Rights group decries Sudan militia role

NEW YORK, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch on Monday condemned Sudanese President Omar El Bashir's action of making a known militia leader one of his special advisers.

"Musa Hilal is the poster child for Janjaweed (militia) atrocities in Darfur," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. "Rewarding him with a special government post is a slap in the face to Darfur victims and to the U.N. Security Council."

In two weeks at an African Union summit, Bashir is due to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the group said in a statement from its New York headquarters.

Citing its own research, the group claimed Hilal and his men played an integral role in the two-year campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Sudanese army and Janjaweed militia.

In a videotaped interview with Human Rights Watch in 2004, Hilal admitted to his key role in the recruitment of Janjaweed.

He is also under a U.N. travel ban for his role in Darfur, the report said.