Darfur rebels destroy village

2005-04-09 09:44

New York - More than 350 militiamen destroyed a village in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region in the worst attack since January, the United Nations and the African Union said on Friday.

A joint statement issued by the top UN envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, and the top AU envoy, Baba Gana Kingibe said the names of the militia leader and his known collaborators will be turned over for possible UN sanctions and prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

The two organisations expressed "utter shock and disbelief" at Thursday's daylong attack on the South Darfur village of Khor Abeche by armed militia from the Miseriyya tribe of Niteaga under the command of Nasir Al Tijani Adel Kaadir.

The statement said the names of Al Tijani and his known collaborators will be turned over to a UN Security Council committee charged with deciding which Sudanese are thwarting peace efforts and should be subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.

Last Thursday, the Security Council also voted to refer cases of alleged rape, murder, village burnings and other atrocities to the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. On Tuesday, the United Nations handed prosecutors from the tribunal thousands of documents and a sealed list of 51 people to be investigated for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Al Tijani is the first Sudanese publicly identified as a possible war crimes suspect.

School, mosque spared

According to the statement, more than 200 of Al Tijani's militiamen, reinforced by 150 additional fighters from Niteaga, "rampaged through the village killing, burning and destroying everything in heir paths and leaving in their wake total destruction with only the mosque and the school spared".

The statement did not give any casualty figures but said the attack was the most savage since the sacking of the South Darfur village of Hamada in January which killed about 100 people.

It was apparently in retaliation for the alleged theft of 150 cattle whose tracks were supposedly traced to Khor Abeche. But Al Tijani said it was also because rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army, who controlled the village, refused to turn over the bodies of two of his men, the statement said.

The United Nations and the African Union condemned the "senseless and premeditated savage attack" and said the destruction of Khor Abeche not only violated ceasefire agreements but Security Council resolutions calling for an end to fighting and demanding that the perpetrators of such attacks no longer enjoy impunity and are brought to justice.

In addition to possible UN action, the two organisations said they expect the Sudanese government to "take appropriate action against Al Tijani", noting that he had repeatedly threatened to destroy Khor Abeche, in the presence of government officials.

- AP