SUDAN:
Darfur's Misery Far from Over, Watchdog Groups Say
Zach Rosenberg
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (IPS) - Details of the abuse of civilians in Darfur and southern Sudan, and reports of human rights violations committed by government officials, are emerging on the eve of a major conference in Moscow where NGOs, governments and intergovernmental organisations will discuss the overall situation in Sudan.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Wednesday condemning a fresh round of human rights abuses in Sudan.
The report, "The Way Forward", the 55th report released by HRW on Sudan, details what the group calls "a complex inter-locking mosaic in which the common factor is the repressive practices of the NCP (National Congress Party)-led government".
"Rather than building trust between interest groups inside Sudan in this critical period," said the report, "[The NCP government] continues to repress political opposition, stifle the free flow of information, and commit human rights violations and indiscriminate attacks against civilians."
The report lists specific instances of attacks on civilians in the Darfur region of western Sudan, failure to protect civilians during inter-tribal conflict in southern Sudan, and the arbitrary arrests and detentions of prominent civil society figures in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
"The report was aimed at all of those [gathering for] the Moscow conference. What we wanted to do was lay out the situation on the ground in Sudan and the choices that the policymakers could make at this time," said Georgette Gagnon, the Africa director at HRW.
"In our view, the policymakers seem to think that the situation in Darfur is either getting better or not really getting worse, and the fact is that we've documented, very clearly, that every day there are new abuses, and the situation is not getting better by any stretch," she said.
Some of the cases recorded by HRW occurred after the commander of the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) claimed in August that the conflict in Darfur is "over".
The Moscow conference, hosted by Russian Special Envoy for Sudan Mikhail Margelov, began Tuesday.
Conference participants include representatives from the United Nations, African Union, European Union, Arab League, Netherlands, Sweden, United States, China and Sudan, as well as prominent NGOs.
U.S. officials have come under fire for changing rhetoric towards Khartoum. Retired U.S. Air Force Major General J. Scott Gration, the new U.S. special envoy to Sudan, has come under blistering criticism for taking what is perceived to be a softer stance towards Khartoum by proposing a normalisation of diplomatic relations.
The Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council will be meeting soon to decide the fate of U.N. Resolution 1591, which imposed sanctions against Sudan. The committee is expected to release a comprehensive report, including details of further abuses by the Sudanese government, in the coming weeks.
Though much of the international community has condemned abuses by the Sudanese government, China – a veto-wielding member of the Security Council - has until recently been absent from the discussion.
China has strong economic ties with the Sudanese government and has been reported to sell them weapons.
The government of Sudan, infamous for its brutality and exploitation of ethnic and tribal tensions against its numerous perceived domestic enemies, has long been a key focus of NGOs and human rights activists.
Attacks by the Sudanese military and government-backed Janjaweed militia against local tribes in Darfur have received worldwide condemnation.
The attacks, which some human rights groups and the previous George W. Bush administration referred to as "genocide", are characterised by massacres, rapes and looting against civilians.
The atrocities recorded in Darfur have led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sudan's long-ruling president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of crimes against humanity.
Activists and NGOs also condemn the Sudanese government for their actions during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which began in southern Sudan in 1983, killing at least 1.9 million Sudanese.
The war ended with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which Khartoum is accused of repeatedly violating.
Also at issue is the success or failure of the nationwide elections, currently scheduled to take place in April, and the 2011 South Sudan referendum on self-governance.
"The abuses we document around the lack of political space, freedom of expression, freedom of expression, civil society and political opposition certainly will undermine any sort of free and fair or credible election," said Gagnon.
The Sudanese government and groups in southern Sudan are engaged in a major arms race in anticipation of pre-election violence, according to the Geneva-based NGO Small Arms Watch.
The Ukrainian ship MV Faina, seized by Somali pirates last September, contained Soviet-era T-72 tanks. Jane's Defense Weekly published satellite pictures of the tanks after being offloaded in Kenya, reportedly destined for southern Sudan.
Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman Moawya Othman Khaled fired back at HRW's condemnations, describing the New York-based human rights group as a "shadowy organization with a suspicious agenda", according to a Bloomberg report.
(END/2009)
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