U.N. Official Calls Violence in Darfur 'Horrific'
Rebuke Follows Rights Council's Rejection of Measure Seeking Prosecutions by Sudan
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 30, 2006; Page A16
Atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan are occurring daily at a "horrific" level, the top U.N. human rights official said yesterday, adding that countries in the region were "in denial" about the situation.
The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, told a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that the Sudanese government and an allied militia called the Janjaweed were "responsible for the most serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."
Crisis in Darfur
More than 2 million civilians have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands have died in the Sudan conflict.
"The atrocities must stop," she said.
Arbour's rebuke came a day after the 47-member Human Rights Council rejected a resolution from European countries and Canada calling on Sudan to prosecute those responsible for the violence. The council instead adopted a resolution urging all parties involved in the conflict to "put an immediate end to the ongoing violations" with a special focus on "vulnerable groups."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901498.html
Hundreds killed, wounded in south Sudan clashes
30 Nov 2006 20:14:29 GMT
Source: Reuters
Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+]
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people may have been killed in the heaviest fighting between northern Sudanese forces and their former southern rebel foes since they signed a peace deal last year, a top southern officer said on Thursday.
In Nigeria's capital Abuja, the African Union decided to extend for six months the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Sudan's western Darfur region, where a separate conflict has killed an estimated 200,000 people since early 2003.
In the southern town of Malakal, terrified civilians reported looting and dead bodies in the streets after three days of clashes, and U.N. officials in New York said 240 civilian personnel had been temporarily evacuated from the town.
"More than hundreds have been lost. The Sudan army sustained very heavy casualties and civilians were caught in the crossfire," Elias Waya Nyipuocs, a senior officer in the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, told Reuters.
Nyipuocs said militias belonging to the northern Sudanese Armed Forces attacked the SPLA and the local commissioner of Malakal. The militiamen then took refuge in the SAF barracks near the airport and full combat began.
"We were forced to overrun the barracks and the SAF fought side by side with the militia against the SPLA," he said.
SAF tanks then counter-attacked and also shelled the town, inflicting many civilian casualties, Nyipuocs said.
A United Nations statement said fighting had subsided early on Thursday, but tension between armed groups in the town remained high and there was sporadic gunfire, looting of shops and violence against civilians.
It said U.N. staff had begun delivering medical aid to 300 to 400 civilians wounded during the fighting and would provide food, water and shelter materials to people who had fled.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the clashes "a serious violation" of the January 2005 agreement which ended Africa's longest civil war in south Sudan.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MCD055026.htm
Rebuke Follows Rights Council's Rejection of Measure Seeking Prosecutions by Sudan
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 30, 2006; Page A16
Atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan are occurring daily at a "horrific" level, the top U.N. human rights official said yesterday, adding that countries in the region were "in denial" about the situation.
The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, told a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that the Sudanese government and an allied militia called the Janjaweed were "responsible for the most serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."
Crisis in Darfur
More than 2 million civilians have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands have died in the Sudan conflict.
"The atrocities must stop," she said.
Arbour's rebuke came a day after the 47-member Human Rights Council rejected a resolution from European countries and Canada calling on Sudan to prosecute those responsible for the violence. The council instead adopted a resolution urging all parties involved in the conflict to "put an immediate end to the ongoing violations" with a special focus on "vulnerable groups."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901498.html
Hundreds killed, wounded in south Sudan clashes
30 Nov 2006 20:14:29 GMT
Source: Reuters
Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+]
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people may have been killed in the heaviest fighting between northern Sudanese forces and their former southern rebel foes since they signed a peace deal last year, a top southern officer said on Thursday.
In Nigeria's capital Abuja, the African Union decided to extend for six months the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Sudan's western Darfur region, where a separate conflict has killed an estimated 200,000 people since early 2003.
In the southern town of Malakal, terrified civilians reported looting and dead bodies in the streets after three days of clashes, and U.N. officials in New York said 240 civilian personnel had been temporarily evacuated from the town.
"More than hundreds have been lost. The Sudan army sustained very heavy casualties and civilians were caught in the crossfire," Elias Waya Nyipuocs, a senior officer in the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, told Reuters.
Nyipuocs said militias belonging to the northern Sudanese Armed Forces attacked the SPLA and the local commissioner of Malakal. The militiamen then took refuge in the SAF barracks near the airport and full combat began.
"We were forced to overrun the barracks and the SAF fought side by side with the militia against the SPLA," he said.
SAF tanks then counter-attacked and also shelled the town, inflicting many civilian casualties, Nyipuocs said.
A United Nations statement said fighting had subsided early on Thursday, but tension between armed groups in the town remained high and there was sporadic gunfire, looting of shops and violence against civilians.
It said U.N. staff had begun delivering medical aid to 300 to 400 civilians wounded during the fighting and would provide food, water and shelter materials to people who had fled.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the clashes "a serious violation" of the January 2005 agreement which ended Africa's longest civil war in south Sudan.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MCD055026.htm
Comments