Impunity and indifference leads to "dramatic deterrioration" in Darfur
Hundreds of thousands are estimated to have died and further hundreds of
thousands have been displaced from their homes, but the international
community has failed to act decisively to end the violence in the Darfur
region of Sudan. While the United Nations Security Council has issued a
series of toothless resolutions, the Government of Sudan has not faced
the necessary pressure to end the impunity that characterises the Darfur
situation. In fact, the Government of Sudan (GoS) response has been to
establish a 'Special Criminal Court for Events in Darfur' which has
heard, amongst 160 other cases, a case related to an alleged theft of
sheep but no cases related to a violation of the rules of war, writes
Adwoa Kufour from the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT).
A preliminary analysis of events in Darfur over the last six months
reveals a status quo of violence and a climate of lawlessness and
insecurity. The current situation in Darfur is one of widespread gross
violations of human rights perpetrated against the civilian population
with impunity by the Government of Sudan (GoS) forces, marauding armed
militias and government proxy militias. The majority of the victims are
the most vulnerable - internally displaced persons (IDPs), women and
children.
The humanitarian situation in Darfur is well documented. An estimated
200,000 people have died, 213,000 are refugees in 11 camps throughout
the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti, Biltine and Ouaddai regions of Chad, and a
further two million people have been displaced out of a population that
before the full breakout of hostilities stood at six million. Among the
displaced, living in camps which have sprung out all over the region,
daily lives continue to be blighted with attacks, insecurity and fear.
Food insecurity in the region has resulted in a marked increase in
banditry and robbery as armed groups search for food. Among the most
affected have been women and children. Despite government denials, armed
militias, and government security forces continue to subject young girls
as young as twelve to beatings, abductions, rape and sexual violence. In
September alone, whilst the warring factions were in Abuja, the Nigerian
capital, negotiating a peace agreement, tens of women including a mother
and daughter were beaten and raped by armed militias, reportedly the
Janjaweed outside the peripherals of Kalma IDP Camp, Southern Darfur
State. In the same month, ten other women were abducted by armed
militias from Kalma; the whereabouts of the women remains unknown (Sudan
Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), Human Rights Alert:19 September
2005 'Darfur: Abduction and Rape in Nyala').
Even as attacks on civilians have continued uninterrupted albeit without
the aid of government air forces, the international community have taken
little substantive action to resolve the situation and thus alleviate
the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the region. The rhetoric from
United Nations bodies including the Security Council has been one of
condemnation and outrage; however rhetoric has failed to translate into
action with the exception of the African Union (AU).
The AU has had a presence in the region since June 2004 and must be
commended for its determination to fully implement the relevant
principles stipulated in its Constitutive Act. The organisation, through
the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), has sought dogmatically to
bring the warring factions to a durable and enforceable peace agreement
and have consistently condemned violations committed by all parties to
the conflict. This consistency and its readiness to denounce gross human
rights abuses have - in the last month - led to a rapid deterioration in
the relationship between the organisation and the GoS.
Notwithstanding its fraught relationship with the government, violence
has notably decreased in the areas where they have been deployed,
including outside major IDP camps across the region. However, AMIS
ability and capability to undertake their role is riddled with
weaknesses. The numbers of AU troops operating in the region remain
hopelessly inadequate, despite pledges from international donors in May
2005 to increase AU funding in order to allow it to increase its troops
to 7,700 by end of September. At point of writing, there were 4,100 AU
troops in Darfur, a region the size of France. Besides the obvious
financial constraints, AMIS logistical capabilities are also dismally
weak. It lacks physical resources including planes, weapons and
communication equipment. Attempts are being made by both the European
Union (EU) and NATO to provide it with logistical support but a
demonstrable improvement has yet to be seen. Most significantly, despite
calls by international organisations for AMIS mandate to be expanded to
include the protection of civilians in the region, particularly IDPs
and, where possible, to disarm the militias, its mandate continues to be
inherently weak and based primarily on reactive principles and
protection of their troops as opposed to the civilian population in
Darfur.
Nonetheless, whilst AMIS was poorly conceived, planned, and deployed, it
has had some success in monitoring and curbing serious abuses during the
year even within it's a limited mandate (SOAT Annual Report on the Human
Rights Situation in Sudan March 2004 - March 2005). The same cannot be
said about the international community. Despite passing five United
Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) threatening sanctions, and
referring crimes committed in Darfur to the International Criminal Court
(ICC), both of which the GoS rejected, the UNSC have been ineffective
not least in their failure to enforce their own resolutions but in their
silence in the face of the GoS continuing violations of the April
Ceasefire Agreement. This failure has not only served to embolden the
various government proxy militias in the region, further contributing to
the climate of impunity which permeates all branches of the Sudanese
government, but has highlighted the incapability of the international
community to 'maintain international peace and security'. Most
disturbingly, this apparent disinterest on the part of UN Security
Council members has meant that the sustained pressure and international
attention that ought to be placed on Khartoum to resolve the conflict
and to mobilise help and support for the citizens of Darfur has not
materialised - notwithstanding the reality that the GoS only acts when
it is forced to.
Whilst the 'international community' have throughout the conflict
prevaricated and transmitted a variety of mixed messages, the GoS has
remained steadfast in executing its war strategy in the region even
while espousing its readiness to reach a sustainable peace agreement
with the rebel opposition groups and to disarm the various militia
groups operating in the region. Not only have attempts to reach
sustainable peace in the region remained elusive; the GoS has been
unwilling to disarm the armed militias terrorising the region, and has
in many cases continued it provide support for these groups. This has
further fuelled the culture of impunity woven into the fabric of the GoS
and its security apparatus.
Security forces have persisted in attacks on the civilian population,
including the already vulnerable IDP population in the knowledge that
they will neither be held accountable by the GoS or the various UN
bodies. In June, a week after the prosecutor of the ICC, Luis
Moreno-Ocampo launched his investigation into crimes committed in
Darfur, the GoS established a 'Special Criminal Court for Events in
Darfur' to hear cases of 160 people accused of committing crimes in the
states of North, West and South Darfur. Since June, the courts have
heard four cases in which four persons including a 72 year old man and
an 11 year old boy have been found guilty of armed robbery and two army
officers have been found guilty of murdering a man arrested and detained
in military custody on suspicion of supporting the Sudan Liberation Army
(SLA), the main opposition group in Darfur and the first to take up arms
against the government in Khartoum for what they perceived to be a long
history of discrimination. The court has also heard the case of an
alleged theft of sheep.
Despite the fact that all the cases heard by the courts so far are
offences under the Sudanese Penal Code and arguably do not amount to
violations of the rules of war, the GoS has refused to acknowledge that
Sudanese courts cannot play the central role in bringing perpetrators of
crimes against humanity and war crimes to justice. In the area of
administration of justice in Sudan, widespread corruption and lack of
training for members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches
on international human rights standards and jurisprudence has ensured
that the justice system does not have the capability or the will to deal
with complex war atrocities including the wanton destruction of
villages, systematic and widespread killings and rape as a tool of war.
Moreover, the Sudanese judicial system is neither independent, with many
unqualified judges who were appointed solely on the basis of their
affiliation to the GoS, nor impartial and is characterised by a culture
of intimidation (SOAT, Human Rights Alert: 17 March 2005 'Attempted Rape
and Killing of IDP from Kalma Camp', SOAT Annual Report on the Human
Rights Situation in Sudan March 2004 - March 2005). In order to erode
the culture of impunity that has taken root in the Sudan and to deter
further atrocities against civilians not only in Darfur but across the
Sudan, the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity must
be brought before the ICC for reasons of accountability and in the
interest of justice.
The climate of impunity coupled with the complete indifference to the
situation of the civilian population in Darfur by the international
community has manifested itself in a dramatic deterioration in the
security and humanitarian situation in the last two months. Fighting
between government forces, armed militias, rebel groups and renewed
attacks on civilians has further entrenched the widespread distrust of
all parties in the region. The IDP population has continued to increase
dramatically, placing strain on the already stretched humanitarian
effort and laying the basis for a cycle of dependence on humanitarian
aid. Few of the civilian population in the region believe or wish to
return to their original villages even if there was to be a conclusive
and comprehensive peace agreement.
There are immediate measures that the GoS is capable of undertaking to
alleviate the plight of the civilian population in Darfur. These include
but are not limited to a cessation in all attacks by government forces
on civilians; waiving the immunity of its security officers who commit
gross violations of human rights; committing itself to the voluntary
return of IDPs to their original lands; cooperating fully with AMIS;
cooperating with the ICC investigation into Darfur and; implementing its
commitments under the much maligned N'djamena ceasefire agreement,
particularly to allow unhindered access throughout the region for
humanitarian workers. However the GoS will only be compelled to embark
on these measures if there is extreme pressure placed on it by the
international community.