MSF boss held for rape report
2005-05-30 21:29
Khartoum - Sudan detained on Monday the head of mission of Medecins Sans Frontieres's Dutch branch which published an indicting report on rape by pro-government forces in war-torn Darfur, said the NGO.
Geoff Prescott, the head of MSF-Holland said: "We have just received official confirmation that Paul Foreman was arrested, but we don't know on what charges."
He said: "We are shocked and outraged by this arrest. He is apparently being questioned and we are trying to obtain more information."
The authorities in Khartoum had issued a warrant against Foreman.
500 women 'treated for rape'
Although the Sudanese judiciary refused to justify the arrest, the warrant was thought to have been issued after Foreman refused to hand evidence on which the March report was based.
The report, entitled The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur, said that about 500 women had been treated for rape in four and a half months in Darfur.
Most of the women said their attackers were from the pro-government militia known as Janjaweed or Sudanese soldiers.
Khartoum had denied the existence of any such abuse by its own troops.
About 10 000 aid workers operate in the Darfur region, which had been torn since February 2003 by a humanitarian crisis and a bloody conflict pitting ethnic minority rebels against the government and its proxies.