Amnesty warns war crimes continuing in Sudan’s Darfur

Sudanese security forces have continued to commit
“war crimes and other serious human rights violations” in the Darfur region,
Amnesty International said Tuesday, as the African country has been rocked by
political turmoil following the military’s ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in
April.
The rights organization said the abuses in Darfur at
the hands of Sudanese paramilitary units, the Rapid Support Forces, include the
destruction of entire villages, as well as “unlawful killings and sexual
violence.”
The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias
mobilized by al-Bashir during the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s. The
militias were widely accused of crimes against humanity, and al-Bashir — now
jailed in Khartoum — was indicted on charges of genocide.
RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, better
known as Hemedti, now serves as deputy head of the ruling military council. The
coup leaders are locked in a growingly violent confrontation with a protest
movement that is demanding they hand power over to a civilian leadership, now
that al-Bashir is gone.
A spokesman for the military council did not immediately
answer calls or return messages seeking comment.
“In Darfur, as in Khartoum, we’ve witnessed the
Rapid Support Forces’ despicable brutality against Sudanese civilians - the
only difference being, in Darfur they have committed atrocities with impunity
for years,” said Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of Amnesty International.
He urged that the U.N. and the AU “not turn their
backs on people in Darfur who rely on peacekeepers for protection.”
He warned that if the joint force, known as UNAMID,
is dismantled and the peacekeepers pull out of Darfur, this “would recklessly
and needlessly place tens of thousands of lives at risk by removing their only
safeguard against the government’s scorched earth campaign.”
The U.N. said Monday that Sudan’s military rulers
issued a decree demanding the mission in Darfur hand over its premises as part
of its withdrawal plan next year.
The U.N. is to vote at the end of the month about
the future of the already reduced force. The target for ending the mission is
June 30, 2020.
The Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that, based on
the peacekeeping mission’s own reports, the Rapid Support Forces now occupy
nine of 10 sites vacated by the U.N. force within the past eight months.
The Security Council “should halt all handovers, re-assess
downsizing plans, and refocus its attention on UNAMID’s core mandate to protect
civilians,” said Jehanne Henry, associate Africa director at HRW.
The New York-based group said the RSF violently
broke up the protesters’ main sit-in camp outside the military’s headquarters
in Khartoum on June 3.
Over 100 people were killed in the deadly crackdown
on the pro-reform movement in Khartoum and elsewhere across Sudan, according to
protest organizers. In response, the opposition started a general strike on
Sunday, the first day of the workweek in Sudan, in a renewed bid to pressure
the military council to hand over power to civilians.
The Forces for Declaration of Freedom and Change,
which represents the protesters, said Tuesday they decided to suspend their
general strike and campaign for civil disobedience until further notice. They
called on Sudanese to resume their work on Wednesday.
The military-run government did not appear to be
softening its position. The strike was successful in the first day, according
to protest leaders, but on Tuesday many shops and businesses reopened and there
was visibly more traffic in the streets of Khartoum and its sister city of
Omdurman.
Meanwhile, an Ethiopian envoy said negotiations
between the military council and the protest leaders would resume “soon.”
Mahmoud Dirir told a news conference in Khartoum on
Tuesday that all previous deals between both sides have been restored and that
the new talks would focus on the make-up of the disputed sovereign council.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been trying
to revive negotiations between the generals and the protest leaders and has
visited Khartoum.
The internet monitoring group NetBlocks said that
Sudan’s remaining internet connectivity was disconnected late Monday. Internet
had largely been cut off in the capital already.
The new disruption has downed Sudan Telecom’s Sudani
service, along with Canar Telecom and Mobiltel Zain. Mobile internet
connectivity has been largely offline since June 3, the group said.
Also on Tuesday, the Sudan Doctors Central Committee
said that RSF forces attacked a market the previous day in the town of Deleig
in central Darfur.
The medical group said it documented 11 deaths,
including nine which it blamed on the paramilitary force members.
It said the attack wounded at least 20 people.
The committee is the medical arm of the Sudanese
Professionals Association, which spearheaded protests against al-Bashir and is
now leading a campaign of civil disobedience against the military rulers.
The U.N. humanitarian agency said customs offices at
Port Sudan, the country’s main port, were open on Monday and resumed their
functions with limited capacities.
Also the U.N. humanitarian air services operated as
normal Monday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
said.