- Sudan was accused of using rape as a weapon of war in
Darfur yesterday when Amnesty International detailed hundreds of cases
of sexual assault on girls as young as eight.
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- Arab gunmen from the Janjaweed militia are blamed for
the attacks, involving raids on villages and mass abductions of women and
girls as sex slaves.
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- Army units witnessed or actively assisted these operations,
Amnesty said, proving that the regime was "complicit" in the
use of "rape as a weapon of war", designed to expel black Africans
from the western province.
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- One woman described a Janjaweed attack. "When we
tried to escape, they shot more children," she said.
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- "They raped women. I saw many cases of Janjaweed
raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they
rape and they tell us that we are just slaves and that they can do with
us how they wish."
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- Amnesty's report said: "Rapes have taken place in
front of family members and neighbours in public areas of villages in tactics
clearly designed to humiliate the entire population." Amnesty said
it has the names of 250 rape victims and information on another 250 cases.
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- Up to 30,000 people have died in the fighting since last
year. More than a million have been forced from their homes, with 120,000
pouring into neighbouring Chad.
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- * A special tribunal in Darfur jailed 10 Janjaweed fighters
for six years for crimes against the black population, it was reported
yesterday. Amputation of the right hand and left leg of each man was ordered
in accordance with Islamic law.
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