CAIRO, 19 September 2004 — Villagers slaughtered, homes torched, girls and women raped — the head of rights group Amnesty International recounted to AFP some of the horror stories heard on a mission to Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan, who visited Darfur to witness first hand the situation in the region where the United States says genocide is being waged by pro-government Arab militias, said no-one feels safe.
Khan said she was particularly alarmed by reports of continuing violence against women, especially rape, and other abuses of people forced by a 19-month conflict to flee from their homes in Darfur.
Sudanese security forces in Darfur claim they have no orders to disarm the militias blamed for atrocities in the region despite mounting international pressure on Khartoum, she told AFP in Cairo.
“The armed militia are still very much there,” said Irene, whose Amnesty team wrapped up a four-day tour of the three states of Darfur yesterday, ahead of a UN Security Council vote on the crisis.
An estimated 50,000 people have died and 1.4 million more have been displaced in Darfur, where UN officials say Arab militias have carried out a scorched-earth campaign of ethnic cleansing against black residents.
The government of Sudan is under international pressure to rein in the militias and stop the killing, which the United Nations says has triggered the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis. In Sisi, a camp for displaced persons outside Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, Amnesty said it had learned of 76 rape cases between February and September.
Most victims of rape in the Muslim society are afraid to tell their stories, ensuring that the majority of the cases go unreported. “It’s difficult for women here to admit rape,” Irene said by telephone from Geneina.
Khan and her team met a young girl who said she was gang-raped by five men. She told Amnesty she reported the incident to the police and told them she recognized her attackers, but they ignored her. “The police did not do anything. Now she’s pregnant,” said Irene.
Despite claims by the government in Khartoum that security conditions were improving for people displaced from their homes by the 19-month conflict, the majority still feel vulnerable, Irene said. “The real problem is one of security and safety.”
The Sudanese government has in recent months deployed thousands of police in Darfur, but according to Amnesty, the people have no confidence in the police and blame them for some of their problems.
“We have seen the sites where villages have been burned,” said Irene, adding that in some cases the only signs that the place was once inhabited was the sight of “broken pots or children’s shoes.”
Meanwhile, African Union-sponsored talks on restoring peace to Sudan’s western Darfur region adjourned for one month Friday to give negotiators more time to resolve disagreements on the key issues.
