SUDAN: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CONTINUE SAYS U.N. EXPERT
Genev, 29 Sept. (AKI) - Sudanese government forces, militias and armed groups such as rebel factions and opposition from neighbouring Chad are continuing to violate life in Sudan, particularly in the troubled western Darfur region, an independent United Nations rights expert has said. Discrimination and marginalisation of certain groups continued and basic rights such as access to food, shelter, health and education are not guaranteed, according to Sima Samar, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan.The right to life continued to be violated, in particular in Darfur, she said. The perpetrators were government forces, militia and armed groups such as rebel factions and Chadian opposition, while rape and sexual violence against women also continued, again especially in Darfur, Samar stated in a report delivered to the Human Rights Council, in session in Geneva from 18 September-6 October.In response, Sudanese representative Omar Dahab Mohamed said Sudan would continue to fully cooperate with Samar as well as with the numerous other Special Procedures and with all the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). However, he said Sudan wondered about the real motivation of states that were using international forums to put pressure on the country to affect negatively its fight against poverty. UN deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown has criticised "megaphone diplomacy" by the US and Britain in trying persuade Sudan to accept a United Nations force.The Sudanese government has rejected a call from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur , where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in three years of fighting. At least 350,000 people in North Darfur are cut off from any aid because of the intensified fighting there and at least another 100,000 people have fled their homes.The UN's chief envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, was quoted as saying on Thursday that he didn't expect Sudan to allow a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in the country in the near future. "The international community should instead pushed for the African Union's mission to be prolonged and reinforced," Pronk told the Associated Press news agency. Khartoum this month agreed to keep the 7,000 AU troops in the country until end-2006.Pronk claimed a peace agreement signed in May between the Sudanese government and rebels was "in a coma," which he said reflected the worsening humanitarian situation in the country. Both the government and rebels violated the cease-fire more than 70 times between May and August, and there were new violations in September after Khartoum launched a large-scale offensive in northern Darfur, Pronk said.
Genev, 29 Sept. (AKI) - Sudanese government forces, militias and armed groups such as rebel factions and opposition from neighbouring Chad are continuing to violate life in Sudan, particularly in the troubled western Darfur region, an independent United Nations rights expert has said. Discrimination and marginalisation of certain groups continued and basic rights such as access to food, shelter, health and education are not guaranteed, according to Sima Samar, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan.The right to life continued to be violated, in particular in Darfur, she said. The perpetrators were government forces, militia and armed groups such as rebel factions and Chadian opposition, while rape and sexual violence against women also continued, again especially in Darfur, Samar stated in a report delivered to the Human Rights Council, in session in Geneva from 18 September-6 October.In response, Sudanese representative Omar Dahab Mohamed said Sudan would continue to fully cooperate with Samar as well as with the numerous other Special Procedures and with all the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). However, he said Sudan wondered about the real motivation of states that were using international forums to put pressure on the country to affect negatively its fight against poverty. UN deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown has criticised "megaphone diplomacy" by the US and Britain in trying persuade Sudan to accept a United Nations force.The Sudanese government has rejected a call from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur , where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in three years of fighting. At least 350,000 people in North Darfur are cut off from any aid because of the intensified fighting there and at least another 100,000 people have fled their homes.The UN's chief envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, was quoted as saying on Thursday that he didn't expect Sudan to allow a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in the country in the near future. "The international community should instead pushed for the African Union's mission to be prolonged and reinforced," Pronk told the Associated Press news agency. Khartoum this month agreed to keep the 7,000 AU troops in the country until end-2006.Pronk claimed a peace agreement signed in May between the Sudanese government and rebels was "in a coma," which he said reflected the worsening humanitarian situation in the country. Both the government and rebels violated the cease-fire more than 70 times between May and August, and there were new violations in September after Khartoum launched a large-scale offensive in northern Darfur, Pronk said.
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