New Film Alleging Darfur War Crimes

Maggie Michael - Associated Press

CAIRO - Filmmakers hope a documentary about war-ravaged Darfur featuring former Sudanese officials detailing their role in atrocities will change perceptions in the Arab world that international concern over the region's bloodshed is part of a Western-backed conspiracy against Sudan.

The film's makers also hope the Arabic-language documentary will help build a case against Sudan's president and officials accused of genocide and war crimes during six years of fighting in Darfur.

The documentary released Wednesday was produced by the London-based human rights group, Aegis Trust. It features interviews with four men the group says were former Sudanese army and militia members.

The men, whose names are not given and faces are blurred, recount their roles in what they said was government-ordered attacks on Darfurians in a campaign to cleanse the area of non-Arab Africans.

The identities of the men could not be independently confirmed, but if true, the footage would be rare public testimony by officials detailing involvement in the Darfur bloodshed. Aegis said it confirmed their identities through documents and other evidence, but hid their faces for their protection.

U.N. officials say up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since war broke out in 2003. The fighting was sparked when ethnic African rebels rose up, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-led government in Khartoum. The government launched a military crackdown and is accused of unleashing Arab militiamen known as janjaweed, who have attacked ethnic African villages, killing, raping and driving out residents.

Sudan has dismissed the accusations and calls the U.N. figures on Darfur deaths exaggerated. It has said it would try in local courts anyone suspected of Darfur crimes.

Many in the Arabic-speaking world believe efforts by the Hague-based International Criminal Court to prosecute Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and others masks a hidden agenda to topple the Arab leader's government and cause instability in the region.

"The ICC among Arabs is a Western-backed conspiracy," said Phil Cox, an independent filmmaker who worked with the group to produce the film. The documentary is "the first time that the people can see a Sudanese, Arabic-speaking, high-ranking commander saying that 'We did this.' It never happened before."

The rights groups have handed out the documentary to newspapers in Egypt in the hopes that they will use it on their Web sites. They're also trying to persuade television stations in Arab, African and other countries to show the film.

The ICC chief prosecutor has accused al-Bashir of masterminding genocide in Darfur. Judges are expected to announce within weeks whether they will issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir.

The ICC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the documentary.

Aegis said The men in the documentary were interviewed between 2006-2008 in various parts of Europe and East Africa, where they took refuge after leaving Sudan.

One man identified in the film as a janjaweed commander said militias would attack villages - even ones without known rebels. They would destroy wells, cut down trees, loot the villages and set them on fire before government troops would come in and finish the job.

"There were more than 25 villages which we attacked, randomly. We just opened fire," he said.

The commander, who said he was willing to testify before the ICC, said the militias received millions of dollars from al-Bashir to carry out their attacks. He acknowledged paying salaries and providing cars and weapons to 183 warlords, each in charge of 200 to 250 fighters who carried out attacks against non-Arabs in Darfur.

He also alleged that he met Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha in 2003, and that Taha brought up the idea of using Arab tribesmen in the campaign against ethnic Africans.

"I will give you weapons, money, horses, camels, uniform, and everything," he quoted Taha as saying. He said Taha said in reference to Darfur, "'We need land only. We don't need people.'"

A second man who said he was responsible for paying the Sudanese armed forces from 2001 to 2003 said that he met with Ahmed Harun - a Sudanese official who faces an arrest warrant on charges of crimes against humanity for allegedly leading a local Arab militia against ethnic Africans in Darfur.

"Ahmed Harun brought money in cans, distributed money on the tribal leaders to agree and fight along with the troops," he said.

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