SUDAN: Darfur security situation getting worse, says expert

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 11 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - The security situation in Sudan's war-affected western region of Darfur is getting worse and more must be done to protect civilians, the UN Secretary-General's special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Juan Mendez, said on Monday.

More also needed to be done to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and bring those responsible for atrocities before the International Criminal Court (ICC), he added.

"I found the situation much more dangerous and worrisome than I expected it to be," Mendez said upon his return from the troubled region.

Pointing to renewed fighting and growing lawlessness, he cited two recent unprecedented attacks on internally displaced persons' camps, UN News reported.

"In one of them, the attackers went in on horseback, and in the other one apparently trucks of the Sudanese army," Mendez noted. Up to 35 civilians were killed and several homes destroyed.

He criticised the Sudanese government for failing to effectively deal with those responsible for human rights violations in Darfur. Mendez noted that while Sudan had said it did not need the ICC, "cooperation with the ICC is not a matter of choice for any State".

A UN Security Council resolution in March called for those implicated in crimes in Darfur to be tried by the ICC. However, Sudan rejected the resolution and set up its own courts.

"We observed the first decisions and trials of the special court that they have created and we're very disappointed they deal with cases that are completely marginal to the problem, that have nothing to do with what happened at the peak of the conflict in 2003-2004, and there is no clear rationale for crimes that seem to be common crimes [being] brought to the special court," Mendez said.

Meanwhile, the current UN Security Council President, Romania's Mihnea Ioan Motoc, has condemned the rising violence in Darfur. He called for the perpetrators of recent attacks on African Union (AU) peacekeepers and contractors to be brought to justice.

"That was unacceptable in itself and all the more so in the context of and against the background of peace talks going on in Abuja on a political solution to the conflict in Darfur," he said. "We have jointly condemned and expressed concern in the face of the recent upsurge in violence."

The Council urged parties to cooperate with the AU in Abuja and to immediately end acts of violence and restrictions on humanitarian aid. Motoc said the Council was also determined to apply measures adopted earlier this year imposing a travel ban and an assets freeze on those impeding the peace process, committing human rights violations and violating Council mandates, the UN News Service reported.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has also condemned the killing and abduction of AU personnel in Darfur. "What happened with the African Union soldiers is completely unacceptable," Annan told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.

"The Secretary-General reminds the [Sudanese] Government that it has the ultimate responsibility for the protection of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman of the Secretary-General, said in a statement on Monday.

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