UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (UPI) -- Sudanese authorities are failing to uphold many of the commitments made last year under a peace agreement to bring an end to the country's decades-old civil war, the United Nations says.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva issued a report Tuesday made available at U.N. World Headquarters in New York, assessing Sudan's success in upholding the north-south comprehensive peace agreement, signed Jan. 9, 2005, in Naivasha, Kenya, by the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. The report offers a grim picture of developments from December 2005 to April 2006.
The report cites obstruction of the work of human rights workers, harassment of those voicing concerns about human rights and the failure to reform laws that shield state officials from criminal prosecution. It calls domestic mechanisms adopted to address violations of human rights and international humanitarian law "superficial and inadequate."
Regarding Darfur, the embattled region in western Sudan, the report said the conflict has reached a new level of violence, both in intensity and frequency. The report says it was particularly alarming that the government had reverted to the use of helicopter gunships and lists the reported use of an airplane to drop bombs on a village in Gereida, in southern Darfur, as recently as April 24.
"Almost a year-and-a-half after the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement," the report said, "the government is falling far short of many of the human rights commitments it made under the CPA and Interim National Constitution."
The human rights report comes almost three weeks after the May 5 signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement in Abuja, Nigeria, which brought together the government of Sudan and a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, one of several rebel groups in Darfur.
In a separate report, to be issued Thursday and obtained in advance by United Press International, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also sounded a note of pessimism. Even as the peace process appears to be moving forward, the report said, violence in Darfur has continued.
"The last two months have seen serious armed clashes by warring parties, acts of banditry and hijacking of vehicles," he said.
Just two days after the Darfur agreement was signed, violence broke out at the Kalma refugee camp, culminating in the death of an interpreter for the African Union, which has managed peacekeeping in the region. Negotiations are currently underway to replace the 6,898-member AU mission in Darfur with an international, U.N.-backed force.
Darfur, a region roughly the size of France, has been the scene of fighting between the government, pro-government militias and rebels. The violence, which U.S. President George W. Bush has labeled genocide, has killed thousands of people and uprooted 2 million more in the last three years. In April, the violence spread to neighboring Chad, which borders Darfur.
The human rights report documents incidents of violence throughout the region, including attacks on over 20 villages in Gereida between January and April by armed militia and, at times, government forces.
New to the violence in Darfur has been fighting between different factions of the Sudanese Liberation Army, including those who refused to participate in the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Access to humanitarian workers has been seriously limited due to insecurity and blockades on civilian populations.
"Even as the final rounds of discussions in Abuja were taking place, all parties continued to engage in totally unacceptable levels of violence and despicable attacks against civilians, in breach of humanitarian law and earlier ceasefire commitments," the secretary-general said.
"While the signing of the agreement represents a major achievement, the parties must now proceed decisively in good faith, and the people of Sudan and the international community must urgently tackle the challenge of implementation," he said.
