Militia 'liable' for Sudan attacks
2006-10-09 14:28
Geneva - United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour has accused the government-backed militia of carrying out "massive" attacks on Sudanese civilians in South Darfur province in an apparent attempt to "completely change the ethnic balance" in the area.
A report compiled by Arbour with Sudanese-based UN monitors on the incidents around the town of Buram in late August, said: "Government knowledge, if not complicity, in the attacks is almost certain."
The report, based on interviews with survivors of the attacks and other sources, called for an independent Sudanese inquiry and for African Union peacekeepers to be deployed in the area as soon as possible.
The study said that the attempt to remove African tribal settlers from Buram and to turn the area into "an entirely Arab tribe area" was "reportedly done with the assumption that any international troops would focus on maintaining the status quo in the area".
Militia attacks leave several hundred dead
Khartoum had rejected a proposal to deploy a larger force of UN peacekeepers to Darfur to shore up a fragile peace accord.
According to the UN, the attacks by 300 to 1 000 unusually well-equipped militia from a tribe of Arab origin on about 45 villages were estimated to have left several hundred dead.
A report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the area where about 10 000 people lived was now deserted.
It said: "The attacks, spearheaded by the Habbania militia, were massive in scale, involving a large number of villages, and were carried out for only a few days.
"The attacks appeared to have targeted civilians from tribes of African origin in what appeared to be an attempt to drive them from the Habbania homeland and therefore completely change the ethnic balance in the area."
According to the report, Sudanese authorities had denied giving support to the operation, saying it was part of a local tribal conflict and a reaction to attacks by Darfur rebels in April.
Local rebels and pro-government militia had been fighting in Darfur since February 2003.
At least 200 000 people had died from the combined effects of fighting, famine and disease, and more than two million had fled their homes.