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U.N. Blames Sudan for Civilian Atrocities ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press August 8, 2004 GENEVA - A top U.N. human rights investigator Friday released a scathing report that blames the Sudanese government for atrocities against its civilians in the Darfur region and says "millions of civilians" could die. "It is beyond doubt that the Government of the Sudan is responsible for extrajudicial and summary executions of large numbers of people over the last several months in the Darfur region, as well as in the Shilook Kingdom in Upper Nile State," said Asma Jahangir, the U.N. investigator on executions, in a report based on a 13-day visit to the region in June.
"The current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Darfur, for which the government is largely responsible, has put millions of civilians at risk, and it is very likely that many will die in the months to come as a result of starvation and disease," said Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer. Jahangir said there was "overwhelming evidence" that the killing was carried out "in a coordinated manner by the armed forces of the government and government-backed militias. They appear to be carried out in a systematic manner." The scale of violations means they "could constitute crimes against humanity for which the government of the Sudan must bear responsibility," she said in the 26-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. SEE} U.N. Laws compared with commands from the Koran A leading U.S. lawmaker toured camps in eastern Chad holding hundreds of thousands of refugees and said he would investigate the relationship between the Sudan government and the militias. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also said the threat of U.N. sanctions against Sudan was not enough to end the violence. The Tennessee Republican said he planned to talk with other U.S. lawmakers about remedying that, but he did not elaborate. The U.S. Congress has labeled the atrocities genocide. The United Nations has described the conflict in Darfur, which began with a rebellion early last year, as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Last week the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution giving Sudan 30 days to curb the pro-government Arab militias blamed for the violence in Darfur or face diplomatic and economic penalties. [why 30 days? Why not immediately?] The militias, called the Janjaweed [Muslims], have been blamed for violence that has killed 30,000 people, forced a million from their homes and left an estimated 2.2 million in urgent need of relief aid. The Sudan government has been supporting them, because the Sudan government is an Islamic one. [They, like other Islamic governments such as Saudi Arabia and Iran do not defend the rights of any religion that is not an Islamic one] "I remain seriously concerned at the very slow and negligent reaction of the government toward the situation unfolding in Darfur," Jahangir said. "Such a reaction despite the huge international outcry would appear to indicate either complete disrespect for the right to life of the population of Darfur, or, at worst, complicity in the events." She said all attacks against the civilian population must stop and that the government must disarm all militias. [What are they going to listen to? ...to what "she says"? or to what the Koran says? SEE} Out of the mouth of 'allah' The government also must assure that aid workers have complete access to people in need, Jahangir said. The African Union worked Friday to boost the number of troops it plans to send to the region, asking Rwanda to increase its contribution from about 150 soldiers to nearly 1,000. The AU said last month it would send 300 soldiers to Darfur to protect its monitors. But Wednesday it announced plans to increase the number of soldiers to as many as 1,800. In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the Sudanese government and the United Nations would sign an agreement Monday outlining steps Sudan must take this month to start disarming the militias and other outlawed groups and to improve security in western Darfur. He said the agreement reached Wednesday night by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and U.N. special representative Jan Pronk "has now been finalized by the Sudanese government." A copy of the agreement was given to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan who was expected to send it to the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council. It was not made public. "A formal copy will be signed by Mr. Pronk and the foreign minister and officially issued on Monday," Eckhard said. But it wasn't clear whether the Sudanese Cabinet had officially approved the agreement. Officials in Khartoum said the Cabinet was expected to discuss the agreement during a meeting on Sunday. Ismail said Thursday in Khartoum that foreign military intervention to end the Darfur crisis was unlikely. He said the government "will do our best" to meet Security Council demands to end the region's violence although he called the resolution "unfair." [an agreement outlining steps Sudan must take this month to start disarming the militias [Muslims]. Why is this unfair?] His comments followed a mass state-organized protest on Wednesday to condemn the U.N. resolution. John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday the clock was ticking for Sudan and it must show by the end of the month that it is making "a good faith effort" to comply with the council resolution. Jahangir said the government was sponsoring militias to fight the rebels "and, more distressingly, to terrorize and kill civilians suspected of supporting the rebels." She said she had met a large number of people who "had a strong perception" that the government "was pursuing a policy of 'Arabization'" of the country, especially the Darfur region. "Allegedly, those of Arab descent seek to portray themselves as 'pure' Muslims as opposed to Muslims of African ethnicity," she said. Other media says different. One example is a report by the Boston Globe posted on March 18, at FrontPage Magazine.com:
For the past 20 years, the regime in Khartoum has bombed, starved, and enslaved black Southern Sudanese with impunity in an effort to subject them to Islamic rule. As a result, over two million black non-Muslims have perished. A further five million have been driven off their land. ...The U.S. government declared Sudan to be a terrorist state. It sponsored strong resolutions at the UN Commission for Human Rights condemning Khartoum for slavery and a host of other crimes. Strict U.S. economic sanctions were imposed. France and Germany led the EU in the opposite direction. France provided Khartoum with military intelligence for the prosecution of the jihad, while French and German helicopters have been used for ethnic cleansing in southern Sudan's oil fields. Driving black, non-Muslims out of their homes creates greater security for the investments of oil firms like Total Fina (France/Belgium) and the German engineering giant Mannesmann.
Jahangir said she had "credible information" that members of the armed forces, the volunteer Popular Defense Force and government-sponsored militias "had in recent months attacked villages and summarily executed civilians, looted homes and forcibly displaced the inhabitants." There were reports of widespread rape...and chaining people together -- just to set them on fire. "The most often heard report was of villages being surrounded by military vehicles accompanied by Arab militia riding horses. The local population was plundered, looted, tortured, raped and often shot at in a random manner; however, adult men seemed often to be specifically targeted. "Before leaving, the Arab militia would burn down the villages. In some cases, helicopters or Antonov airplanes were used to bomb or attack the villages or to provide cover for ground operations, including operations carried out by Arab militia." She said the government "appeared oblivious to the dramatic and disastrous proportions and the magnitude" of the crisis. "The persistent denial of the current humanitarian disaster in Darfur by most government officials was shocking, Jahangir said. The denial of most Muslims...is GREAT!
As for the companies who would help Islam to spread at any cost [but their own] for financial gain, they're guilty of mass genocide.
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