War crimes probe into Sudan reign of terror

A MULTINATIONAL team of investigators was last night on its way to Sudan amidst intense pressure from the international community to stem a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing which has forced at least a million people to flee their homes.

The mission, led by the African Union and made up of representatives from the United Nations, European Union, the US and France, is seeking to achieve a ceasefire in fierce clashes which have provoked a humanitarian disaster which is only weeks from reaching catastrophic proportions.

Intense international pressure is building on Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir to end his reign of terror after a flurry of UN and human rights organisations accused his fundamentalist regime of working hand in glove with a brutal Arab militia called the Janjaweed that has torched villages and murdered and raped civilians throughout the Darfur region on the Chad border.

The African Union investigators will meet government and rebel forces and visit refugee camps in both Sudan and Chad, where hundreds of thousands of people are becoming increasingly vulnerable to famine and disease.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has judged Khartoum’s involvement in what its investigators describe as "massive human rights violations" as so serious they may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has called on the Security Council to investigate.

Crucially, the disturbing reports from Darfur also threaten to tarnish Bashir’s impending landmark peace deal to end the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan which has claimed two million lives.

At a lakeside lodge near Naivasha in Kenya on Friday, vice-president Osman Ali Taha and John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) reported "significant progress" in talks to end the civil war.

Both sides have already signed a wealth-sharing deal; agreement on three disputed areas and power sharing is very close, agree analysts. "There is renewed optimism for a framework deal next week," said David Mozersky of the International Crisis Group think-tank.

Bashir had hoped this effort at peace would help his regime shake off the label of being a "terrorist-supporting nation", imposed on it by the United States in the 1990s. But events in Darfur mean this is no longer likely to convince the international community.

Bashir continues to vehemently deny the allegations, but frustrated aid workers accuse him of duplicity and bad faith. Although Darfur is regularly described as "the world’s worst humanitarian crisis", his regime has obstructed humanitarian access by denying visas and travel permits to some aid workers.

"Sudan is Rwanda in slow motion," analyst John Prendergast told a US congressional committee last week, referring to the state-sponsored genocide of 800,000 people in Rwanda.

Khartoum also stands accused of trying to starve its own people. One report last week focused on Kailek, a remote town occupied by the Janjaweed in recent months. After torching the houses, the horse-mounted Arab militiamen surrounded the town, cutting it off from international aid. Then the inhabitants were forced to live among their own excrement in "outrageous" conditions that "indicated a policy of forced starvation", the report concluded.

The Janjaweed attacks mostly target the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes, which are accused of supporting a local rebellion that exploded in February 2003. Two rebel groups accuse Khartoum of marginalising the region and failing to protect the ethnically African, agricultural tribes from attack by armed Arab militiamen.

A ceasefire agreement signed by the three sides in neighbouring Chad last month has been widely ignored, and the Janjaweed attacks on civilians have continued unabated.

The ethnic cleansing campaign has reached into neighbouring Chad. The army has incurred several casualties in battles with Janjaweed fighters caught pursuing refugees as they flee across the border.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report last week detailed the "hand in glove" relationship between the Sudan government and its militia proxy.

Janjaweed officers wear army uniforms, receive regular payment, and sometimes attack villages in coordination with regular troops. According to the report, one Janjaweed leader told his victims: "This place is for Arabs, not Africans. The Janjaweed is the government. The Janjaweed is Omar Bashir."

The report featured powerful photos of torched villages, mass graves and the remains of dead villagers lying in the desert. Witnesses described how Janjaweed and government soldiers murdered, raped and destroyed wells and irrigation systems - apparently to pave the way for supporters to settle in the area. The report listed 770 civilians murdered and 14 villages burned down in one corner of Darfur over the past five months.

The government soldiers "see everything", one survivor told HRW: "They come with them, they fight with them and they leave with them."

The humanitarian crisis is set to worsen once seasonal rains start to pound Darfur and eastern Chad at the end of this month. Roads will turn to a mucky sludge and aid agencies’ ability to deliver food will become severely hampered. Aid workers fear mass hunger and disease epidemics.

- The Scotsman, Declan Walsh