Written Statement - Item 12 (a) of the provisional agenda

Violence against women in Sudan

One year after a comprehensive peace agreement put an end to 21 years of genocide in southern Sudan, millions of Sudanese women still live in fear of violence and massive human rights violations. The ruling National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army agreed to protocols on wealth and power sharing in January 2005. It was hoped that the agreement would provide a framework for ending the crisis in Darfur. But one year after the agreement was signed, women in southern Sudan complain that concrete gains have not be seen. Women in the south still lack food and water, despite pledges made by donors last year to provide $ 4.5bn. However, some 500.000 southern Sudanese Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) are expected to return home in 2006. 25% of the children in the south die before they reach the age of five. There are only a few schools and only one doctor for every 100.000 people. Some of those women, who returned to their homes after having spent years as IDPs in northern Sudan, have since moved to the capital, Khartoum, because they saw no hope for reconstruction and peace in the South.

Escalation of violence in Darfur

In the meantime the Darfur region has lapsed into anarchy. Chaos is looming as violence increases and order collapses. 2.3 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. For three years civilians in Darfur have endured a vicious campaign of violence and terror which has led to huge numbers of deaths and forced more than1.6 million people to flee from their destroyed villages in search of safety. The government of Sudan and their Janjaweed militias have systematically attacked the civilian population and endangered their survival by destroying property, livestock, communities, families, and driving victims into a terrain where they are unable to themselves and obtain humanitarian care. Darfur continues to disintegrate into a horror zone of battle grounds, where mass rapes and "ethnic cleansing” traumatise and annihilate the local population, warned the U.N. in November 2005. Over 27 months after their escape from their villages and after countless promises from the Government of Sudan and world leaders, safety still has not been established. Abuses and killings do not cease and of the goals of "ethnic cleansing” has nearly been achieved. On 19 December 2005, Janjaweed militias attacked the village Abu Surooj (western Darfur) killing 12 innocent civilians. "Large-scale attacks against civilians continue, women and girls are being raped by armed groups, yet more villages are being burned, and thousands more are being driven from their homes”, declared the U.N. in a report published on 31 December 2005. "Civilians continue to pay an intolerably high price as a result of recurrent fighting by warrying parties, the renewal of scorched earth tactics by militia and massive military action by the government”, the report said. Tens of thousands of civilians were forced from their homes in November 2005 alone.

Rape as a weapon of war

During their flight the IDPs were pursued, harassed and violated. There is no refuge or safe haven for them. Their persecutors have followed them and continue to harass them in the refugee camps. Hundreds of women and girls have been raped around these camps. During the month of October 2005, the U.N. registered an upsurge of rapes. Rape is a symbol of the government’s failure to ensure security. A report that was published in March 2005 by the humanitarian organisation "Doctors without Borders” documented 500 cases of rape over a four-month period. Senior aid workers were arrested for publishing false reports, undermining state security and spying. Due to massive international pressure the charges were eventually dropped, but the government of Sudan still denies the assertion. In June 2005, Western diplomats and U.N. representatives gathered with aid workers in Kalma, Darfur’s largest IDP camp, to discuss the government’s failure to prevent rapes. Even as Sudanese officials contested claims of sexual violence, women were raped during the meeting near the Kalma camp.

No effective protection of civilians across Darfur

The IDPs continue to be persecuted and intimidated. The failure to stop the violence against the civilian population in Darfur was matched by an equally shocking failure to guarantee the assistance for these suffering people during the first 12 months of the armed conflict.

The huge impacts of violence have been documented in many reports of international human rights organisations and aid agencies since May 2003. These surveys did not only show the appalling consequences of the atrocities committed by Janjaweed militias and Sudanese soldiers, but also documented in detail the close relationship between the Sudanese authorities and the militias. The reports proved that the Sudanese government is guilty of crimes against humanity and continues to terrorize its own citizens. Sudan‘s Foreign Minister brazenly declared that his government was not conducting aerial attacks on civilians, despite evidence of the contrary collected by African Union monitors. Even as the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) produced films and photos in October 2005 documenting the use of helicopter gunships by the Sudanese army in two attacks on the civilian population, the Sudanese government denied any involvement of its troops in the violence. All parties continue to violate the humanitarian ceasefire agreement which was signed on 8 April 2004.

Furthermore, the Sudanese authorities brutally silenced human rights defenders in western Sudan and intimidated the staff of international aid agencies. Over a period of several months the Sudanese government systematically blocked international humanitarian aid and used famine as a weapon of war. This has been a deliberate violation of the most basic principles of international humanitarian law. Many reports of human rights organisations have been highlighting the urgent need to ensure the effective protection of the civilian population against abuses committed by the conflict parties.

The "ethnic cleansing” should be atoned for through the safe and voluntary return of displaced people to their homes. But until now, the African Union forces have been unable to install safety in any part of Darfur. In December 2005, only 5.618 AU soldiers and observers were in Darfur to control an area of the size of France. The figure fell short of the 6.171-strong force that was supposed to have been deployed by the end of September 2005 as AU member nations have not been able to muster all the troops that were needed. The AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konaré has endorsed a further expansion of AMIS to 12.300 troops by the second quarter of 2006. Due to a lack of cash, vehicles, air transport facilities and communications equipment, AMIS has failed to protect the civilian population sufficiently and ensure that the cease-fire is respected by all armed forces.

The international community of states should not accept that more than 1.6 million civilians were forced out of their homes and leave their ancestral land. It has to ensure that all victims of the "ethnic cleansing” can return to their villages and obtain assistance for reconstruction of their burned homes and properties.

The Sudanese government has so far failed to prosecute crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Rather than pursuing accountability for serious crimes of army personnel and Janjaweed militias, Khartoum has taken no significant steps to investigate the responsibility of individuals. By conducting some show-trials of lower ranking soldiers they tried to prove that impunity no longer prevailed. These shameful trials were only conducted in order to prevent a fully fledged investigation of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Despite several Darfur resolutions that express strong concern about the human rights violations, the U.N. Security Council has failed to adequately use its power to stop the crimes against humanity. Even the moderate sanctions regime (an asset freezing and a travel ban on Sudanese politicians who defy peace efforts) has not been implemented ten months after the Security Council named a sanctions committee to establish a confidential list of suspicious Sudanese politicians.

Violence against women in Sudan

One year after a comprehensive peace agreement put an end to 21 years of genocide in southern Sudan, millions of Sudanese women still live in fear of violence and massive human rights violations. The ruling National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army agreed to protocols on wealth and power sharing in January 2005. It was hoped that the agreement would provide a framework for ending the crisis in Darfur. But one year after the agreement was signed, women in southern Sudan complain that concrete gains have not be seen. Women in the south still lack food and water, despite pledges made by donors last year to provide $ 4.5bn. However, some 500.000 southern Sudanese Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) are expected to return home in 2006. 25% of the children in the south die before they reach the age of five. There are only a few schools and only one doctor for every 100.000 people. Some of those women, who returned to their homes after having spent years as IDPs in northern Sudan, have since moved to the capital, Khartoum, because they saw no hope for reconstruction and peace in the South.

Escalation of violence in Darfur

In the meantime the Darfur region has lapsed into anarchy. Chaos is looming as violence increases and order collapses. 2.3 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. For three years civilians in Darfur have endured a vicious campaign of violence and terror which has led to huge numbers of deaths and forced more than1.6 million people to flee from their destroyed villages in search of safety. The government of Sudan and their Janjaweed militias have systematically attacked the civilian population and endangered their survival by destroying property, livestock, communities, families, and driving victims into a terrain where they are unable to themselves and obtain humanitarian care. Darfur continues to disintegrate into a horror zone of battle grounds, where mass rapes and "ethnic cleansing” traumatise and annihilate the local population, warned the U.N. in November 2005. Over 27 months after their escape from their villages and after countless promises from the Government of Sudan and world leaders, safety still has not been established. Abuses and killings do not cease and of the goals of "ethnic cleansing” has nearly been achieved. On 19 December 2005, Janjaweed militias attacked the village Abu Surooj (western Darfur) killing 12 innocent civilians. "Large-scale attacks against civilians continue, women and girls are being raped by armed groups, yet more villages are being burned, and thousands more are being driven from their homes”, declared the U.N. in a report published on 31 December 2005. "Civilians continue to pay an intolerably high price as a result of recurrent fighting by warrying parties, the renewal of scorched earth tactics by militia and massive military action by the government”, the report said. Tens of thousands of civilians were forced from their homes in November 2005 alone.

Rape as a weapon of war

During their flight the IDPs were pursued, harassed and violated. There is no refuge or safe haven for them. Their persecutors have followed them and continue to harass them in the refugee camps. Hundreds of women and girls have been raped around these camps. During the month of October 2005, the U.N. registered an upsurge of rapes. Rape is a symbol of the government’s failure to ensure security. A report that was published in March 2005 by the humanitarian organisation "Doctors without Borders” documented 500 cases of rape over a four-month period. Senior aid workers were arrested for publishing false reports, undermining state security and spying. Due to massive international pressure the charges were eventually dropped, but the government of Sudan still denies the assertion. In June 2005, Western diplomats and U.N. representatives gathered with aid workers in Kalma, Darfur’s largest IDP camp, to discuss the government’s failure to prevent rapes. Even as Sudanese officials contested claims of sexual violence, women were raped during the meeting near the Kalma camp.

No effective protection of civilians across Darfur

The IDPs continue to be persecuted and intimidated. The failure to stop the violence against the civilian population in Darfur was matched by an equally shocking failure to guarantee the assistance for these suffering people during the first 12 months of the armed conflict.

The huge impacts of violence have been documented in many reports of international human rights organisations and aid agencies since May 2003. These surveys did not only show the appalling consequences of the atrocities committed by Janjaweed militias and Sudanese soldiers, but also documented in detail the close relationship between the Sudanese authorities and the militias. The reports proved that the Sudanese government is guilty of crimes against humanity and continues to terrorize its own citizens. Sudan‘s Foreign Minister brazenly declared that his government was not conducting aerial attacks on civilians, despite evidence of the contrary collected by African Union monitors. Even as the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) produced films and photos in October 2005 documenting the use of helicopter gunships by the Sudanese army in two attacks on the civilian population, the Sudanese government denied any involvement of its troops in the violence. All parties continue to violate the humanitarian ceasefire agreement which was signed on 8 April 2004.

Furthermore, the Sudanese authorities brutally silenced human rights defenders in western Sudan and intimidated the staff of international aid agencies. Over a period of several months the Sudanese government systematically blocked international humanitarian aid and used famine as a weapon of war. This has been a deliberate violation of the most basic principles of international humanitarian law. Many reports of human rights organisations have been highlighting the urgent need to ensure the effective protection of the civilian population against abuses committed by the conflict parties.

The "ethnic cleansing” should be atoned for through the safe and voluntary return of displaced people to their homes. But until now, the African Union forces have been unable to install safety in any part of Darfur. In December 2005, only 5.618 AU soldiers and observers were in Darfur to control an area of the size of France. The figure fell short of the 6.171-strong force that was supposed to have been deployed by the end of September 2005 as AU member nations have not been able to muster all the troops that were needed. The AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konaré has endorsed a further expansion of AMIS to 12.300 troops by the second quarter of 2006. Due to a lack of cash, vehicles, air transport facilities and communications equipment, AMIS has failed to protect the civilian population sufficiently and ensure that the cease-fire is respected by all armed forces.

The international community of states should not accept that more than 1.6 million civilians were forced out of their homes and leave their ancestral land. It has to ensure that all victims of the "ethnic cleansing” can return to their villages and obtain assistance for reconstruction of their burned homes and properties.

The Sudanese government has so far failed to prosecute crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Rather than pursuing accountability for serious crimes of army personnel and Janjaweed militias, Khartoum has taken no significant steps to investigate the responsibility of individuals. By conducting some show-trials of lower ranking soldiers they tried to prove that impunity no longer prevailed. These shameful trials were only conducted in order to prevent a fully fledged investigation of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Despite several Darfur resolutions that express strong concern about the human rights violations, the U.N. Security Council has failed to adequately use its power to stop the crimes against humanity. Even the moderate sanctions regime (an asset freezing and a travel ban on Sudanese politicians who defy peace efforts) has not been implemented ten months after the Security Council named a sanctions committee to establish a confidential list of suspicious Sudanese politicians.

Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Commission to:

• condemn the crimes against humanity committed by the allied forces of the Sudanese authorities, the abuses against the civilian population as well as the violations of the humanitarian ceasefire agreement,

• insist on an immediate end of rapes, persecutions and "ethnic cleansing”,

• call on the U.N. Security Council, AU and NATO to ensure the protection of the civilian population by an U.N. peacekeeping force with a robust mandate to disarm the militias,

• appeal to the U.N. Security Council to ensure that all perpetrators of massive human rights violations should be brought to justice by the International Criminal Court,

• urge the international community to enhance the on-going peace talks between the Darfur conflict parties.