KHARTOUM/GENEVA: In a statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations has accused the Sudanese military of abducting women and girls and keeping them as sex slaves for a month following an attack on a Darfur village. The office said that the crimes were so severe that they may be considered war crimes and ought to be sent to the International Criminal Court. Louise Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights, also called on the Sudanese government to investigate the crimes and to suspend from the military any individuals suspected of committing the offences. She also said that the victims and their families ought to be duly compensated. The accusations came in response to testimonies from witnesses that described several hundred armed men entering the Darfuri town of Deribat on Dec. 26, 2006. The attackers apparently captured the town's women and children and brought them to a nearby stream, where they stayed for a month as they systematically raped the women and girls. The women were beaten if they did not submit and many suffered physical injuries and emotional trauma. The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said that the attack was probably part of a series of raids on villages in the Jebel Marra region because the local population had apparently sympathized with rebel groups that hadn't signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government. The statement said that the government was directly responsible for the actions of its military and that it must bring to justice any individuals who had committed crimes of such a grievous nature. The report named specific officers within the army who were responsible for leading or authorizing the attacks. It stated that if the accusations proved to be correct then the individuals in question ought to be sent to the International Criminal Court. "If rape, sexual slavery or any other form of sexual violence of comparablegravity are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directedagainst civilians, [they] can constitute a crime against humanity, andpotentially fall within the jurisdiction of the International CriminalCourt, it stated. When asked if the Sudanese government planned to follow up on these accusations, a representative from the Sudanese embassy in Egypt, Abdrel Malik Al Naim, told Daily News Egypt only that "the government of Sudan follows up on all accusations against its military. In addition, Maher Nasser, director of the United Nations Information Center in Cairo, said that when accusations like this are made, "one expects the concerned government to follow up. He added that there "have been many stories in Darfur of displaced people and refugees being abused like this. More than 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million displaced since the conflict between rebel groups, government forces, and militias broke out in 2003. Last month the UN Security Council approved the deployment of a hybrid UN-African Union force to put an end to the violence.
