Janjaweed rape and pillage continues despite UN warning

Published on Thursday 2 September 2004 01:19

ATTACKS against civilians continued throughout August despite a United Nations resolution calling on the government of Sudan to disarm the Janjaweed militia and bring its leaders to justice.

Last week the Washington office of Human Rights Watch told The Scotsman that it had evidence of a catalogue of incidents which had taken place after the UN resolution, including rapes, attacks on villages and the involvement of government troops.

Monitors from the African Union are investigating reports that Sudanese helicopter gunships bombed the village of Um Hashab last Thursday.

Dennis McNamara, a special adviser to the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator on Displacement, said on Monday that attacks were continuing, including multiple rapes by armed militia of Darfuri women and girls.

An attack by Sudanese forces on the village of Yassin in south Darfur on 26 August - one of the incidents highlighted in Kofi Annan’s report - was confirmed by African Union ceasefire monitors.

Mr Annan’s report refers to several attacks in the area of Yassin in the latter part of August, and suggests that more than 50 people were killed. It also says that some villages in the area were attacked as many as three or four times over the course of several days and had been completely looted and destroyed.

The UN report also highlighted militia activity in West Darfur, including the Nertiti area and the village of Masteri south west of El-Geneina. Refugees, who number about 30,000 in the area, told UN staff that they faced regular Janjaweed attacks and UN staff reported an increase in Janjaweed activity around the Sissi camp.

Sudanese police sent to Darfur to protect civilians have been accused of raping women in the camps. Mr Annan’s report says that reports of rape, sexual violence and exploitation remain a major concern. Eight aid workers went missing on Saturday afternoon after driving to Tongragra village, 53 miles south of El-Fasher, to register displaced people and assess conditions in the area.

UN workers launched a land and air search for the missing workers - three from the UN World Food Programme and five from the Sudanese Red Crescent - who disappeared in rebel-controlled territory. An aid worker was shot on Monday when a vehicle was targeted by a lone gunman despite being clearly marked as belonging to the ACT/Caritas agencies. The worker was part of a team delivering medical supplies to refugees in Mershing. The worker, who has not been named, is in a stable condition. Aid agencies have now been advised not to travel on the road until security checks can be conducted.