Sudan rejects UN accusations on Darfur

The Sudanese army on Sunday condemned as biased a recent UN report accusing its soldiers of rape and extensive looting during offensives in western Darfur carried out with state-backed militias.
"The armed forces rejects UN accusations and bias regarding the performance of the armed forces in its duty in chasing bandits and rebels," spokesman Othman Mohammed al-Agbash was quoted as telling the official SUNA news agency.
Agbash labelled the UN accusations part of a "campaign seeking to distort the image of Sudan" and instead accused Darfur rebels of looting, carrying out armed robberies and using civilians as human shields. Darfur rebels have said Sudanese troops backed by Janjaweed militia attacked the villages of Abu Suruj, Serba and Salia, in West Darfur state last February.
When questioned by AFP about what the UN called credible accounts of uniformed armed men raping and looting, Captain Abdul Samie Haj Ahmed denounced the "baseless lies." "The armed forces deny the accusations of the United Nations report and assure that they will continue to seek out rebels and bandits all over Sudan... The armed forces have never targeted its people," he said.
The UN report last Thursday said at least 115 people were killed in Sudanese army attacks on four villages in January and February.
On February 8, aerial bombardments against the villages of Sirba, Silea and Abu Suruj were accompanied by ground offensives from armed militia and the Sudanese armed forces, the report said. Extensive looting was carried out with "consistent and credible accounts of rape committed by armed uniformed men during and after the attack in Sirba," the UN report highlighted.
The United Nations says that since the conflict broke out in February 2003, at least 200,000 people have died and 2.2 million fled their homes while the Sudanese government maintains that 9,000 have been killed.
The conflict began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.