KHARTOUM, 2 February 2005 — Sudan dismissed as one-sided a UN report that accused the Khartoum government of gross and systematic human rights violations in Darfur but stopped short of labeling the violence in the region as genocide.
“The violations indicated in the report were not confirmed and were based on information of a political nature,” Justice Minister Ali Osman Yassin told reporters.
He said the report by a five-member commission appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which recommended that abuses be dealt with by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, was “biased and unbalanced.”
The commission blamed government forces and militia for indiscriminate attacks, including the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape, pillaging and forced displacement in Darfur.
However, it said the “crucial element of genocidal intent appears to be missing”.
Amnesty International, in its reaction to the report, said the UN Security Council should set aside its differences and refer the case to the ICC, whose jurisdiction the United States refuses to recognize.
“The war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur are no less serious than genocide,” said Claudio Cordone, senior director for regional programs at Amnesty International.
Besides referring Darfur to the ICC, Amnesty International said there needs to be “a comprehensive, long-term strategy for bringing all those responsible for the crimes to justice”.
It also appealed to China and Russia, which have oil interests in Sudan, “to stop arming the killers and to allow the existing arms embargo on Darfur to be extended to include the government” in Khartoum.
The two main rebel groups said the report did not find genocide because it was incomplete. “If this report says there is no genocide in Darfur then we reject this report,” Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim said from his headquarters in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
“There are hundreds of mass graves that the commission did not go to,” he said, adding the decision to stop short of a genocide finding was political because the international community did not want to take action in Darfur.
Abdel Wahed Mohamed Al-Nur, leader of the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), said he was sure in time the international community would come to realize that there had been a genocide in Darfur.
Nur, a former lawyer, said he would welcome prosecutions against anyone accused of war crimes, including members of his movement. The report also said some rebels were implicated in crimes.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said London was “very concerned” by the UN’s findings.
“We have nothing to contradict the findings,” he added, “but we do have to study the report” ahead of a discussion later this week in the Security Council, he said.
Blair raised concerns about Darfur when he visited Khartoum last October as part of an African tour. “We warned the Sudanese government that international attention would not disappear from this issue, that it would continue — and that will be the case,” the spokesman said yesterday.
The conflict in Darfur was born of a rebel uprising in February 2003 against the government in Khartoum in the desert region of western Sudan.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese parliament yesterday unanimously ratified a peace deal with southern rebels that the government signed last month to end two decades of civil war.
The National Assembly’s 300 members stood up to show support for the deal that the government signed with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Nairobi, Kenya, on Jan. 9.
There were no votes against and no abstentions. MPs approved the agreement without amendment after three days of debate.
“I am pleased to see such unanimous support for the peace agreement,” said veteran southern politician and former vice president Abel Alier, after the vote.
With the ratification of the agreement, “we enter a new stage in our history,” National Assembly Speaker Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Taher said.
Some 1.5 million people died and another four million fled their homes during the civil war in south Sudan, Africa’s longest conflict.
The National Assembly’s seal of approval on the agreement came days after the SPLM’s legislative body, the National Liberation Council, unanimously endorsed it.
Ratification by the two sides opens the way for the formation of a committee to draft a provisional constitution for a six-year interim period leading up to a promised referendum on independence for the south.
Under the terms of the landmark peace deal, SPLM leader John Garang is to become first vice president and head an autonomous administration for the south during the transition.
