Rebels condemn militia attacks on South Darfur villages

The Darfur armed rebel movements have strongly condemned the attacks on villages southeast Nyala in South Darfur on Thursday and Friday. “JEM most strongly condemns the acts of murder, rape, looting, and arson conducted by the Rapid Support Forces under the command of the Security Service,” Ahmed Adam Bakhit, the Secretary of the Darfur region and Deputy President of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) concluded in a statement issued by JEM on Saturday. “It is more than clear that the Khartoum regime is continuing its scorched earth and genocide policies in Darfur.”  In the statement, JEM appeals to the Members of Parliament of all five Darfur states to collectively offer their resignation. The coordinators of the camps for the displaced are requested to organise sit-ins, and present memorandums to the UN, calling for the intervention of its forces under Chapter VII to protect the civilians in Darfur. JEM demands from Darfuri student leaders and students’ associations to go to the streets in silent demonstrations, and to present memorandums to the UN, the African Union, as well as to local, regional, and international human rights organisations. It calls on Darfuri and Sudanese activists, jurists, and the media to “expose these heinous crimes” and report them to the International Criminal Court. JEM also called on the African Union Peace and Security Council to “assume the position of defender of the victims, instead of protecting the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”. SLM-factions The leaders of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) factions, Abdul Wahid El Nur, and Minni Minawi, in a separate statement, demand from the UN and the UN Security Council to “immediately open an investigation into the crimes in South Darfur. The perpetrators and those who stand behind them need to be arrested, and prosecuted by an international court.” In the statement, the SLM leaders request the International Criminal Court to “add this massacre to the records of Al Bashir’s regime”. “What happened to the villages of Um Gounja, Hijer and the other villages southeast of Nyala is genocide and ethnic cleansing.” The SLM leaders stressed that “there were no armed resistance forces present in the area of the attacks.” File photo: A gathering of JEM combattants (Radio Dabanga archive) Related:18,000 newly displaced arrive at South Darfur camps; El Salam camp surrounded by militia forces (3 March 2014) Thousands displaced in attack on more than 35 villages in South Darfur (28 February 2014) ‘Sudan army, militias target areas in South Darfur’: displaced (27 February 2014) ‘SLM-MM destroys recon squad in South Darfur’: spokesman (26 February 2014) ‘Rapid Support Forces in Darfur to fight rebels’: General (26 February 2014)