SUDAN: UNITED NATIONS REPRESENTATIVE BACKS CONTROVERSIAL REPORT ON RAPE IN SUDAN AFTER SECOND AID WORKER ARRESTED ACCUSED OF SPYING

Record ID: 337904

  • Title: SUDAN: UNITED NATIONS REPRESENTATIVE BACKS CONTROVERSIAL REPORT ON RAPE IN SUDAN AFTER SECOND AID WORKER ARRESTED ACCUSED OF SPYING
  • Date: 1st June 2005
  • Summary: (EU) KHARTOUM, SUDAN (MAY 31, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO SUDAN JAN PRONK AT NEWS CONFERENCE 2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO SUDAN, JAN PRONK, SAYING: "What is in the MSF report is being backed and supported by me for a hundred percent. Secondly, MSF is the most important, essential, crucial NGO in Darfur. MSF Holland and all the other MSF have saved many lives of Sudanese people, Sudanese children, Sudanese people. What I thoroughly dislike is a smear campaign in Sudanese newspapers against people who have come here to save lives of Sudanese." 3. CAMERAMAN FILMING 4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) PRONK, SAYING: "But I only can say that I very much deplore that the leaders of MSF have been arrested." 5. UN SPOKESWOMAN RADHIA ACHORIA LISTENING 6. (SOUNDBITE)(English) PRONK, SAYING: "Women do not fabricate rape. If they are being assaulted, they very often do not dare say so and if they go to a doctor, they don't fabricate it. Believe the victims, don't believe the assaulters. And as far as Darfur is concerned, believe those people who have been attacked, since the beginning of 2003. Don't believe those who did attack." 7. JOURNALISTS LISTENING 2.02 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KHARTOUM, SUDAN
  • Country: Sudan
  • Reuters ID: LVA9XV0GFTUCAYEMD39GI44NP9C5
  • Story Text: U.N. special representative backs controversial
    report on rape in Sudan after second aid worker arrested,
    accused of spying.




    Sudan arrested a second aid worker from the Medecins
    Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid agency on Tuesday (May 31, 2005) over a
    report on hundreds of rapes in the troubled Darfur region,
    the agency said.

    Vince Hoedt, Darfur coordinator for MSF Holland, said
    he was under arrest and police were escorting him to
    Khartoum. It was not clear if he was charged with the same
    offences as the country director who was arrested and
    released on bail on Monday (May 30).

    MSF Holland country director Paul Foreman, who reported
    to the authorities on Tuesday, is charged with spying,
    publishing false reports and undermining Sudanese society,
    MSF said in a statement.

    The top U.N. envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, told reporters
    in Khartoum said he deplored the arrests and insisted that
    MSF was the most essential Non-Governmental Organisation
    (NGO) working in Darfur.

    "What is in the MSF report is being backed and
    supported by me for a hundred percent. Secondly, MSF is the
    most important, essential, crucial NGO in Darfur. MSF
    Holland and all the other MSF have saved many lives of
    Sudanese people, Sudanese children, Sudanese people. What I
    thoroughly dislike is a smear campaign in Sudanese
    newspapers against people who have come here to save lives
    of Sudanese," said Pronk.

    But he said he did not think the government was
    targeting aid agencies.

    "I only can say that I very much deplore that the
    leaders of MSF have been arrested," he said.

    Human Rights Watch said at least 20 aid workers have
    been arbitrarily arrested in Darfur over the past six
    months.

    "Women do not fabricate rape. If they are being assaulted, they
    very often do not dare say so and if they
    go to a doctor, they don't fabricate it. Believe the
    victims, don't believe the assaulters. And as far as Darfur
    is concerned, believe those people who have been attacked,
    since the beginning of 2003. Don't believe those who did
    attack," emphasised the Sudan envoy.

    The attorney-general told Reuters the maximum penalty
    for the charges was three years in prison followed by
    permanent expulsion from the country.

    MSF Holland published a report in March detailing about
    500 cases of rape over a period of 4 1/2 months in Darfur,
    where a rebellion has raged for more than two years.

    The violence has killed tens of thousands and forced
    more than two million from their homes.

    The report contained anonymous accounts by victims of
    their ordeals, including being held and raped repeatedly
    for several days, beaten and even arrested.

    Pregnancy out of wedlock is illegal in Sudan, where
    Islamic sharia law is in force.

    A U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found evidence
    of mass rape during the rebellion in Darfur. The documents
    are with the International Criminal Court, which has been
    instructed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate
    alleged crimes against humanity in the remote west of
    Sudan, the first such referral.

    U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour
    in Geneva called on Sudan to ensure human rights monitors
    and aid workers were permitted to work freely and without
    fear of retaliation."
    She said targeting aid workers would do a disservice to
    the people of Darfur and draw attention away from those she
    said were the the real criminals.


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