WUNRN
SUDAN-DARFUR - DOCTORS SURVEY: RAPE
COMMON AGAINST DARFUR WOMEN
AP – In this image provided by Physicians for Human
Rights, Darfuri women return to a UN refugee camp near …
By
PETER JAMES SPIELMANN, Associated Press Writer
May 31, 2009
About half the
rapes were carried out in Darfur by janjaweed militiamen allied to the
Arab-dominated government in
The group
reached the 88 women included in the survey through camp leaders and by
word-of-mouth — a sampling method the report said hinders drawing general
conclusions about the prevalence of rape in Darfur or in the Farchana refugee
camp in
Recording rape
or interviewing victims of sexual violence is problematic in
The issue is highly contentious for the Sudanese government, which denies any systematic rape or violence against women.
The PHR survey
supported widespread claims of rape often told by Darfuri refugees, and
recounted by human rights and relief officials. U.N. officials said documenting
the violence has become even more difficult following the Sudanese government's
decision to expel 13 foreign aid groups, working mostly in
The
One woman from
the Masalit tribe recounted how when she was 13, four Arab gunmen on horseback
attacked her family's farm in a
"When they shot my father, they saw I was a little girl. I did not have any energy or force against them," said the woman, now 19. "They used me. I started bleeding. It was so painful. ... I was sick for seven days. I could not stand up."
Physicians for
Human Rights called for the prosecution
of rape as a war crime and
urged the International Criminal Court
to issue warrants against Sudanese suspects. They also sought better protection
for refugees in the
PHR said three doctors and a human rights researcher interviewed 88 women in November at the refugee camp in Farchana, Chad, where more than 20,000 Darfuris are watched over by some 2,000 Chadian soldiers, about 34 miles (55 kilometers) from Sudan's border.
Among the 88 women, 29 suffered "confirmed or highly probable rape," PHR found. Three women were assaulted twice, the group said.
The Darfur conflict began
in 2003 when mostly ethnic African rebels in the western Sudanese province took
up arms against the northern government in
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