Sudan bombing Darfur civilians: Rights group

United Nations, Sept 7: A leading human rights group accused the Sudanese military of indiscriminately bombing villages in rebel-held regions of Darfur without regard for civilian lives.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday said witnesses in North Darfur reported that Sudanese military aircraft targeted general areas, which often destroyed people's homes.

Sudan has said it would send some 10,000 troops to Darfur, in the west of the country, to fight rebel groups that had not signed a peace agreement with the government in May.

''Government forces are bombing villages with blatant disregard for civilian lives,'' said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. ''A penalty for indiscriminate bombing in Darfur is U.N. Security Council sanctions, which should be imposed now.'' He said witnesses reported flight crews rolling bombs out the back ramps of Antonovs, a means of targeting practiced by government forces in their 21-year civil war with rebels in southern Sudan.

''This method is so inaccurate that it cannot strike at military targets without a substantial risk of harm to civilians,'' Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

''Deliberately attacking civilians is in all circumstances prohibited and a war crime,'' it added.

Among other casualties, Human Rights Watch said a woman was killed and seven children were wounded last week in Hassan, in North Darfur, when a bomb was dropped on her house.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government. In response, the government mobilized Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who have been accused of murder, rape and looting.

In the past few months, various rebel groups and bandits have committed similar atrocities. Fighting, disease and hunger have killed some 200,000 people and driven some 2.5 million into squalid camps.

Sudan has so far rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the creation of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. The United Nations wants its peacekeeping force to replace and absorb the African Union's 7,000-member contingent, whose mandate expires on September 30 and whose efforts have been hampered by a lack of funds and equipment.

It is unclear whether Sudan will allow the United Nations to give logistical, transportation and communications support to the African troops. Sudan said on Monday that African Union troops had to leave if they were put under UN control.

REUTERS

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