Sudan: Darfur Atrocities Spill Into Chad

Sudan: Darfur Atrocities Spill Into Chad
Despite Ceasefire, Sudanese Troops and Militias Continue to Kill, Rape and
Loot

(New York, June 22, 2004) -- Backed by the Sudanese government, Janjaweed
militias are launching assaults across the border into Chad, attacking and looting
Chadian villagers as well as refugees from Darfur, Human Rights Watch said
today. Despite a ceasefire agreement in Darfur, government troops and Janjaweed
militias continue to commit atrocities in the western Sudanese region.

Human Rights Watch documented at least seven cross-border incursions into
Chad conducted by the Janjaweed militias since early June. The Janjaweed attack
villages in Chad and refugees from Darfur, and also steal cattle. The same Arab
and African ethnic groups live on both sides of border in Chad and Darfur.

Meanwhile, Chadians living near the border are organized into self-defense
groups to protect their families and livestock from Janjaweed raids. These self-
defense groups have reportedly clashed with the Janjaweed militia.

"The Sudanese government must take full responsibility for the militia raids into
Chad," said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The
Janjaweed is the government's militia, and Khartoum has armed and empowered
it to conduct 'ethnic cleansing' in Darfur."

On Saturday, June 19, Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir ordered the
disarmament of the Janjaweed. But a similar promise to "neutralize" the militia in
the April 8 ceasefire agreement with Darfur rebel groups came to nothing. In the
two months since the ceasefire, Sudanese government forces and Janjaweed
militias have continued to attack the civilian population in Darfur, adding to the
hundreds of villages they already destroyed and the 1 million persons they
forcibly displaced.

In North Darfur on June 3, the Janjaweed attacked eight villages in the Jebel Mun
area of West Darfur, and killed 13 villagers, all civilians, some of whom
attempted to resist the looting with guns. The Sudanese government then bombed
the area. In early June, Sudanese government aircraft also bombed locations in
Darfur near Chadian border towns, including Birak, resulting in an unknown
number of deaths. In late May, government forces had bombed the Darfur town of
Tabit, south of El Fashir, killing at least 12 people in the market.

Human Rights Watch also investigated the use of rape by both Janjaweed and
Sudanese soldiers against women from the three African ethnic groups targeted in
the "ethnic cleansing" campaign in Darfur. The rapes are often accompanied by
dehumanizing epithets, stressing the ethnic nature of the joint government-
Janjaweed campaign. The rapists use the terms "slaves" and "black slaves" to
refer to the women, who are mostly from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic
groups.

"Rape is a war crime. These women and girls have already been driven off their
land, and now they face horrendous sexual attacks," Rone said.

The conflict in Darfur is claiming new groups of victims-such as Chadians and
displaced women-even as the humanitarian crisis, impacting the 1 million
persons displaced by the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed, is entering its
most critical phase. Officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) have warned that without full humanitarian access, 350,000 displaced
civilians may die of hunger and disease in the coming months.

The Sudanese government has grudgingly granted limited humanitarian access,
but not enough to provide for sufficient pre-positioning of food for the hundreds
of thousands who will be cut off from relief soon. The rainy season that will flood
the dry river beds and prevent relief trucks from delivering food has already
begun.

Last week the Chadian government announced it might withdraw as mediator in
the Darfur talks, on account of the Janjaweed attacks on Chad. On Friday, June
18, Chadian President Idriss Déby's spokesman accused the Janjaweed of
inflaming ethnic tensions by exclusively recruiting Arabs in Chad. The
president's spokesman also charged that the Janjaweed are reviving the Chadian
anti-government rebel group, the Renewed National Front of Chad (Front
National du Tchad Rénové, or FNTR), which has been dormant since 2002.

In mid-May, Chad suffered a coup attempt, believed to have been organized by
some Chadian Zaghawa, who are unhappy with Déby's cooperation with the
Sudanese government in its war against Sudanese rebel Zaghawa in Darfur.

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