Janjaweed Camps Still Active

(HRW) – The government of Sudan is permitting abusive Janjaweed militia to maintain at least 16 camps in the western region of Darfur , Human Rights Watch said today. The U.N. Security Council set a deadline of Monday, August 30, for Khartoum to comply with its commitments to stop atrocities in Darfur . Despite repeated government pledges to neutralize and disarm the Janjaweed, Human Rights Watch investigators in West and North Darfur were able to gather information on the militias’ extensive network of bases. Human Rights Watch said the U.N. Security Council must impose sanctions on Sudanese government officials for their failure to disarm and neutralize the Janjaweed militia, including those in the militia camps. The Human Rights Watch mission to investigate recent abuses returned from Darfur on August 19. “Throughout the time Khartoum was supposedly reining in the Janjaweed, these camps have been operating in plain sight,” said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. “These Janjaweed camps should be immediately investigated by the U.N. and the African Union ceasefire monitors, then disbanded.”