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UN official says Sudan’s government terrorizing civilians

UN official says Sudan’s government terrorizing civilians

November 18, 2006

Khartoum, Sudan (AP) — The Sudanese army and government-backed militias are committing acts of “inexplicable terror” against civilians, including children, in Darfur, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official said.

The accusations by Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, came as Sudanese officials indicated they might backtrack from a deal for a mixed U.N. and African peacekeeping force.

Egeland said spiraling violence in the conflict-wracked region of western Sudan is reaching its worst level since fighting erupted more than three years ago.

“The government and its militias are conducting inexplicable terror against civilians,” he told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday just after returning from his final trip to the area before his term ends in December.

“The government is arming Arab militias more than ever before … the angst is that we may be reverting to the same level of violence” as in 2003 when the war in Darfur erupted, he said.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since rebels from ethnic African tribes rose up against the Arab-led central government in the vast arid area of western Sudan. Khartoum is accused of using the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads to retaliate but the government denies backing or arming the janjaweed.

While in Darfur, Egeland visited a government hospital in Geneina where survivors were being treated after an attack last week by government forces and janjaweed that killed 30 people.

“I saw a 2-year-old girl who was shot in the neck at point blank by a janjaweed,” Egeland said. “This is an act of terror.”

The baby’s mother and several eyewitnesses confirmed the attack was jointly conducted by the army and militias, he said.

“Those who continue to attack defenseless civilians will be judged,” Egeland told reporters at a separate news conference. “There will be a time of reckoning.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on Thursday night a multilateral agreement — reached in a gathering of African, Arab, European and U.N. leaders in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa — which could provide for a mixed U.N. and African Union peacekeeping mission for Darfur.

But Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol played down the scope of the agreement. Khartoum has not committed to a “mixed force,” he said. “What was agreed upon is a mixed operation,” he said.

“The role of the United Nations will be to provide support units and technical assistance to the African mission,” Akol told reporters. “There is no way the main fighting force would be a mixed one.”

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has firmly opposed any deployment of U.N. troops in Darfur to replace the 7,000 ill-equipped and poorly funded AU peacekeepers who have been unable to stop the bloodshed.

But other officials have said a combined force would not pose a problem, providing that its leadership and the bulk of its troops were African — a sign that Sudan’s political leadership may be sending mixed messages in order to avoid the appearance of a policy shift in the face of Western pressure.

Still Egeland said he was confident all parties involved would soon reach a final agreement for a beefed-up force.

“I have no reason to disbelieve the sincerity of the Sudanese negotiators in Addis,” he told reporters, adding that he hoped time would not be wasted “wrangling on words.”

Another senior U.N. official in Sudan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said he feared the new deal could just be a smokescreen for Khartoum to buy time as its militias rampage through Darfur.

U.N. officials and humanitarian workers have said that violence in Darfur has only increased since the government and the main Darfur rebel group signed a peace agreement in May.

“Civilians are being killed as we speak,” Egeland said, warning that the crisis “still has the potential of becoming infinitely worse.”

He said a similar raid in Jebel Moon last month showed that the children were not accidental casualties.

“It is not so-called collateral damage,” Egeland said. “It is the intentional killing of children.”

Separately, the AU said in a statement Saturday it received reports the Sudanese air force twice bombed the Birmaza rebel zone in North Darfur this week. The attacks, conducted jointly with armed militia groups, took a “heavy toll on the civilian population,” the AU said.

The Sudanese government says uniformed fighters belong to regular forces and don’t commit war crimes, while those clad in traditional garb are bandits it does not control. A government investigation said the Jebel Moon killing was committed by “renegade Arab bandits.”

Egeland said aid workers’ ability to carry out their humanitarian mission was “crumbling” because of the violence and underscored the urgent need to beef up the peacekeeping force.