Sudan: Atrocities, Impunity Threaten Lasting Peace

[struggle4progress]

New York, January 6, 2005 – Continuing atrocities in the western region of Darfur and impunity for war crimes in the south jeopardize prospects for peace in Sudan, Human Rights Watch warned today ahead of the January 9 signing of a peace agreement to end the 21-year conflict in the south. The final peace accords-known as the Naivasha Protocols for the Kenyan city where negotiations took place since June 2002-are scheduled to be signed in Nairobi by the Sudanese government and the main southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). The peace agreement lacks any provision for a truth commission, prosecutions or other forms of accountability for past abuses in the southern conflict.

"The peace agreement is an important step, but lasting peace in Sudan will require genuine security for civilians and justice for the atrocities committed both in Darfur and southern Sudan," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division. "Even as the Naivasha agreement is being celebrated in the South, people are being raped and burned out of their homes in Darfur. The Security Council must clearly send Sudan the message that there will be no impunity for crimes of this magnitude."

The Sudanese government and its Janjaweed militias-many of which have recently been incorporated into the army, police and other government forces-are responsible for a scorched-earth campaign of "ethnic cleansing," which since early 2003 has turned the previously self-sufficient agrarian and pastoral region into the site of one of the world's most serious humanitarian disasters.

Despite a ceasefire agreement in April between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups in Darfur, the past few months have seen a new surge in fighting. Continued attacks on civilians and aid workers have hampered relief operations to the more than 1.6 million people who have fled government and militia attacks on their villages since early 2003. <snip>

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/cb678b6732d7b8764f49c8b5179f1ab9.htm