Helicopter attacks, raids on refugee camps and rapes carried out by Sudanese forces and Arab militiamen have worsened an already desperate situation in Darfur, humanitarian and rights groups say.
The UN has told Khartoum to curb marauding Janjaweed militia or face sanctions, but Human Rights Watch said yesterday that fresh atrocities disproved Sudanese government claims that security was returning to the western region.
"In many rural areas and small towns in Darfur, government forces and the Janjaweed militias continue to routinely rape and assault women and girls when they leave the periphery of the camps and towns," the New York-based group said in a report.
Human rights groups and Darfur rebels say Khartoum has used the militia, who Darfur residents call Janjaweed -- loosely translated from Arabic as "devils on horseback" -- in a campaign to crush a rebel uprising and drive the region's non-Arabs from their land.
In a statement from Geneva on Tuesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs accused Sudanese forces of new helicopter attacks, denied by Khartoum, and the Janjaweed of raids on the ground.
"Fresh violence today [Tuesday] included helicopter gunship bombings by the Sudanese government and Janjaweed attacks in South Darfur. Janjaweed attacks on internally displaced persons in and around IDP settlements continue to be reported in all three Darfur states," the UN agency said.
In a July 30 resolution, the Security Council gave Khartoum 30 days to take measures against the Janjaweed, or face unspecified sanctions. Khartoum denies using the Janjaweed as a proxy force and says they are outlaws.
The Sudanese government says it has deployed 10,000 police to Darfur and last week pledged to set up safe areas for the one million people the UN says have been uprooted.
"In response to the Security Council's demand that Janjaweed militia members be disarmed, the Sudanese government has instead begun to incorporate them into official state security units," Human Rights Watch said.
The group said Khartoum was absorbing the Arab militia into its security forces instead of disarming them and was not prosecuting their leaders.
Janjaweed had raped six girls aged 13 to 16 and beat other women at a militia checkpoint in Western Darfur last month, the report said. It also documented the case of a 17-year-old girl who was raped several times by a Janjaweed militiaman near the border with Chad.
Sudanese State Minister of Foreign Affairs Najeeb al-Kheir Abdel Wahab said the UN report of helicopter attacks was untrue, baseless and unsourced.
He told reporters from Khartoum that Jan Pronk, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Sudan, had on Tuesday signed an assessment saying the government had made "significant progress" in security and protection.
"We believe that this [UN] statement is very vague and it's sourceless and believe it is inconsistent with the judgment made by the special representative Jan Pronk," he said.
Civilians have previously said Sudan used aircraft to attack villages in Darfur, but there have been fewer reports of such attacks since rebels and the government signed an April truce.
Despite recent pledges to cooperate to end the humanitarian crisis the UN has called the worst in the world, the UN said the Sudanese government had hampered access to hungry Darfuris by restricting relief flights and aid workers' movements.
The African Union has deployed observers to Darfur to monitor the ceasefire and the Netherlands will begin to fly in 154 Rwandan troops to act as a protection force for the monitors on Saturday.
Sudan said on Tuesday Egypt, Libya and Algeria had agreed to send ceasefire observers to Darfur. Sudan has rejected the idea of African Union peacekeeping forces, saying peacekeeping is its responsibility.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan Liberation Army took up arms against the central government early last year. The UN estimates that Darfur violence has killed 50,000 people and made 2 million short of food and medicine. Khartoum disputes the death toll.
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