A displaced Sudanese woman is seen outside her barrack at the Sakali Displaced Persons camp in Darfur A UN human rights team has accused Sudan's government of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur, and blocking international attempts to intervene. VOA's Peter Heinlein reports from UN headquarters in New York. The 35-page UN report charges the Khartoum government with direct involvement in planning and carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The team, led by Nobel peace prize laureate Jody Williams, says "killing of civilians remains widespread." It adds that, "Rape and sexual violence are widespread and systematic. Torture continues." The report was issued days after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir rejected an interim UN plan to bolster African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur. The rejection was contained in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It dashed hopes that blue-helmeted UN troops might soon be deployed in Darfur. At least 200,000 people have died in the vast region of western Sudan since war broke out more than four years ago. The United States has described the massacres in Darfur as genocide. UN human rights experts have declined to use that term to describe the killings, but the latest report urges the Security Council to take "urgent further action" to stop the violence. Britain's UN ambassador, Emyr Jones-Parry, Monday called President Bashir's letter a blow to plans for deploying a 22,000-strong UN force to replace the badly understaffed 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur. "I'm very disappointed by that letter," he said. "It's a major setback, and is tantamount to a request for renegotiation of some of the points in the heavy package."
Delegates face a giant screen prior to opening of 4th UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, 12 March 2007
The Security Council is expected to take up the Sudan issue later this week, with the United States and European Council members saying they favor sanctions against the Khartoum government. But veto-wielding Council members China and Russia have both expressed doubts about the wisdom of sanctions. The mission's report recommends that officials of Sudan's government be tried on war crimes charges, along with leaders of government-backed Arab militias, known as Janjaweed. The report says that some Darfur rebel forces are also guilty of serious human rights abuses. Mission leader Jody Williams was quoted by The Associated Press Monday as saying some rebels should probably be tried alongside Sudanese officials and Janjaweed leaders. The UN human rights mission was dispatched last December by the Geneva-based UN Rights Council, but was not granted access to Darfur. The Sudanese government has denied responsibility for the attacks mentioned in the mission's report, and blamed rebel groups that rejected a Darfur Peace Agreement signed last year in Nigeria. Sudanese officials Monday declined to comment on the report. They said any response would come Tuesday, when Sudan is scheduled to address the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. VOA News
Nyala in South Darfur.

A report from a United Nations Human Rights Council mission "concludes that the government of the Sudan has manifestly failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes, and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes." The mission urges the U.N. to take "urgent further action", for example by deploying the proposed U.N. and African Union peacekeeping forces, and co-operating with the International Criminal Court.

The report team, lead by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, further urges Sudan to stop targeting civilians. The report also says the government is allowing militias such as the Janjaweed to act with impunity, and that government forces are even operating jointly with the militia. The militias themselves and the armed rebel groups aren't spared either; they are accused of serious violations of human rights and international law.

During their month of work, the researchers didn't actually get into Sudan because they were not given visas, but they interviewed hundreds of relevant people (such as refugees), and reviewed thousands of pages from documents on the humanitarian situation in Darfur.

Fighting between rebel groups and government-backed militia in the Darfur region has killed an estimated 200,000 and displaced 2.5 million.
To summarise the situation, the 35-page documents says: "Today, millions are displaced, at least 200,000 are dead, and conflict and abuse are spilling over the border into Chad." The report says that humanitarian and human rights workers are increasingly being targeted, especially during the past six months. "Killing of civilians remains widespread, ... Rape and sexual violence are widespread and systematic. Torture continues." The experts think the conflict could destabilise the region.

The mission advises the U.N. General Assembly to "request the compilation of a list of foreign companies that have an adverse impact on the situation of human rights in Darfur." The U.N. agencies should then cease to do business with these companies.

Sudanese officials declined to respond to the report immediately, saying that the response will be made in Sudan's address to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday. Just days ago, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir rejected an interim U.N. plan to bolster African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur. Up to 24,000 troops were to replace the current 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in the western Sudan region.

The almost 4-year-old Darfur conflict is being fought between the Janjaweed militia (Arabic for "devils on horseback"; they are camel-herding Arabs) and a group of mostly land-tilling tribes. The Sudanese government in the past denied allegations against them, blaming the rebels who didn't sign the peace treaty of 2006. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has already summoned a junior minister of the Sudan, and a militia leader, to answer war crime charges. The government in Khartoum refused to extradite anyone, saying the people responsible would be tried in the Sudan itself.