widespread separation of families and scores of missing children," the report said. "Most of the villages attacked were under government control," it added.
Arbour urged the Sudanese government to launch an independent investigation into the “recent militia attacks that may have left hundreds of civilians dead in South Darfur”, and called for the prosecution of all those responsible.
Sudan disputes report
Sudan's Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi disputed the report’s findings, saying that Arbour's office wasn’t using reliable sources, adding that the government doesn’t support the militias in Darfur.
"The sources ... are not reliable and they have become very ready to accept whatever is said to them," al-Mardi said. "They declare what they have heard and after some time it turns out to be not true," he said.
The Sudanese government, which accuses the rebels for starting the Darfur conflict, has always denied backing the Janjaweed militias, accused of committing the atrocities in the western Sudanese region.
The rebels, on the other hand, say that they are defending the "African" farmers against the government and the Janjaweed militia.
Khartoum is opposed to plans to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur, saying that such a move would infringe on its sovereignty.
Last week, the Sudanese government suggested that the UN could provide training and logistics support to the 7,000 African forces deployed in the region.
The United Nations, which has said that Darfur is suffering "the greatest humanitarian disaster in the world", estimates that about 180,000 people have lost their lives since the conflict began in 2003.
A further two million people have been forced to escape their homes.
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