Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KHARTOUM272
2006-02-06 11:43:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

Darfur: 2005 Protection Year in Review -

Tags:  EAID PREF PGOV PHUM SOCI KAWC SU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO6904
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0272/01 0371143
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061143Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1284
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KHARTOUM 000272 

SIPDIS

AIDAC
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/SPG, PRM, DRL, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W
USAID FOR DCHA SUDAN TEAM, AF/EA, DCHA
NAIROBI FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA, USAID/REDSO, AND FAS
USMISSION UN ROME
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH
NAIROBI FOR SFO
NSC FOR JMELINE, TSHORTLEY
USUN FOR TMALY
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PREF PGOV PHUM SOCI KAWC SU
SUBJECT: Darfur: 2005 Protection Year in Review -
Overview of Protection Trends and Human Rights Violations

REF: (A) 05 Khartoum 0051 (B) 05 Khartoum 0976

-------
Summary
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KHARTOUM 000272

SIPDIS

AIDAC
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/SPG, PRM, DRL, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W
USAID FOR DCHA SUDAN TEAM, AF/EA, DCHA
NAIROBI FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA, USAID/REDSO, AND FAS
USMISSION UN ROME
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH
NAIROBI FOR SFO
NSC FOR JMELINE, TSHORTLEY
USUN FOR TMALY
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PREF PGOV PHUM SOCI KAWC SU
SUBJECT: Darfur: 2005 Protection Year in Review -
Overview of Protection Trends and Human Rights Violations

REF: (A) 05 Khartoum 0051 (B) 05 Khartoum 0976

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. In analyzing protection trends in 2005, it is striking
to note how many issues remained similar when compared with
2004 (reftel A). The large-scale humanitarian needs in
Darfur have been the result of widespread human rights
violations, including the attacking and killing of
civilians, rape as a means of terrorizing populations,
forced displacements, denial of the freedom of movement, and
criminal impunity. In a continuation of the complex
political and human rights crisis, violence and multiple
waves of displacement continued throughout 2005 in Darfur
with internally displaced persons (IDPs) remaining captive
in camps and subject to harassment by armed groups. Other
protection issues in need of increased programming attention
include child protection, destruction of crops, and
protection of legal aid lawyers. This cable is the first in
a series of three to review the protection situation and the
humanitarian response in 2005. This cable focuses on the
general trends that unfolded in 2005, and the two subsequent
cables will focus on the larger level response by the
international community and specific non-governmental
organization (NGO) programming in the field of protection.

--------------
Human Rights Framework
--------------


2. Violations of human physical security in Darfur include
killings, beatings, rape, harassment, discrimination, theft
of property, denial of the freedom of movement, access to
justice, or effective compensation. The protection
framework invoked to document and describe the violations in
Darfur is the Guiding Principles n Internal Displacement
(GPID) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It

should also be noted that Sudan is party to the
International Covenant of the Civil and Political Rights;
the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination. All of these tools provide a
comprehensive legal framework in which to monitor and
document human rights violatiojs in DArur. !However, tis
berT nd`lj%,huiniDaYc seq0on}"ibDas~uQ Bhi2Ij89QiQhYpgIPYD l&utXIA~$B0KQ'CRfSubNPm#lh4OI?*|QpQ}7H$QzLWuP zQ-qmgk*A[deQ\Qe]h;qording to the
observations and documentation of U.N. agencies, NGOs, and
USAID field staff. At the end of 2005, approximately 2
million people were displaced, either within Darfur or
across the border into Chad, and new displacements continued
to occur throughout the year. The ongoing destabilization
combined with criminal impunity has created an environment
ripe for widespread insecurity and individualized violence.


4. In addition to numerous Abuja agreements calling for
disarmament of militias, the Sudanese government signed a
joint communique with the U.N. on July 3, 2004, committing
itself to: end impunity; ensure all persons and groups
accused of human rights violations are brought to justice
without delay; deploy a strong, credible, and respected
police force in all IDP areas; train all police units in
human rights law and make them accountable for upholding it;
ensure that no militias are near IDP camps; and finally,
disarm Janjaweed and other armed groups. After a year and a
half, these commitments have not been fulfilled and some
observers would argue that they had not been seriously
attempted.

KHARTOUM 00000272 002 OF 004



--------------
SGBV
--------------


5. In 2005, mass rape of civilians as a weapon of war was
replaced by individualized attacks by armed security forces
- police, military, Janjaweed, and other militias - often
while in uniform. U.N. personnel characterize IDPs as
"terrorized" by the threat of sexual violence within their
communities. During 2005, attacks on women and girls
occurred primarily when venturing away from villages or IDP
camps to collect firewood and fodder. Over the course of
the year, many agencies concluded that despite positive
rhetoric and the formation of committees, the Sudanese
government has failed to stop attacks on women and children,
investigate and prosecute these crimes, and convict
perpetrators. For example, one local legal aid group in
South Darfur, a USAID Office of Transition Initiatives
(USAID/OTI) partner, submitted 27 rape cases to the Nyala
courts in a 9-month period in 2005. Of that number, only a
handful generated investigations by local police and none
resulted in trials or prosecutions. Many observers view
this lack of action by authorities to be related to the
policy of continued destabilization and harassment of
displaced communities. For example, in South Darfur, which
has been the most active Darfur state to commit on paper to
addressing sexual violence, U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)
Human Rights reported that authorities prosecuted only 3
cases of the 130 rapes verified by monitors. In two cases,
rather than the charge of rape that compels capital
punishment for convictions under Sharia law, authorities
charged two military men with gross indecency and they are
reportedly serving five years each. The third case concerns
10 men from the Popular Defense Forces charged with raping a
girl. The men were all convicted and served 1.5 months in
jail until the military ordered their release. This is the
sum total of justice served for the 130 recorded victims of
rape. UNMIS Human Rights and NGOs providing medical
treatment are certain that these cases are only a fraction
of those that have gone unreported to the international
community - in one Darfur state.


6. Despite the work of the humanitarian community, rapes
did not stop or lessen throughout 2005. Additionally,
toward the end of 2005, a disturbing trend of child rape and
sexual assault began to emerge in North and West Darfur
involving girls between 7 and 12 years of age. Often the
recorded incidents indicate that the perpetrators were
uniformed and associated with one of the security forces.
Another trend is that multiple perpetrators commit the
assaults. It is clear that mass rape is not occurring at
the same levels as during the height of the conflict, but
individualized attacks on IDPs and women moving outside of
population centers continued unabated. This is primarily
due to 1) lack of rule of law ensuring general security, 2)
continued existence of armed militias, 3) criminal impunity,
4) collection of firewood and grass by women both for
cooking and for sale, and 5) confusion and lack of
coordination surrounding African Union Mission in Sudan
(AMIS) Civilian Police (CIVPOL) firewood patrols in many
locations - although some notable exceptions exist.

--------------
Protection of Children
--------------


7. After two years of residing in camps, children - defined
as those under 18 years of age by the 1990 U.N. Convention
on the Rights of the Child, which Sudan has signed and
ratified - are now without secondary school options and many
are turning to religion-only education, manual labor, early
marriage, military recruitment, and street begging. The
deputy of the South Darfur State Social Welfare Department
reported that Nyala town hosts an estimated 4,000 street
children, noting the dramatic increase in the breakdown of
families, social networks, and schooling options within
displaced and war-affected communities. The USAID
Protection Officer recently witnessed children as young as
four years old following older siblings making bricks to
sell in IDP camps. In West Darfur, NGOs noted an increase

KHARTOUM 00000272 003 OF 004


in parents sending away male youth to military training
because of the perception that this was the only remaining
option. Idle and frustrated male youth have been
responsible for instigating riots, participating in the
October 23 hostage-taking incident in Kalma camp, and
forming small gang-like groups to "patrol" their sectors,
harassing community members. In one incident, a youth
patrol was found guilty by local sheiks of raping a female
IDP in Kalma Camp.

--------------
Freedom of Movement
--------------


8. It is impossible to document individual violations of
the freedom of movement, as espoused in the GPID and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because nearly every
IDP in Darfur is having his or her freedom of movement
curtailed, if not violated. In only a few locations, IDPs
and village residents can safely move short distances
outside of camps or towns. Even where the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other agencies have
documented return to villages of origin, residents are often
still restricted within the village perimeters. Not
including the returns documented in 2005 (reftel B),mostly
by UNHCR in West Darfur, freedom of movement for Darfurians
was restricted because of direct government policies and
actions. Examples include the more than 200-day ban on
commercial goods entering or exiting Kalma IDP camp and the
lack of action taken to secure roads, villages, farmland,
and IDP concentrations from violence by armed militia. The
lack of freedom of movement for IDPs and conflict-affected
residents ensures a continued reliance on humanitarian
assistance in 2006.


9. Many IDPs experiencing a second or third
displacement due to violence are opting to travel to
larger population centers where humanitarian assistance
and services are available in an improved security
environment. For example, many of those displaced by
fighting outside of Tawilah in late September fled to
the large IDP camp of Zam Zam outside El Fasher, despite
closer facilities in the area. Because of this trend,
Darfur will likely experience further urbanization
during 2006.


10. Existing tensions between IDPs and host communities
could become more pronounced given the trends in
multiple displacements and increasing pressure on host
communities to provide for additional IDPs. In fact,
tensions have also been noted within IDP communities
such as in Ryad camp outside Geneina, where the
population refused the entry of new arrivals to the
camp. Also, inter-Arab nomad fighting in Abata, north
of Zalingie West Darfur, resulted in more than 1,000 new
Arab nomad IDPs who were not welcome in the established
camps in Zalingie town.


11. IDPs express concern over actual and perceived
vulnerability within the confines of the IDP camps.
Camps such as Kalma have experienced continuous security
incidents and collective punishment by the Sudanese
government in the form of the commercial ban. Many
camps over the past year have been the subject of
attacks and abuses that directly targeted the camp
population: Aro Sharow, Mornei, and Ardamata in West
Darfur; Abu Shouk and Al Salam in North Darfur; and
Mershing in South Darfur are but a few notable examples.

--------------
Killing of Civilians
--------------


12. UNMIS Human Rights recently released a report "Six
Month Overview of Human Rights in Sudan" that documented at
least eight significant attacks by Sudanese government
soldiers on civilian targets from September to November

2005. These attacks, as detailed in the report, displaced
thousands of people and killed numerous civilians. Specific
examples given include a September 24 attack on the South
Darfur village of Toray, multiple villages in the North

KHARTOUM 00000272 004 OF 004


Darfur areas of Tarny and Thabit on September 18 and 19, and
multiple villages in the area of Shangil Tobiya, North
Darfur, on September 11 and 12. These attacks resulted in
39 confirmed deaths and an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people
displaced. UNMIS Human Rights also reports that attacks and
killings of civilians by Darfur opposition groups occurred
in 2005, but figures are not available.


13. In addition, on October 23, USAID staff members visited
the village of Tama in South Darfur two days after being
attacked. IDPs reported that more than 50 civilians had
been killed in the attack perpetrated by armed militia with
the support of government soldiers and vehicles. Tama is
located within a 10-minute drive from a Sudanese government
police and military post, but received no assistance during
the attack.


14. Random killing of individuals, both men and women,
continue to be reported in multiple venues such as U.N.
Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) briefings,
protection working groups, NGO meetings, and by IDPs
themselves when visited in the camps. Many killings are not
reported or not investigated - it is as if agencies and even
the IDPs have accepted a certain level of killings and rapes
per week to be expected given the current insecurities in
Darfur.

--------------
Other Protection Issues
--------------


15. During the course of 2005, other protection issues have
surfaced including land occupation, returns coerced by
material incentives, beating of persons attempting to farm,
intentional destruction of crops by nomads grazing their
livestock, abandonment of infants, harassment of unwed
pregnant women, beating of nomad women by IDP women,
harassment of local NGOs, and arrest of local lawyers. The
following two cables will outline the response of the
international community in the field of protection in
Darfur.

HUME