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2-04-2005 The Scotsman Darfur slaughter on the increase By Gethin Chamberlain Chief News Correspondent A CEASEFIRE monitor who spent six months in Darfur has lifted the lid on the continuing slaughter of civilians by Sudanese government-backed militia - and warned that the death toll is set to rise dramatically. Captain Brian Steidle, a former US marine, described how African Union (AU) troops could only stand and watch as scenes of carnage unfolded in front of them. He said he had personally witnessed Sudanese government gunships strafing villages, setting them alight, and found the bodies of torture victims with ears cut off and eyes plucked out. And he warned that, with the security situation deteriorating and aid agencies unable to reach large parts of the region, the death toll from illness and disease - currently running at about 10,000 people a month - was likely to rise by as much as 50 per cent to 15,000 a month. Capt Steidle's account is the first eyewitness report from one of the ceasefire observers allowed into the country by the Sudanese government in an agreement forced on it after months of wrangling. It came as the UN Security Council finally approved a resolution to prosecute 51 Sudanese war crimes suspects before the International Criminal Court. The council moved after the United States dropped its threats to veto the resolution. The decision was welcomed by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, who said: "I have always made clear that the international community must be ready to take clear and decisive action to address both past and continuing actions contributing to the current situation in Darfur. "It is right that we should now see those responsible for atrocities indicted and tried before an international court." But according to Capt Steidle, the UN is dragging its feet instead of intervening to stop the killing, which has continued unabated since the security council started to pay attention to Darfur last year. He described how on his first day in south Darfur his team were called to a refugee camp where the government-backed Janjaweed militia had killed 10 people, and said that every day after that they would receive up to five reports of fresh attacks. Tipped off by rebel groups, they often arrived to find attacks in progress, he said. "There was evidence of torture, people with ears cut off, eyes plucked out. We would see the burning in progress and the helicopters were making their runs across the village," he said. Capt Steidle said he had seen the Sudanese government's Antonov planes make bombing runs over the villages. And he added his team had gathered evidence of a concerted campaign of rape waged against the women in the black African villages by the mainly Arab militias. "In every village we came to there were women who had been raped. They told us that the men who did it had said it was so that they would have a lighter-skinned child." Capt Steidle said AU missions were accompanied by representatives from the rebels and the Sudanese government. "They would each downplay what their role was," he said. "Most of the time the government officials didn't have much to say. They would make excuses and say that the helicopters hadn't fired, even though we would find shrapnel on the ground." He said they had filed dozens of reports on the incidents they witnessed, which were meant to be passed to donor governments involved in the mission, but he was not aware whether any of the reports had been received. According to Capt Steidle, the attacks are still continuing, placing the lives of many more people at risk. With many villages cleared and very few crops grown or harvested in the last year, malnutrition is a growing problem and the rainy season is again likely to increase disease. Yesterday the anti-genocide organisation Aegis Trust, which invited Capt Steidle to the UK, called for protection of civilians through a UN mandate for peace enforcement operations in the region.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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