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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SUDAN: No improvement on human rights front, UN says

NAIROBI, 31 March 2003 (IRIN) - The human rights situation has not improved in either the north or rebel-held south of Sudan, according to Gerhart Baum, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Sudan.

"I have seen no fundamental change since my last visit, in spite of further commitments by the government," he told a briefing at the UN Human Rights Commission on Friday. "The country remains under the iron-tight grip of the omnipresent security apparatus, which continues to enjoy virtual impunity."

While some improvements had taken place as a result of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, he said they had been insufficient and human rights abuses had not actually decreased. The situation in the rebel-held south of the country also remained of concern, where virtually no guarantees were set for the respect of basic rights and fundamental freedoms, he added.

Of particular concern was the escalating rebellion and resulting conflict in Darfur, which affected 25 percent of the country's population, and which was not covered by the current peace agreement.

"The government's interpretation of the conflict as caused by armed groups engaged in robbery and its response to solve the Darfur issue by resorting to Special Courts, group trials, death sentences and cruel and inhumane punishment such as cross amputation, are totally inadequate and resulted in serious human rights abuses," he said.

Baum also mentioned a number of breaches of the ceasefire agreement in the oil-rich Western Upper Nile region, and confirmed that deliberate attacks had been conducted by government-allied militias against civilians in a number of areas close to planned government oil fields.

He said he had received reports of over 22 percent of the total population enrolled in primary schools in Unity State being forcibly recruited by government-allied militias, including children as young as nine years old.

Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim, Sudan's representative to the UN in Geneva, told the briefing that any assumption the militia groups operating in Western Upper Nile enjoyed government support or control was a "total denial of reality". He added that the Darfur conflict was the result of environmental degradation and desertification, causing a scarcity of pasture that pitted nomadic tribes against farming tribes.

Meanwhile, the US and British governments have issued travel warnings to their citizens entering Sudan because of the war in Iraq.

Themes: (IRIN) Human Rights

[ENDS]

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