JURIST - Paper Chase: Sudan pledges to investigate UN reports of Darfur rapes, disappearances

[JURIST] Sudanese Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi said Saturday that his government will investigate Friday's UN reports [press release; JURIST report] detailing alleged rapes and disappearances carried out by militia soldiers in the Darfur region of Sudan [JURIST news archives] at the end of 2006. Al-Mardi nonetheless complained about the allegations' lack of specificity, telling a news conference: "We always seem to get sweeping generalizations, without naming the injured, without naming the offenders ... or supplying us with sufficient facts." Sudan has thusfar denied all allegations of wrongdoing by its soldiers. AP has more.

One of the reports, released by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile], said that at least 15 rapes and sexual assaults [report text, DOC] were committed by men who appeared to be Sudanese soldiers in December in the Jebel Marra region, with some victims as young as 13 years old. A second report [statement] said 19 men of the Massalit tribe disappeared after they were arrested in September by Minni Minnawi [BBC profile] and his Sudanese Liberation Army [FAS backgrounder] troops. Arbour called for Sudan to fully and immediately investigate the reported human rights violations. The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] is also conducting an investigation into war crimes [ICC materials, JURIST news archive] in Sudan; however, Sudan has repeatedly rejected the ICC's jurisdiction [JURIST report].

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