| Why would atrocities 'ever stop'? |
Government-backed militias in Sudan are still attacking civilians and are "routinely" raping women and girls in the Darfur region of the country, human rights groups said yesterday. The studies by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch came as Sudan was under growing international pressure to rein in the marauding Arab militias, known as Janjaweed.
| Hey! Just give them some more time... |
Sudanese officials yesterday dismissed reports of further atrocities and the president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accused the US and Europe of exploiting violence in western Sudan for their own ends. "America and Europe have aims that do not include the safety and comfort of people in Darfur," Bashir said in an interview published in Lebanon's al-Mustaqbal yesterday. He said Sudan was the victim of a media campaign aimed at diverting attention from violence in Iraq. "Yes, there is killing, displacement and migration, but is the Darfur issue the only issue in the world? What about Palestine and Iraq?" Mr Bashir asked.
| We're fixing Iraq. Do we have your permission to fix Paleostine? |
He discounted claims by human rights groups that his government was organising a campaign to drive Darfur's non-Arab people from their land. He said it was a decades-old dispute between "farmers and herders".
| Which doesn't answer the original question, does it? |
"Nothing said by the government of Sudan should be believed. They are serial liars," Peter Takirambudde, the Africa director of Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian yesterday.
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