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| July 13, 2008 |
By Nick Meo
12/07/2008
A high-ranking commander who armed and led Janjaweed militiamen in attacks on hundreds of villages in Darfur has come forward to claim that he did so at the behest of the Sudanese government.
Chadian rebels ride on vehicles as they speed across the desert during an attack on the eastern Chadian town of Gos Beida
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are tomorrow expected to take a significant step towards putting Sudan's leaders on trial by presenting evidence against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. As they pursue a case against Sudan's rulers in Khartoum, some of the most damning evidence yet that the killing was directed by the government has been provided by Arbab Idries, who was a key commander between 2003-7.
An estimated 300,000 black Africans died in ethnic massacres in Darfur at the hands of Arabic-speaking militias, in what the US has described as genocide. A further 2.5 million refugees have been driven from their homes.
Mr Idries admitted that troops under his command committed rapes and killed old people and children. "We were attacking villages where there were only the blacks," Mr Idries said in the interview. A Muslim, he is himself black as were many of the men he commanded. "These people were civilians. They had no weapons."
For several years, Mr Idries was one of the most feared men in a savage conflict. The sight of him, imposing and brutal in the saddle as he gave orders to Janjaweed horsemen, was the one of the last things seen by hundreds of farmers and their families before they were slaughtered.
The Khartoum government has always argued that the massacres were the result of tribal disputes in a remote area in which it had no hand. But the detailed account Mr Idries can provide about the campaign of slaughter could prove vital as a case is built against Sudan's rulers.
After falling out with the regime he has fled abroad to a secret East African location and is now in hiding and trying to strike a deal with international prosecutors which could save his skin. He said he had become repelled by the slaughter that he helped direct but it is more likely that he feared falling victim to political manoeuvrings within the regime. Reports from Khartoum suggest that regime figures are increasingly fearful that international pressure to pursue war crimes suspects will soon force them to offer up scapegoats.
As the expected ICC announcement approaches, Sudan's government has become increasingly angry. Its spokesman at the UN said any charges brought against the president would be "a criminal move", and Westerners in the capital Khartoum are taking extra security precautions as fears of revenge attacks grow. UN staff based in the city have been ordered to practice evacuation drills.
Mr Idries's account, given during several hours of interviews, is both chilling and convincing in its detailed description of a murder campaign by ferocious horsemen who despised the Darfuris as racial inferiors. It also outlines a clearly thought-out campaign of "ethnic cleansing".
He said: "When we entered a village we were to steal and loot whatever we could. As for the water wells, we put sand in and blocked them. We cut down trees and burnt villages. We wanted to force the population out of their areas and give them no chance to live there again.
"These instructions came from Khartoum."
He claims to have played a key role in the slaughter from its outset in 2003, when at a secret meeting he was first ordered to recruit northerners to drive out both rebels and civilians. He says that a government figure told him: "We need only land. We don't need the people there."
Soon he was leading killing sprees against some of the poorest people on earth. In 2003 and 2004 he was a commander in North Darfur, then from 2005 he was in charge of intelligence and logistics based in Nyala, SouthDarfur.
He now believes the Sudanese government wants to kill him. He said: "I know too much – I handled too much money and did too many things. The Sudanese government will never let me live." He also repeated claims that China, which has oil interests in Sudan, supports the campaign of killing.
For the journalist Phil Cox, who was filming for More4 News, meeting the former commander was a deeply unsettling experience.
Mr Idries gave him details about villages where he had ordered massacres days before Mr Cox visited them during hazardous trips, filming their smoking ruins littered with corpses. Mr Idries said: "In Gegira I see very bad things. The village is damaged. No rebels, only civilians. Gegira is attacked by militia of Janjaweed. They attack the village, burn it. Rape the women."