New York - The Sudanese army and rebel groups in Sudan's
Darfur region have turned guns against each other and are purging
members of their own groups some two months after signing a
ceasefire, a UN official said Monday.
All warring parties have killed civilians, said Rodolphe Adada,
the representative of the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping
mission in troubled Darfur.
'The armed movements fight amongst each another, or violently
purge their own members,' Adada told the UN Security Council in a
review session on the situation in Darfur.
'Darfur today is a conflict of all against all,' he said, adding
that endemic banditry and the breakdown of law and order dominates
the situation in Darfur. He described the situation as a
low-intensity conflict in which civilians are the main victims.
The ongoing killings provoked a high level of protest in the US on
Monday, with actress Mia Farrow, a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN,
announcing a hunger strike and prayers for refugees as well as the
culprits.
In Washington, police arrested five members of the US
Congress for stepping over police lines at a protest outside the
Sudanese embassy.
About 2,000 people were killed in January from January, 2008, when
the joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission was deployed in Darfur, to
March, 2009. Adada said an average of 130 to 150 people have been
killed each month as a result of the conflict.
The UN and relief organizations estimated that more than 300,000
Darfurians have died since the ethnic conflict erupted in 2003 in
Darfur and 2.5 million others have been displaced by the fighting.
The Sudanese government backs Arab militias fighting African rebel
groups in Darfur, the largest of which is the Justice and Equality
Movement.
Adada said political talks to try to resolve the conflict have
been frozen 'at least until the implications of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant have become fully clear.'
The ICC at The Hague has issued a warrant to arrest Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir, charging him with committing war crimes and
crimes against humanity. However, al-Bashir has visited freely
several Arab countries, which like Sudan, are not parties to the ICC
convention and considered themselves under no obligation to arrest
the Sudanese leader.
After the ICC issued the arrest warrant, Khartoum halted peace
talks and expelled 13 major international relief organizations
responsible for providing humanitarian aid to half of Darfurians in
need.
'The people of Darfur a crying out for local peace,' Adada said.
'In the absence of an overall agreement, they are eager for local
peace agreements to proceed.'
Adada said the UN-AU mission in Darfur plays a vital role on the
ground, but progress made so far has not been recognized by the
media.
USA
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