Amnesty International released a report Monday saying that Sudan's pro-government militias are using mass rape as a weapon in the conflict in Darfur and accusing the Sudanese government of supporting militia attacks. According to Amnesty:

Massive human rights violations committed in the region include: extra-judicial executions, unlawful killings of civilians, torture, rapes, abductions, destruction of villages and property, looting of cattle and property, the destruction of the means of livelihood of the population attacked and forced displacement. These human rights violations have been committed in a systematic manner by the Janjawid, often in coordination with Sudanese soldiers and the Sudanese Air Force, with total impunity, and have targeted mainly members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups and other agro-pastoralist groups living in Darfur. Many of the crimes committed in Darfur constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

There is a large amount of information pointing at the responsibility of the Sudanese government in the human rights violations committed in Darfur. In addition to the military and logistical support and the impunity that it provides to the Janjawid, the Sudanese government has used a policy of repression to deal with the problems of Darfur. It has engaged in arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, "disappearances" and torture in order to punish human rights activists, lawyers, leaders and members of communities in Darfur. The Sudanese government has also used unfair and summary trials, using confessions sometimes extracted under torture without the right to defense, and applied cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, such as amputations, floggings and the death penalty.

Saying that the rapes, systematic attacks against civilians, and forced displacement occurring in Darfur are war crimes and crimes against humanity, Amnesty has called for

an international Commission of Inquiry to investigate [human rights violations] and accusations of genocide, identify the perpetrators, including those who may have ordered such crimes, propose a method of effective prosecution and full reparations, including restitution and compensation to victims. In addition, the Commission should examine ways to start a reconciliation process with human rights at its heart, which will be essential to the future of Darfur.

Read the full report and Amnesty's press release. Dr. Hasan Abdin, the Sudanese ambassador to London has denied that the government was complicit in militia attacks and said Amnesty's evidence was "flimsy and exaggerated." However, Abdin did call for a investigation into any sexual abuse in the Darfur region, saying that "rape crimes need to be investigated in a very thorough manner in a court of justice and not in reports by reporters." BBC News has the full story.