Sudan suffering blamed on Arab militias

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday there are strong indications of war crimes "on a large and systematic scale" in Sudan's Darfur region, where the violence has now affected 2 million people.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council, he said the Sudanese government has failed to bring the perpetrators of widespread killings, rapes, looting and village burnings to justice.

Jan Pronk, the top U.N. envoy to Sudan who wrote the report, will present it to the council on Thursday. He will recommend that members take "prompt action" to get the government and rebels to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding an end to the violence, disarmament of combatants, and punishment of those responsible.

Until the government starts taking more than "pinprick" action against the perpetrators, the report warned, no displaced person will dare return home and no group will agree to disarm.

"Without an end to impunity ... banditry goes from strength to strength, menacing the population and obstructing the delivery of aid to desperate people in isolated areas," it said.

The violence in Darfur began in January 2003 when two black African rebel groups took up arms over alleged unjust treatment by the Sudanese government and ethnic Arab countrymen. Pro-government militias called Janjaweed reacted by unleashing attacks on villages.

The conflict, which has killed at least 70,000 people, has created what U.N. officials say is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Meanwhile, African Union mediators in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, appealed to Sudanese rebel and government delegations to sign a draft accord aimed at stopping ground and air attacks in Darfur.

The head mediator, Chadian diplomat Allan-Mi Ahmed, said the current draft was the best the two sides could hope for at present. The two sides "are so far apart that we couldn't make any fresh proposals," he said, adding that mediators were afraid to tinker with the draft anymore, in case "the whole edifice crumbles."

Ahmed said he hoped the accord would be signed by week's end.

Also Wednesday, the Sudan Liberation Army accused pro-government militias called Janjaweed of having torched at least five villages in southern Darfur, killing at least 150 people. Sudanese government officials denied any knowledge of the alleged attacks.