Security Council Should Order Urgent Inquiry Into Threat of Genocide in Darfur

NEW YORK, June 11, 2004 - The United Nations Security Council should mandate an international commission of inquiry to examine the massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law that threaten more than a million people in western Sudan's Darfur region with genocide.

The work of a U.N.-mandated commission would be an essential first step toward investigation and prosecution of individuals responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan - and could put a brake on abuses while opening the way to the safe delivery of humanitarian relief.

Commissions of experts to investigate violations in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda were essential steps toward prosecutions for the most serious crimes there.

Since mid-2003, massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law have been reported in Darfur. Allegations include mass killings of civilians, rape and other serious forms of sexual violence, burning of villages, and forced displacement. As a result of this situation an estimated one million people have fled their homes and more than 150,000 have crossed the border to seek refuge in neighboring Chad.

On May 7, 2004, the Acting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, briefed the Security Council on the situation in Darfur. He issued a report identifying "patterns of massive human rights violations ... perpetrated by the Government of Sudan and its proxy militia, many of which may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity." The report also found that rebel forces "appear to have violated human rights and humanitarian law."

Acting High Commissioner Ramcharan additionally reported that a "climate of impunity" prevails in Darfur and that the failure to re-establish the rule of law has allowed the Sudanese government's proxy militia to perpetuate a "reign of terror" and continue to attack civilians, particularly those who fled their homes and are now crowded into camps for internally displaced persons.

Among the Acting High Commissioner's recommendations to the Security Council was the creation of an international commission of inquiry.

The creation of an international commission can be a first step toward establishing accountability in the region. The commission should be tasked over the next two months with examining violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur and making recommendations regarding the investigation and prosecution of the serious crimes committed. The government of Sudan should facilitate without delay full and unimpeded access by the international commission and other international human rights monitors to all parts of Darfur.

On May 8, 2004, the President of Sudan, Omer al-Bashir, issued a decree establishing a national commission to investigate violations in Darfur. An official Sudanese commission empowered to operate impartially and independently and to make public its findings would be welcome, but is no substitute for an independent international commission.

The current conflict in Darfur - rooted in long term disputes over resources between farmers and herders - grew out of opposition to the Sudanese government by two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which primarily draw their support from the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The stated political aim of the SLA and the JEM has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of non-Arabs in Darfur.

The Sudanese government's regular armed forces and a government-sponsored militia known as the Janjaweed - largely composed of fighters of Arab background - have targeted civilian populations suspected of supporting the rebels. Attacks on civilians by Sudanese government forces have reportedly continued despite a ceasefire agreement that was to come into effect on April 11, 2004. An alert regarding the threat of genocide in Darfur, issued on April 7, 2004 by the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, also remains in effect.

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