UN rights chief calls on Sudan to end ‘impunity’
GENEVA: The UN human rights chief yesterday called on Sudan to end a “climate of impunity” and curb the abusive and unchecked powers of security forces.
In a second report on Sudan, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said efforts to improve respect for human rights since a January 2005 peace agreement had not matched expectations.
While the government had taken steps, including adopting international rights treaties, these had not led to improvements on the ground.
“Commitments on paper did not adequately permeate the day-to-day lives of people in Sudan,” the report said. “People’s ... rights have been regularly threatened and violated.”
The peace deal with southern rebels ended a 20-year civil war in Africa’s largest country.
But fighting continues between rebels, the army and government-backed militias in Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur, where more than 2mn people have been driven from their homes and tens of thousands have died.
The UN report, which covered the period June-November 2005, said people in Darfur suffered from widespread abuse and an ineffectual judicial system, as well as the armed conflict.
It referred to numerous attacks on civilians by government forces and armed militias, who “killed, raped, attacked and looted”.
Attempts in Darfur to investigate abuse and bring those responsible to account had proven “highly insufficient”.
The government had shown “an inability or unwillingness to prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law,” it said.
As a result, Khartoum should reconsider its opposition to working with the International Criminal Court to put on trial those accused of abuses since the start of the Darfur conflict.
Long-simmering tension over scarce land between local tribes erupted into fighting in 2003 when rebels took up arms accusing Khartoum of backing Arab herdsmen.
Citing the testimony of victims and witnesses, along with government officials, the report noted allegations of torture against the National Security Service, military intelligence and police officials in Khartoum.
“Throughout the country a culture of impunity persisted and detainees were denied their basic fair trial guarantees and often detained in inhuman and degrading conditions,” it said.
It urged the government to reform the judicial system by giving it more money and staff, to revoke all immunity laws protecting state officials and carry out pledges to curb the actions of the security forces. – Reuters
- Database Search
- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
- In Depth For more specific information about the Lundin court case please visit the Unpaid Debt dossier.
