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Sudan: Credibility Gap
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Nov 22, 2004 (041122)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
At a high-profile United Nations Security Council meeting in Nairobi last week,
the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army pledged to complete their agreement for peace in
southern Sudan by December 31. If successful, diplomats claimed,
the agreement could provide a model for ending the violence in
Darfur as well. But the Council failed to impose any sanctions on
the Sudanese government for blatant continuing violence in Darfur,
despite the presence of monitors from the Africa Union.
It remains to be seen whether the meeting will mark a step towards
peace or serve to widen the already large credibility gap on Sudan
for international institutions as well as the Sudanese government.
News and commentary on the most recent developments are available
at http://www.sudantribune.com and
http://www.africafocus.org/country/sudan_news.php
For critiques of the Security Council resolution from Human
Rights Watch and Oxfam, see http://allafrica.com/stories/200411220043.html
If there are grounds for hope, note some observers, they rest both
on coordinated multilateral pressure on the Sudanese government and
on divisions within the Sudanese government over the relative
advantages of war and peace. Two recent detailed analyses that
explore these issues are the October-November issue of the Justice
Africa briefing on Sudan
(http://www.justiceafrica.org/bulletin.htm) and the September
report on his mission to Sudan by Francis M. Deng, the
representative of the UN Secretary-General on internally displaced
persons, who is a highly respected Sudanese scholar and diplomat
based in Washington at the Brookings Institution. His 27 September
report to the Economic and Social Council is available through a
search on the UN website (http://www.un.org/search) under document
number E/CN.4/2005/8.
This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a new
report from Amnesty International (AI) released just before the
Security Council meeting. The AI report systematically documents
the involvement of Sudanese forces with aircraft and other imported
weapons in atrocities carried out by government-backed militia,
identifies the governments supplying arms to Sudan, and calls for
a comprehensive arms embargo. The full report and other AI reports
on Sudan are available at
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/sdn-index-eng
For previous issues of the AfricaFocus Bulletin on Sudan, see
http://www.africafocus.org/country/sudan.php
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Amnesty International
Sudan: Arms trade fuelling human rights abuse in Darfur
Press Release
AI Index: AFR 54/142/2004 (Public)
16 November 2004
The helicopter pilots deliberately and indiscriminately attacked
the informal internally displaced persons' settlement knowing very
well that there were innocent civilians. - African Union
Commission Ceasefire Violation report on the attack in Hashaba and
Gallab Villages on 26 August 2004
The only thing in abundance in Darfur is weapons. It's easier to
get a Kalashnikov than a loaf of bread. - Jan Egeland, UN Emergency
Relief Coordinator, 1 July 2004
Amnesty International today revealed details of the uncontrolled
arms exports that have fuelled massive human rights abuses in
Sudan, including the killing, rape, torture and displacement of
more than a million civilians since the Darfur conflict began in
February 2003.
"Governments must stop turning a blind eye to the immediate and
long term consequences of this totally irresponsible trade. They
must ensure that the UN Security Council imposes a mandatory and
rigorously monitored arms embargo on all parties to the conflict in
Sudan including the government's armed forces. The embargo should
aim to stop all exports of arms that are likely to be used to
commit human rights violations," said Elizabeth Hodgkin, Amnesty
International's Sudan researcher.
At a news conference in Nairobi ahead of this week's meeting of the
UN Security Council in the same city, Amnesty International
delegates presented a report identifying the main types of arms
sent to Sudan and the governments that have deliberately or
unwittingly allowed them to be sent.
The report, Sudan: Arming the perpetrators of grave abuses in
Darfur shows how Sudanese government forces and their militia
allies have used such arms for grave human rights violations, war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Two Antonov aeroplanes, five helicopters and two MIGs attacked our
village at around 6am. Five tanks came into town. The attack lasted
until 7pm...Eighteen men and two children from our family were
killed when fleeing." Testimony given to Amnesty International in
May 2004 by Aziza Abdel Jaber Mohammed and her half sister Zahra
Adam Arja on the attack of Kornoy in North Darfur in December 2003.
Based on the testimony of hundreds of survivors gathered by Amnesty
International as well as commercial documents, UN arms trade data
and other sources - the report's main findings include:
- Military aircraft and components sold to Sudan from the Russian
Federation, China and Belarus, with helicopter spare parts from
Lithuania, despite repeated use of such aircraft to bomb villages
and support ground attacks on civilians;
- Tanks, military vehicles and artillery transferred to Sudan from
Belarus, Russia and Poland, even though such equipment has been
used to help launch indiscriminate and direct attacks on civilians;
- Grenades, rifles, pistols, ammunition and other small arms and
light weapons exported to Sudan from many countries, but mainly
China, France, Iran and Saudi Arabia;
- The recent involvement of arms brokering companies from the UK
and Ireland attempting to provide large numbers of Antonov aircraft
and military vehicles from Ukraine and pistols from Brazil;
- Military training and cooperation offered by Belarus, India,
Malaysia and Russia.
"Some governments such as Bulgaria, Lithuania and the UK have
already begun to take action to halt the arms flows to Sudan, and
the European Union has imposed an embargo, but other governments
show no sign of wanting to turn off the tap that is fuelling these
atrocities", said Brian Wood, Amnesty International's research
manager on the arms and security trade
Amnesty International is appealing to the UN Security Council to
impose a mandatory arms embargo to halt exports of arms likely to
be used to commit human rights violations. The embargo should be
accompanied by rigorous UN monitoring both inside and outside
Sudan.
The organization is calling on all states mentioned in the report
to take immediate concrete steps to suspend all transfers of those
types of arms and related logistical and security supplies that are
being used for grave human rights violations in Sudan.
To prevent the arms trade from contributing to such disasters,
Amnesty International is also campaigning for all states to
establish much more rigorous controls on conventional arms,
including the establishment of an Arms Trade Treaty which would
prohibit arms exports to those likely to use them to violate
international human rights and humanitarian law.
For a full copy of the report, Sudan: Arming the perpetrators of
grave abuses in Darfur, please see:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr541392004
Amnesty International
Sudan: Arming the perpetrators of grave abuses in Darfur
Background excerpts from introduction to full report
Governments of countries named in this report that have allowed the
supply of various types of arms to Sudan over the past few years
have contributed to the capacity of Sudanese leaders to use their
army and air force to carry out grave violations of international
humanitarian and human rights law. Foreign governments have also
enabled the government of Sudan to arm and deploy untrained and
unaccountable militias that have deliberately and indiscriminately
killed civilians in Darfur on a large scale, destroying homes,
looting property and forcibly displacing the population. Amnesty
International has received testimony of gross human rights
violations from hundreds of displaced persons in Chad, Darfur and
in the capital, Khartoum.
The tragedy of Darfur is that the international community, already
heavily engaged in the north-south peace process in Sudan, took far
too long to recognize the state-sponsored pattern of violence and
displacement and failed to act earlier to protect the population.
Yet what has happened in Darfur is just a more horrific and
accelerated version of what had already happened in many parts of
southern Sudan. Antonov aircraft, MiG fighter jets and helicopter
gunships bombed villages, killed civilians and forced the people to
flee their homes in Darfur. In the previous 20 years Antonovs and
helicopter gunships had bombed villages, killed civilians and
forced people to flee their homes in the southern Sudan. In Darfur,
government-armed militias, usually known as the Janjawid,(2) drawn
from mostly nomad groups and commonly armed with Kalashnikov AK47
assault rifles, and also often using rocket-propelled grenades and
doshkas (machine guns mounted on jeeps), attacked, displaced and
killed thousands of rural civilians. From 1985 to 2003, the
government supported nomad militias (the murahelin) which were used
to attack, kill and displace many of the rural population in Bahr
al-Ghazal and Unity State (Western Upper Nile).
Now, over a large area of Darfur, villages are destroyed or emptied
of their population, the people driven out have swollen the numbers
in towns or gathered in camps for displaced persons; some have fled
to Chad, Khartoum or elsewhere inside or out of Sudan. Similarly,
large areas either side of the north-south border in Sudan have
been cleared of their population: in Unity State the countryside is
empty, the former herders and farmers are grouped together in towns
or larger villages such as Rubkona, Pariang and Bentiu; in the
lowlands bordering the Nuba Mountains, the land previously farmed
by Nuba is now used for large farming enterprises run by
northerners; and in Abyei, only the main town has many Dinka living
in it - the villages were emptied of their population and people
have not yet dared to return.
In recent months, there has been unprecedented international
attention given to the crisis in Sudan notably by the UN Security
Council and the African Union (AU). Yet, despite UN Security
Council demands that the Sudan government rein in the militias in
the region of Darfur, the UN Special Representative of the
Secretary General for Sudan, Jan Pronk, reported in October 2004
that the government had not stopped attacks by militias against
civilians nor started to disarm these militias.
On 5 October 2004, Jan Pronk told the Security Council that "there
were still breaches of the ceasefire from both sides - attacks and
counter-attacks, revenge and retaliation. There were attacks by the
army, sometimes involving helicopter gunships, though less
frequently towards the end of the month." In his report to the
Security Council of 4 November he stated that the situation had
deteriorated and tension had risen 'to a level unprecedented since
early August'.
The mandate of the AU ceasefire monitors, who are intended to
oversee the Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement between the government
of Sudan. the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and
Equality Movement (JEM), signed in N'Djamena, Chad, on 8 April
2004, was initially limited to reporting on ceasefire violations.
However, for the AU reports of ceasefire violations to be made
public, all sides have to agree. So the violators often stifle
reports of ceasefire violations. After a meeting of the AU Peace
and Security Council on 20 October, the AU announced that it was
going to increase its forces in Darfur to 3,320 personnel among
them 450 observers. The mandate of the expanded force includes
monitoring and verifying the provision of security for returning
internally displaced persons (IDPs) and in the vicinity of IDP
camps; monitoring and verifying efforts of the government of Sudan
to disarm government-controlled militias; and observing, monitoring
and reporting the effective service delivery of the local police.
The mandate of the force also includes the protection of civilians
in certain circumstances: the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS)
"shall protect civilians whom it encounters under imminent threat
and in the immediate vicinity, within resources and capability, it
being understood that the protection of the civilian population is
the responsibility of the government of Sudan".
The government of Sudan has nevertheless failed to bring suspected
perpetrators of gross human rights violations to justice. Some
people have been arrested, prosecuted and jailed. However, none of
those brought to justice is known to have been involved in
government-supported militia attacks on villagers. There appears to
be no action to systematically investigate all allegations of human
rights violations and bring those suspected of being responsible
including those who may have ordered such actions - to justice. The
government continues to describe the Darfur conflict as essentially
"a tribal war" and has denied that government forces not only
failed in their obligation to protect the civilian population but
actively participated in killings, forced displacement and rape. A
climate of impunity remains.
...
In this context, Amnesty International is appealing to all states
mentioned in this report to immediately suspend all transfers of
arms and related logistical and security supplies to Sudan that are
likely to be used by the armed forces or militias for grave human
rights violations. Moreover, Amnesty International specifically
requests member states of the UN Security Council to impose a
mandatory arms embargo on Sudan to stop those supplies reaching the
parties to the conflict in Darfur, including the government forces,
until effective safeguards are in place to protect civilians from
grave human rights abuses.
...
Amnesty International
AI Index: AFR 54/144/2004 (Public)
16 November 2004
Sudan: Arming the perpetrators of grave abuses in Darfur
Testimonies (excerpts)
"I was living with my family in Tawila and going to school when,
one day, the Janjawid came and attacked the school. We all tried to
leave the school, but we heard noises of bombing and started
running in all directions... The Janjawid caught some girls: I was
raped by four men inside the school... When I went back to town, I
found that they had destroyed all the buildings. Two planes and a
helicopter had bombed the town. One of my uncles and a cousin were
killed in the attack." -- testimony of a 19-year-old woman,
describing the attack on Tawila in February 2004 in testimony given
to Amnesty International (AI) in Zam Zam Camp, North Darfur, 6
October 2004.
"The Janjawid came in uniforms on horses and vehicles and the army
came too. They came with vehicles and with helicopters that dropped
fire. They killed many, we don't know how many. They killed men,
women and children. They killed my husband. The Janjawid looted
camels, cows and horses -- I saw them. I know many of them. The
helicopters shot us as we were fleeing." -- testimony of a woman
from Nuri village, which attacked in December 2003, who is now
living in Durti Camp near al-Jeneina, interviewed by AI in
September 2004.
"Again on our way, we were stopped by Janjawid. They searched us
around the waist. He asks: 'Don't you have any money?' When you
answer back: 'No', he says: 'OK, give me the child, I will kill
him'. When you say: 'No don't kill him', they say: 'OK, then give
us money'. They start to beat you severely and let you leave with
empty pockets. We got tired because we were moved so much. There
were people on horses attacking on the ground and Antonovs bombing
from the air and people falling down." -- testimony given by Zenab
in Ryad camp, September 2004.
"Armed men on horses, camels and vehicles came, accompanied by
Sudanese government soldiers, and surrounded the village at midday.
Two hours later, one Antonov plane and two helicopters flew over
the village and shot rockets. The attackers came into the houses
and shot my mother and grandfather. The attack lasted for two hours
and everything was burnt down in the village. Thirty-five people
were killed during the attack - five women, 17 children and 13 men;
and they were not buried." -- testimony given in Abu Jihad village,
North Darfur, which was attacked on 28 June 2003.
"Janjawid and soldiers of the forces of the government, both in
uniforms, came and attacked. First they came with Antonov and
helicopters [ ...], in the morning of 11 October, they dropped 17
barrels of shrapnel from the Antonov. Then they came, the Janjawid
on horses and the government army in cars. It was many, many of
them, maybe even 6,000. More than 80 people were killed during the
attack and they took all the cattle and burned down everything." --
testimony from refugees from Tanako, south of Fur Baranga, Darfur,
interviewed in Goz Amer Camp, Chad, in May 2004.
...
"They arrived on camels, horses and by vehicles; some 150 men in
khaki. Two Antonov planes also took part in the attack. About 65
men were praying at the mosque. The horses, camels and cars
surrounded the mosque and started shooting. All the men in the
mosque were killed. The Janjawid beat up the women, set fire to
everything and took away the cattle. The women and children fled
towards Um Baru, where they stayed for one month; they then went to
Kornoy walking for ten days and then another 15 days up to the
border. At Tina, they stopped for one month. Between Goz Na'im and
Tina, five people (three women and two children) died of thirst,
hunger and exhaustion." -- testimony of a woman from the village of
Goz Na'im, some 80km from Abu Gamra, describing an attack at 6am on
Sunday 29 of the month of "toum" (May 2003), which was carried out
by both Janjawid and government soldiers, to AI.
...
"First the government soldiers came with the vehicles and started
shelling the villages with RPG [rocket propelled grenades] and
heavy weapons, and then the Janjawid came and shot at everybody.
More than 60 were killed from Bindisi on 16 August [2003]. On 17
August, Sunday, after most of us arrived in Mukjar, they attacked
Mukjar (and the villages Katodo, Mukjar-Daba, Kudom and Birgi).
They shot at everybody -- women, children, men and more than 70
people were killed." -- Testimony from refugees in Goz Amer, Chad,
May 2004.
....
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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