A U.N. human rights mission accused Sudan's government on Monday of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there. The team, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan's vast western region, where observers say some 200,000 people have been killed since a revolt broke out in 2003."The situation is characterised by gross and systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law," the mission said in a report to the Council. "The mission further concludes that the government of Sudan has manifestly failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes," the 35-page report said.
While rebel groups were also guilty of serious abuses, the "principal pattern is one of a violent counterinsurgency campaign" being waged by government forces and their militia allies, the so-called Janjaweed, the report said. The mission, which was refused entry to Sudan, urged the U.N. Security Council to take "urgent further action" to protect civilians, including through the deployment of peacekeepers.
The Sudanese government denies responsibility for abuses and blames them on rebel groups which refused a 2006 peace deal. The Darfur violence, described as genocide by Washington, has killed tens of thousands of people and driven 2.5 million from their homes as rebels, charging the government in Khartoum with neglect, battle pro-government Arab militias.