News Article by AP posted on October 18, 2000 at 09:21:46: EST (-5 GMT)
U.N. rights expert says Sudan systematically bombed civilians
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. human rights investigator
accused
Sudan's military of systematically bombing civilians in its
war
with rebels in the south, calling the policy a serious violation
of
international law.
Leonardo Franco said he was "profoundly shocked" by bombings
that have
killed an estimated 45 people and injured some 230 this
year, rejecting the
government's explanation that pilots had a
standing order not to bomb
civilian targets.
The explanation was "inconsistent with the number and frequency
of the
aerial attacks against civilian and humanitarian targets,"
he said, noting
that at least 33 bombing incidents were reported in
July, and that relief
agencies had been targeted in August.
Christian and animist rebels in southern Sudan have been
fighting since
1983 for autonomy from the Arab, Muslim-dominated
government in the north.
Nearly 2 million people have died in the
war and accompanying famines.
Franco, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights' special
investigator on
Sudan, said in a report to the U.N. General
Assembly Tuesday that the
dramatic escalation of military
hostilities over the past few months had led
to human rights
violations on both sides. He strongly backed efforts to reach
a
negotiated settlement of the conflict.
While Franco reserved his harshest words for the Sudanese
government, he
also blamed the Sudan People's Liberation Army -- the
south's main rebel
group -- for kidnapping and rape of women, forced
recruitment of children and
planting of mines.
Though noting some increase in freedom of expression in Sudan,
Franco, an
Argentine human rights lawyer, decried "the tight
control of the ruling party
over the institutions and the social
life of the country."
"The security forces deem themselves to be above the law and
act with
virtual impunity," he said.
Franco, who visited Sudan in February, said he also received
information
indicating that between 5,000 and 15,000 Dinka children
and women had been
abducted by armed militia, maverick groups,
bandits, or members of the
government-affiliated People's
Democratic Front. The Dinka are one of the
largest tribes in the
south.
"Abductees are subsequently forced to herd cattle, work in the
fields,
fetch water, dig wells, do housework and perform sexual
favors. Their
treatment is extremely harsh: abuse, torture, rape
and, at times, killing
being the norm," Franco said.