UN rights expert records little tangible progress

Gerhart Baum, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, has again expressed concern over the situation in the country and said a long-term, unified initiative for peace in Sudan is the only approach that will succeed.

It was critical that the root causes of the Sudanese civil war be addressed, that careful political follow-up be carried out, that all relevant actors of society be included in peace negotiations and that concerted efforts were needed to bring about confidence-building and democratisation, a statement from the UN Media Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, quoted Baum as saying.

Introducing his report to the UN Commission on Human Rights on Thursday, Baum said he had paid two visits to Sudan in the past year and noted changes which could lead to an improvement in the rights situation.

Among these, he said, were: recent involvement by the US, which had brokered a cease-fire agreement for the Nuba Mountains, arranged "days of tranquillity" to allow for the eradication of a number of diseases, raised the topics of slavery, abductions and forced servitude, and raised the point of aerial bombardments against civilians.

There also had been work done on the creation of a national human rights institution and the strengthening of civil society, in cooperation with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to Baum.

Though these developments were encouraging, the human rights situation had not yet changed, and no tangible improvement could really be noted, the UN statement quoted him as saying.
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On the debit side, a state of emergency remained in force allowing for flexible and arbitrary security measures; and an amendment to the National Security Forces Act effectively allowed for incommunicado detention for six to nine months, according to Baum.

Moreover, freedom of the press was still limited, and journalists were sometimes temporarily imprisoned; there continued to be cases of discrimination against Christians; and allied militias on both sides (of the conflict) continued to cause widespread insecurity, making no distinction between military and civilian targets and often resorting to recruitment of child soldiers.

Women continued to suffer disproportionately from the conflict and the application of discriminatory laws, according to Baum.

Within areas controlled by the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army, there appeared to be a widespread continuation of human rights violations, although information was difficult to obtain, he said.

The exploitation of Sudan's oil resources was clearly exacerbating the conflict, as a fight was under way for the control of power and resources worth a great deal of money, the UN statement quoted him as saying.

The Sudanese envoy to the UN, Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim, said he welcomed the positive remarks and recognitions made by the Special Rapporteur, including on the decrease of the number of human rights violations and the admission that there was no religious persecution in the Sudan, the UN press release stated.

The Sudanese government was addressing the problem of internally displaced persons, including providing them with basic education and health services, he said.

Baum had attracted the anger of the Sudanese government in November when he told the UN General Assembly that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan, now living in camps, had fled from oil regions of the country, yet did not benefit from oil revenues. Since IDPs were part of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, it was appropriate to ask how such money was spent, he added.

Khartoum considered that Baum's request for a breakdown of oil revenues spent on people in the south "violated sovereignty" and was "an unacceptable interference in matters within the jurisdiction of the government".

Regarding individual human rights cases taken up by Baum, Ibrahim said on Thursday 28 March that their root cause was the ongoing conflict in southern Sudan. He called for an immediate comprehensive cease-fire pending a peaceful resolution of the conflict so as to put an end to all those concerns.

Sudan welcomed the recognition by the Special Rapporteur that positive steps had been taken with regard to abductions, and reported that it had taken measures to strengthen the Committee for the Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC).

In November, Baum expressed concern over the slow progress achieved by CEAWC and said the Khartoum government, while distancing itself from the phenomenon, had "not yet taken concrete measures to prevent new abductions". Its inaction, he said, had the effect of encouraging their occurrence.

Baum referred particularly to the negative role of the nomadic Arab tribes (mainly the Baqqarah, Zaghawah and Misariyyah) from which government formed murahilin (nomadic) militias, which were deeply implicated in abductions and the targeting of civilians in war.

Above all, Baum said in November, "the government needs to exercise all its influence on the murahilin, who are responsible for human rights abuses, such as mass killings, torture, rape and abductions". The government shared responsibility, he added, because the Sudanese army tolerated these abuses, integrated the murahilin in its military campaigns and, in part, financed them.

Ibrahim said on Thursday that the Sudanese government had, during the past few months, taken very strong measures to address all the serious concerns expressed by the Commission, including protection of civilians, (unhindered delivery of) humanitarian assistance and abductions.

Aerial bombardments had, on some rare occasions, unintentionally affected civilians - as was the case with other countries with even more sophisticated warplanes - and the full protection of civilians would not be attainable unless a comprehensive cease-fire was accepted by the rebels, he added.

The Sudanese government has sustained serious criticism from humanitarian and human rights organisations about attacks on civilian targets - particularly after an attack by a helicopter gunship on a food distribution centre in Bieh, western Upper Nile (Wahdah, or Unity State), in February, in which at least 24 people were killed.

The Sudanese government subsequently offered an explanation and apology for the attack, and said efforts were being made to prevent similar incidents, according to the US government, which had been scathing about what it said was "a horrific and senseless attack" indicating that a pattern of deliberately targeting civilians and humanitarian operations was continuing.