NIGERIA/SUDAN: United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour says human rights violations in Darfur worsening

Record ID: 236445

  • Title: NIGERIA/SUDAN: United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour says human rights violations in Darfur worsening
  • Date: 5th May 2006
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF HOTEL
  • Embargoed: 20th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4NTBIGEQGEUHU3UUT22EMWT73
  • Story Text: The Sudanese government and rebels from the Darfur region face a third deadline to make peace on Thursday (May 4) with uncertainty surrounding U.S. attempts to wrangle a few last-ditch concessions from both sides.
    The government of Sudan has accepted a peace plan on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing drafted by African Union (AU) mediators, but three Darfur rebel factions refuse to sign, citing objections to many provisions of the proposed deal.
    The AU has twice put back by 48 hours a deadline for an agreement to allow last-gasp diplomatic efforts which are now being led by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.
    Rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, an arid region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.
    Khartoum used militias, known as Janjaweed and drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people while a campaign of arson, looting and rape has driven more than 2 million from their homes into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
    Zoellick's team, along with Britain's International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, and a host of European Union and Canadian diplomats, shuttled between the government and the rebels in a small hotel on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital.
    The diplomats were due to present the results of the discussions to AU mediators who would then meet Nigerian Olusegun Obasanjo.
    He is trying to increase pressure on the parties, along with other African heads of state who are in Abuja for a separate conference.
    No details filtered out on what exactly the government may have agreed to give. The thrust of the U.S. proposal was that Khartoum should accept a detailed plan for rebel fighters to integrate the Sudanese armed forces, a key rebel demand.
    In exchange, a part of the draft deal that says Khartoum must disarm the Janjaweed before the rebels lay down their weapons would be amended to better suit the government.
    It is unclear whether the rebels could be persuaded to sign.
    They are split into two movements and three factions with complex internal politics and a history of infighting, making it hard for them to agree on any major decision. So far, they have insisted they were dissatisfied with many aspects of the draft.
    For example, they want a post of Sudanese vice-president, a new regional government, greater representation in both national and local institutions, and individual compensation for victims of war. Mediators say they have been inflexible on these points.
    The hotel where the talks were taking place was abuzz with claims and counterclaims as delegates engaged in last-minute posturing. A rumour circulated that there would be a new extension to the talks but the AU categorically denied it.
    Peace talks have dragged on for two years in the Nigerian capital Abuja while violence has escalated in Darfur to the point that aid workers cannot reach thousands of refugees.
    After touring Darfur region, Louise Arbour, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told Reuters in Khartoum on Thursday (May 4) that sexual violence against women in Darfur is worsening amid a general deterioration in security and human rights in Sudan's vast west.
    "Well, frankly I was very disappointed. I had expected to see considerable progress and in fact I found the situation in Darfur worse than it was a year and half ago. I think it's worst on the level of humanitarian assistance that is available to IDP's. I visited three IDP camps both in south and west Darfur. Again I found that west Darfur is more severely affected, but in all places the level of humantarian assistance is declining and the Sudanese legislation dealing with NGOs, those who deliver the humanitarian assistance, I think is very severely starting to curtail their ability to deliver the services. In addition to that there is a very strong presence of the kind of state security machinery, but not a lot of presence of civilian police to protect the population. So what you see is a lot of state security but not a lot of human security," Arbour said.
    Arbour said the presence of government security forces in the camps had created an "atmosphere of fear and distrust".
    She said sexual attacks against women were carried out by men riding horses and camels when women left camps for firewood.
    Arbour said: "I have to say once again that I am absolutely pursuaded there is been no progress. In fact if anything a deterioration in the level of sexual violence that women experienced when they have to leave the camps, which they have to, to collect the grass and firewood and so nobody out there to protect them. In fact they are regularly assaulted and raped and they are unwillingly to disclose that to anybody but quietly on the presence of other woman they speak very openly about what happened to them."
    Arbour visited Nyala and el-Geneina in Darfur during her two-day visit, speaking to local officials and non-governmental organisations.
    It was her first trip to Darfur since September 2004 and came as negotiators struggled to persuade the Sudanese government and rebels to accept a peace deal to end the fighting that has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
    WFP said it will cut food rations for more than 6 million people in Sudan, half of them in Darfur, due to a severe lack of funds.
    The U.N. World Food Programme said last week many donor countries appeared to have tired of the conflict in Darfur, which has killed tens of thousands and driven more than 2 million from their homes since it erupted in 2003.
    The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) aims to feed 2.7 million people out of an estimated Darfur population of 6.5 million between July and September, during the height of the hunger season, when even those who managed to get a harvest last year are running out of food.
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