PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTRAJUDICIAL, ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTRAJUDICIAL, ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS

There was ample evidence that the Government of Sudan had helped to perpetuate grave human rights violations in that country’s Darfur region, and it was Khartoum’s responsibility to check the cycle of violence and end the culture of impunity, a special rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Briefing correspondents following her two-week trip to Sudan, Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary or Summary Executions, said the situation in Darfur was a complex one and expressed the hope that the peace process taking place in southern Sudan would continue to grow so that more and more people across the country could share in it.  The report of her findings was expected to be ready by the end of July.

She said there were “absolute, clear indications” that some militia groups in parts of Darfur had been armed, sponsored and even trained by the government, while other groups enjoyed government protection as they committed abuses and human rights violations in the region.  While it was difficult to assess how many people had been killed, there seemed to be quite a large number.  Nearly every third or fourth family interviewed had lost somebody through such killing.  It was the Government’s responsibility to bring to account not only the perpetrators on the ground, but also those who planned and ordered the abuses.  The culture of impunity had to end if violence and conflicts were to be controlled and the cycle of violence broken.

She said that while it was difficult for ordinary citizens to distinguish between armed militia and the military, the air force had reportedly been used in the bombing and strafing of at least five locations, which had been followed by military jeeps and other vehicles carrying people in military uniforms in what seemed like a coordinated effort.  Her report would include the background to the kind of “promotional Arabization” that the Government had launched some years ago and had continued to carry out for some time.  That background contained the ethnic connotations of the conflict being witnessed today.

Asked whether she was convinced that the people who had planned and ordered the abuses were government officials, Ms. Jahangir said somebody must have taken the decision to use the air force and military vehicles as well as to issue uniforms to non-military people.  Even if the people in uniform were pretending to be members of the military, there had been no sign of any government inquiry into the matter.  It was up to Khartoum to undertake such investigations and inquiries.

Responding to a question as to whether the human rights violations in the Sudan were serious enough for the Security Council or the international community to investigate more formally whether they constituted genocide or ethnic cleansing, she said she would be recommending, as a first step, the cataloguing of events in Darfur, which had not been done.  “I can only say that I see indications of crimes against humanity.  But of course, to follow that up there has to be the international community’s involvement as well as national involvement in determining the scope of the violation.”  Whatever the result of those inquiries would move the process to the next step.

Reminded of the explanation by Sudan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations that an uprising in the west had led the Government to counter the unrest by drafting local bandits into its security forces in order to put down the rebellion, she asked how the killing of innocent civilians and the burning of so many villages could be explained.  It was time the Government reflected on its explanations.  For instance, it was hard to believe that aircraft could be in the hands of anybody but the Government.  As for the military vehicles, they were used by the Defence Popular Forces and by militias trained by the government.

She also rejected an argument by one government official that anybody could buy (military) uniforms and hijack a (military) vehicle.  “I cannot conceive of this happening to that large a number and to that extent, and the government opening no inquiry into the misuse of, and carjacking of vehicles.  Clearly, these are government vehicles; clearly these were air force planes.  They were used by the Government, and the militias were used by the Government.”  There may have been some “floating” militias who could have taken advantage of the situation, but beyond that, the Government was completely and squarely responsible.  There could be no ambiguity about it.  It was crucial that the international community catalogue what had happened in Darfur since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Government and two rebel groups early last year.

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