Sudan: Massive Atrocities in Darfur (HRW Release)

Sudan: Massive Atrocities in Darfur
Almost One Million Civilians Forcibly Displaced in Government’s
Scorched-Earth Campaign

(New York, April2 ,2004 ) — The Sudanese government is complicit in
crimes against humanity committed by government-backed militias in
Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report. In a
scorched-earth campaign, government forces and Arab militias are
killing, raping and #####ng African civilians that share the same
ethnicities as rebel forces in this western region of Sudan.

The report, “Darfur in Flames: Atrocities in Western Sudan,” describes a
government strategy of forced displacement targeting civilians of the
non-Arab ethnic communities from which the two main rebel groups—the
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM)—are mainly drawn. Human Rights Watch found that the
military is indiscriminately bombing civilians, while both government
forces and militias are systematically destroying villages and
conducting brutal raids against the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa ethnic
groups.

“The Sudanese military and government-backed militias are committing
massive human rights violations daily in the western region of Darfur,”
said Georgette Gagnon, deputy director for the Africa division of Human
Rights Watch. “The government’s campaign of terror has already forcibly
displaced one million innocent civilians, and the numbers are increasing
by the day.”

Human Rights Watch called on the government of Sudan to immediately
disarm and disband the militias, and allow international humanitarian
groups access to provide relief to the displaced persons.

The government has recruited and armed over20 , 000militiamen of Arab
descent and operates jointly with these militias, known as “janjaweed,”
in attacks on civilians from the Fur, Masaalit, and Zaghawa ethnic
groups. In the past year, nearly one million civilians have fled their
rural villages. Most are displaced into towns and camps where they
continue to be murdered, raped and looted by the militias.

Although Arab and African communities in Darfur for decades have
intermittently clashed over land and scarce resources, the current
conflict began 14 months ago when two new rebel groups emerged. The
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM) demanded that the Sudanese government stop arming the
Arab groups in Darfur and address longstanding grievances over
underdevelopment in the region.

In response, the government launched a massive bombing campaign which,
combined with the raids of the marauding militias, have forced more than
800, 000people from their homes and sent an additional110 , 000people
into neighboring Chad.

In a scorched-earth campaign, government forces and militias have killed
several thousand Fur, Zaghawa and Masaalit civilians, routinely raped
women and girls, abducted children, and looted tens of thousands of head
of cattle and other property. In many areas of Darfur, they have
deliberately burned hundreds of villages and destroyed water sources and
other infrastructure, making it much harder for the former residents to
return.


“The militias are not only killing individuals, they are decimating the
livelihoods of tens of thousands of families,” Gagnon said. “The people
being targeted are the farmers of the region, and unless these abuses
are stopped and people receive humanitarian relief, we could see famine
in a few months’ time.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should request the Office of the High
Commissioner on Human Rights to immediately dispatch a mission of
inquiry to investigate the situation in Darfur, Human Rights Watch said.
The mission should report back to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights,
currently meeting in Geneva, before the end of its session on April23 .
Human Rights Watch urged the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to adopt a
resolution—under item9 —to appoint a special rapporteur for human rights
in Sudan.

The report describes how government forces allow the janjaweed to
operate with full impunity. Government forces fail to protect civilians
even when these unarmed people have appealed to the military and police
forces, warning that their villages were about to be attacked.
Government forces and janjaweed have also obstructed the flight of
civilians escaping to Chad.

“The Khartoum government has tried to repress this rebellion with
lightning speed in hope that the international community wouldn’t have
time to mobilize and press the government to halt its devastation of
Darfur,” added Gagnon, “But the Sudanese government will still have to
answer for crimes against humanity that cannot be ignored.”

The Sudan peace talks in Kenya convened by the Inter-Governmental
Authority on Development (IGAD), an intergovernmental body of East
African countries, are limited to the two main parties to the20 -year
conflict in Southern Sudan. The peace talks do not include Darfur or the
Darfurian rebels. Taking advantage of the internationally regulated
ceasefire in the south, the Sudanese government has shifted its attack
helicopters and other heavy weapons, purchased with oil revenue from the
south, to the western region of Darfur.

The government’s indiscriminate bombing, scorched-earth military
campaign, and denial of access to humanitarian assistance in Darfur
reflects the same deadly strategy employed in the south, with yet more
rapid dislocation and devastation than witnessed or experienced there.

“Darfur in Flames: Atrocities in Western Sudan” is available at:
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/sudan0404/