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April 03, 2004

UN official says Arabs are waging a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in Sudan

According to the UN director responsible for relief efforts in Sudan, Jan Egeland (Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs), there is an active campaign of "ethnic cleansing" being undertaken in the Darfur region of Sudan.   Apparently, the atrocities are being committed by armed militias and government troops attacking black Sudanese.   Here is how Egeland described the situation in a press briefing on Friday:

Speaking to correspondents following his briefing to the Security Council, Mr. Egeland said there were daily reports of widespread atrocities and grave violations of human rights. Stopping those attacks was the number one priority. An organized, forced depopulation of entire areas was taking place, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Most of the relief efforts were targeting those displaced populations. Linked to that were limitations in access to the estimated 1 million people affected.

Most of the attacks, he said, had targeted civilian populations. Entire villages had been looted and burned down, and large numbers of civilians had been raped, tortured and killed. There weren’t even proper camps for the refugees and displaced. The attacks primarily targeted communities of black Africans.

Last month alone, he said, there were reports of 59 violent attacks with 212 civilians killed, of which 166 deaths were attributed to the Janjaweed, or troops associated with the Government. Forty-three killings were linked to rebel groups. “That was just the tip of the iceberg.” It was not possible to say just how many were killed due to lack of access.

You'd think it would be about time to spool up those black helicopters and send some of those blue helmet types in to the rescue, wouldn't you?   Perhaps Germany and France would view this human rights crisis as a an appropriate way for their countries to shoulder a fair share of world's peacekeeping duties.   (Don't hold you breath.)

Update

The current President of the UN Security Council (by strange coincidence Germany's Gunter Pleuger) had this to say about the situation in the Sudan:

The Security Council was briefed today on the humanitarian situation in the Darfur region of the Sudan by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland.

The members have expressed their deep concern about the massive humanitarian crisis.

Council members call on the parties concerned to fully cooperate in order to address the grave situation prevailing in this region, to ensure the protection of civilians, and to facilitate humanitarian access to the affected population.

Council members welcome the negotiations taking place in N’Djamena under the auspices of Chad and the African Union and with the support of the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, and call on the Government of the Sudan and opposition groups to conclude a humanitarian ceasefire and to reach a political settlement to the dispute.

That'll show those genocidal bastards!   I bet they are shivering in their boots right about now.

Posted by Spart at April 3, 2004 10:11 PM

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