Omar Bashir Wants to Set the Record Straight: "No Rape" In Darfur

There are many, many reasons to loathe Sudanese President Omar Bashir - or, put another way, it's probably naive to expect much from a man whom ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.  (Or, as I like to think of it, the genocidaire trifecta.)  So his recent statement to a British reporter that "no rape took place" in Darfur shouldn't have come as much of a surprise:

"The women inside the camps are under the influence of the rebels and some are even relatives of the rebels. That’s why they make these claims.  We are fully convinced that no rape took place...these [claims] are all false allegations. It is not in the culture of the Darfuris. The Darfurian society does not have rape. It’s not in the tradition."

Which, at the least, shows that Bashir is intimately familiar with the concept of the big lie.  (Nor is this the first time Bashir has made such claims.)

The problem, however, is that the Sudanese Government makes it almost impossible to collect accurate figures about the scope of rape in Darfur, swiftly retaliating against those NGOs which speak out on the issue.

For instance, in May 2005 the Sudanese Government arrested two senior officials with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) after the organization released a report on sexual violence in Sudan.  This and similar intimidation has had a chilling effect, making it difficult for humanitarian agencies even to discuss the issue.

What statistics that do exist are fragmentary.  In April 2008 Human Rights Watch released a report entitled Five Years On: No Justice for Sexual Violence in Darfur, which tries to tally the existing information:

"The humanitarian organization, Médecins sans Frontières, reported it treated almost 500 women and girls between October 2004 and February 2005 in South Darfur, and that these represented a fraction of the total given the chronic under-reporting of rape. Another humanitarian agency reported that 200 women were sexually assaulted in a five-week period in August 2006 around Kalma camp, South Darfur. Kalma camp still endures high levels of sexual violence. Elsewhere in Darfur, reported numbers tend to be lower. In 2007, UN human rights monitors documented approximately 10 cases per month in locations they visited."

The ICC Prosecutor also emphasized sexual violence in Darfur in the Application for a Warrant of Arrest under Article 58 Against Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir:

"Thousands of women and girls belonging to the target groups were and continue to be raped in all three States of Darfur by members of the Militia/Janjaweed and Armed Forces since 2003. Girls as young as 5 years old have been raped. A third of the rapes are rapes of children. Underreporting of rape is widespread. Nonetheless, periodic reports and testimonies conclude that rape has been committed systematically and continuously for 5 years."

For personal testimonies by Darfuri women, see here.

That said, there is some good news, as the ICC's actions are already having an impact - the blog Opinio Juris noted that Bashir recently cut short a visit to Ghana, which as an ICC member would have an obligation to arrest him if a warrant were issued while he was in the country.

Additional reports about sexual violence in Darfur:

- Ending Sexual Violence in Darfur: An Advocacy Agenda (Refugees International, 2007)

-Laws Without Justice: An Assessment of Sudanese Laws Affecting Survivors of Rape (Refugees International, 2007)

- Sexual Violence and its Consequences among Displaced Persons in Darfur and Chad (Human Rights Watch, 2005)

- The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur (Médecins sans Frontières, 2005)

Image: Sudanese President Omar Bashir - Photo from robcrilly.files.wordpress.com