‘Indiscriminate bombing Sudan’s signature tactic in Blue Nile’: Amnesty International

“Indiscriminate bombing has been the Sudanese government’s signature tactic in Blue Nile state, to devastating effect. Bombs have injured and killed civilians, and damaged and destroyed civilian infrastructure, including homes, schools, health clinics and farmland.Sudanese forces have also employed indiscriminate shelling, deliberate ground assaults on civilian villages, and abusive proxy forces. These actions constitute war crimes —which, given their apparent widespread, as well as systematic, nature— may amount to crimes against humanity.”In its report entitled “We had no time to bury them — War Crimes in Sudan’s Blue Nile State” released on 10 June, Amnesty International describes indiscriminate bombings and deliberate attacks on the civilian population in the State, based on interviews with 42 refugees and displaced persons who fled the attacks. In addition, a ten-day field research was carried in rebel-controlled areas in April 2013.”Much of what is now happening in Blue Nile state and Southern Kordofan follows a pattern that is familiar from Darfur, and, indeed, from Sudan’s decades-long war in southern Sudan, now South Sudan. Although Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir and several other high government officials remain under indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the grave human rights crimes they allegedly committed in Darfur, the pursuit of justice has lagged.”Neither the UN Security Council nor influential states have shown any great eagerness to press Sudan to cooperate with the court’s investigation, and President Bashir continues to travel to an array of African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries without hindrance. With no accountability for past crimes, there is little deterrence for those of the present,” the report states.Key Recommendations To the Government of Sudan:- Immediately cease indiscriminate aerial bombings and deliberate ground attacks on civilian areas;- Grant immediate and unhindered access to UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations to all areas of Blue Nile state, including via cross-border access to SPLA-N-held areas from South Sudan, to facilitate the provision of all necessary assistance to civilians affected by the conflict, including food, shelter and medical care;- Initiate prompt, effective and impartial investigations into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and bring those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice before ordinary civilian courts in fair trials, without the death penalty.To the UN Security Council and AU Peace and Security Council:- Demand an immediate end to indiscriminate aerial bombings and other violations of international humanitarian law by the Government of Sudan in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states;- Urgently press the Government of Sudan to allow humanitarian organizations and independent human rights monitors immediate and unhindered access to both Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states;- Establish an independent inquiry to investigate the serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed in the territory of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states since June 2011.To the SPLA-N:- Demonstrate respect for the humanitarian and civilian character of refugee camps by immediately ceasing the diversion of food and other humanitarian aid, and all recruitment inside refugee camps into SPLA-N forces;- Take concrete steps to ensure fighters respect international humanitarian law and, in particular, avoid locating troops, military bases and any other military objectives within or near densely populated civilian areas, including settlements of displaced people;- Facilitate the immediate and unhindered access of UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations to all areas of Blue Nile state under SPLA-N control, allowing them to provide all necessary assistance to civilians affected by the conflict.Read below some of the excerpts of the report: SPLA-N forces absentIn all of the bombing incidents that Amnesty International investigated, witnesses and victims stated that there were no SPLA-N troops or other military targets in the vicinity at the time of the attacks. While Amnesty International cannot confirm, in every case, that SPLA-N forces were absent, the uniformity of the civilian accounts—and the civilians’ unqualified belief that they were the targets of the Sudanese government’s attacks—was striking. Civilians often spoke of hiding from military planes and told Amnesty International they believed that if they were spotted they would be bombed.The Ingessana Hills, the birthplace of rebel leader Malik Agar, have been particularly hard hit. During the first half of 2012, the Sudanese government carried out a deliberate scorched earth campaign of shelling, bombing, and burning down civilian villages in the area, and forcibly displacing many thousands of people. Some civilians who were unable to escape were burned alive in their homes; others were reportedly shot dead. The wide scale of the attacks was confirmed by satellite images obtained by Amnesty International, which show village after village in which nearly all of the homes were destroyed by fire, as were mosques,schools and other structures. Now, the only signs of life in these villages are Sudanese military positions.The humanitarian situation for people who remain in SPLA-N-held areas is dire. Unable to tend their crops because of the fear of being bombed, many people—particularly those living in remote parts of the state—face food shortages and other hardships. With the Sudanese government barring humanitarian access to SPLA-N-held areas, food supplies are scarce; shelter is precarious, and even the most basic medical care is non-existent.Coercive recruitmentAmnesty International found that refugees from Blue Nile state face additional challenges even upon reaching safety in South Sudan, including the threat of coercive recruitment by the SPLA-N. The SPLA-N’s active presence within the camps undermines the camps’ civilian and humanitarian character, diverts scarce resources, and detracts from the credibility of the humanitarian effort.While the refugee outflow from Blue Nile state triggered a humanitarian response from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and aid organizations, the conflict has otherwise received scant international attention. Preoccupied by relations between Sudan and South Sudan, the UN Security Council and the African Union have failed to take real action to address the violent abuses, or to address the need for urgent and impartial humanitarian assistance in Blue Nile state or in nearby Southern Kordofan state, where a closely related armed conflict is taking place. The possibility of a long-term stalemate and protracted forced displacement is extremely worrying.Arrests without chargesAmnesty International has also received credible information indicating that 85 men arrested on suspicion of supporting the SPLM-N in Blue Nile state remain in indefinite detention without charge at Sinja prison, in Sennar state. They reportedly include students, casual labourers, government employees, policemen, soldiers, former SPLA members of mixed Sudanese-SPLA military units, and even agents of the National Intelligence Security Service (NISS). While it is not clear what evidence, if any, the Sudanese authorities have to justify their arrests, Amnesty International is concerned that they are being detained long-term without charge, and that they may have been arrested for their political views or ethnic background.The majority of the detainees are originally from Blue Nile state, or are Nubas or South Sudanese. Nearly all have been detained without charge for about 20 months, since September 2011. Most were initially detained incommunicado in Military Intelligence or NISS detention centres, before being transferred to the authority of a special prosecutor in Sinja. Amnesty International received credible but unconfirmed reports of torture of these detainees by the NISS, Military Intelligence and police officers, including the use of electric shocks, as a way to coerce detainees into making confessions.The approximately 150,000 civilians who have fled Blue Nile state are now living in Ethiopia and South Sudan, with the bulk of the refugee population located in refugee camps in South Sudan.File photo: Refugees in southern Blue Nile, December 2011 (Radio Tamazuj)