By John Stephen Katende

30^th April 2012:

“The fighting in Blue Nile has turned its people into refugees, forcing them to abandon their homes and livelihoods,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The horrific accounts of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and mass looting and destruction of property need to be investigated, and those responsible held to account.”

Since the United Nations mandate for a peacekeeping operation in the region expired in July 2011, there have been no UN monitors on the ground to document the initial impact of the fighting on civilians in Blue Nile, where conflict spread in September.

Human Rights Watch research in Blue Nile indicates that Sudan’s bombing campaign has killed, maimed, and injured scores of civilians since September and destroyed civilian property including markets, homes, schools, farms, and aid group offices.

Refugees in South Sudan as well as internally displaced civilians inside Sudan told Human Rights Watch that aerial bombing since September in their residential areas forced them to flee their homes. Most of those interviewed had abandoned their villages and farms between September and November and were on the move inside Blue Nile for several months with limited access to food or water.

More than 100,000 people are refugees in South Sudan and Ethiopia, and another 100,000 are still displaced in Blue Nile, including groups of potentially several thousand who are stranded in remote areas.  Witnesses from Damazin told Human Rights Watch that government soldiers used tanks and heavy weapons to destroy civilian property, including residential homes and the Malik Agar cultural center.

Soldiers and national security forces then rounded up suspected members of SPLM-North, arresting people in their homes and in the streets, and looted extensively.  “Sudanese authorities clearly targeted known opposition party members and civilians they perceived to be opposition supporters, in total disregard for basic human rights,” Bekele said.

In the following days, hundreds of men in Damazin, Roseris, and other towns were taken to military barracks, national security offices, and other places of detention. Many were held for weeks or months without charge. Former detainees told Human Rights Watch they were beaten, made to sleep in crowded rooms, deprived of sleep, food and water, and witnessed executions of other detainees while in detention.

Lawyers following the detentions estimate that more than 200 people are still being detained or are missing. The Sudan attorney general’s office announced in March that it had completed investigations of 132 detainees and accused them of crimes against the state and espionage.

Authorities have refused to provide information to the lawyers about prosecutions, access to the detainees, a full list of their names and whereabouts, or the exact charges against all of them.  “By shutting out the world, including human rights monitors, Sudan is only reinforcing concern that it is trying to hide heinous crimes,” Bekele said.

International humanitarian law obliges both parties to the armed conflict to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to the civilian population.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.