Darfur's Nightmare Unrelenting As Sudan President Promotes Notorious Janjaweed Leader

Hilal has been named by numerous eyewitnesses in Darfur as leading terror campaigns against the African tribes in the war ravaged region.

Courtesy: middleeastinfo.org

(KHARTOUM, Sudan) - In January, Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir appointed a suspected Janjaweed leader as a special adviser.

The tribal sheik, described as "the poster child for Janjaweed atrocities in Darfur", now holds a senior government position. Musa Hilal, who is accused of leading militias on a state-sponsored campaign to cleanse parts of Darfur of non-Arab farmers, will act as special adviser to the minister of federal government.

The appointment was made despite Hilal facing a UN travel ban and sanctions for his role in the conflict, and ahead of his possible indictment by the international criminal court for war crimes (ICC).

Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, defended the appointment, saying, "He has a very influential personality in Darfur. He has contributed greatly to stability and security in the region." Speaking in Turkey, Bashir added, "We think the accusations against him are untrue. We certainly do not believe them."

The notorious tribal leader denied any wrongdoings and told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a videotaped interview in 2005, that he only recruited militias on behalf of Sudan’s central government.

The 43-year old was jailed by the Sudanese authorities in 1998 for leading an armed robbery of the central bank in the city of Nyala in Darfur. However the First Vice president Ali Osman Taha secured his release in 2002 for unknown reasons.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when an ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which then was accused of enlisting the Janjaweed militia group to help crush the rebellion.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating the war crimes in Darfur and has issued arrest warrants against Ahmed Muhammed Harun the Sudanese minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb.

Hilal was named in the filings made by the ICC prosecutor in February 2007 as making a speech alongside with Harun in July 2003, which was characterized as “racist”. However he was not named as a war crime suspect.

“Hilal was enthusiastic about unifying to fight the enemy and characterized the conflict as a holy war” the ICC prosecutor said in the document he submitted to the judges.

The UN Security Council imposed travel and financial sanctions on Hilal and three other individuals in April 2006. The US president George Bush issued an executive order enforcing similar sanctions on them.

According to the Guardian Newspapers, analysts say Hilal's nomination will act as a further stumbling block to efforts to persuade Darfur's myriad rebel groups to enter peace talks with the government, whom they accuse of condoning and even rewarding people responsible for atrocities in Sudan's western region.

Some 1.8 million people have fled their homes in Darfur, with the death toll standing at about 300,000 though international experts estimate 200,000 people have died in the conflict, which Washington calls genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use.

The Sudan government says 9,000 people have been killed.

Source: Sudan Tribune; The Guardian