USA / FILE: Human Rights Watch urges the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions on Sudan if it fails to stop attacks on civilians in Darfur

As the United Nations and the African Union prepare to deploy a joint peacekeeping force in Darfur, a new Human Rights Watch report claims that the human rights situation in the region is worsening further and that the renewed violence is directly linked to the Sudanese government's continued support of militias. The 76-page report titled, "Darfur 2007: Chaos by Design - Peacekeeping Challenges for AMIS and UNAMID," uses recent case studies from across Darfur to illustrate how the proliferation of armed agents and the government's failure to strengthen the rule of law are contributing to the widespread human rights abuses in camps and elsewhere in the war-torn region. "The massive large scale suffering of the people of Darfur continues in 2007 because the government which is primarily responsible for having initiated this massive suffering, is still playing its game," said the Africa director of Human Rights Watch, Peter Takirambudde, from his New York office. Takirambudde explained that the situation in Darfur has evolved from an armed conflict between rebels and the government into a violent scramble for power and resources, involving government forces, Janjaweed militia, rebels and former rebels, and bandits. Further, he said that the rebels have splintered into myriad of groups fighting among themselves and that even former allies of the Sudanese government such as the Janjaweed have turned their guns against each other. Amidst all this in-fighting, Human Rights Watch says that the Sudanese government has undertaken indiscriminate aerial and ground attacks on civilians, encouraged Janjaweed attacks against civilians and failed to hold rights abusers accountable. In its report, the human rights watchdog puts forth various suggestions to the U.N. Security Council, to help improve the situation in Darfur. The agency recommends that the world body keep up intense pressure on Khartoum and that if the Sudanese government fails to help in the deployment of a new U.N.-A.U (UNAMID) hybrid force in the region, then serious sanctions should definitely be considered. Takirambudde said that the suggested sanctions include economic ones that could be fashioned in such a way as to target specific individuals and groups, rather than hurting the economy of the country as a whole. Takirambudde also emphasized that China could play a much larger role in pressuring the Sudanese government to bring an end to the violence in Darfur. He said China should be leveraging its trade partnership with Sudan to coerce the government into ceasing their support of militias. More than four years of ethnic and political conflict in Darfur has left 200,000 dead and driven another 2.5 million from their homes, according to international experts. Khartoum maintains that this is an exaggeration, and puts the death toll at 9,000.

ITN Source | September 20, 2007

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