U.N. Covers Up Sudan's Bad Behavior in Darfur

"Late last month, a senior U.N. investigator scolded officials with the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, for repeatedly withholding evidence of alleged Sudanese government crimes against civilians and peacekeepers.

Clearly, UNAMID didn't get the memo.

Earlier this month, the mission issued a press release indicating that a probe into local media reports alleging the mass rape of some 200 local girls by Sudanese forces in the village of Tabit, in northern Darfur, turned up no evidence of wrongdoing...

UNAMID's sunny account of the mission's findings omitted extensive evidence of Sudanese government attempts to keep the peacekeepers from actually mounting a serious investigation into the rape allegations...

[T]he report left out damning evidence pointing to a concerted effort by Khartoum to undermine the UNAMID probe.

For instance, the confidential report found that the Sudanese government and military prevented the U.N. investigators from reaching the site of the alleged mass rape for more than 10 days, severely constraining their ability to collect physical evidence of sexual assault. Sudanese troops fanned out across the town in a show of strength and intimidation. Uniformed Sudanese officials also followed the UNAMID investigators as they broke up into several teams and spread out about the town to interview potential eyewitnesses, interfering with their ability to elicit honest answers...

'Some of the sub-teams reported the interviews being captured on recording devices (mobile phone) by the [Sudanese armed forces],' according to the report, first obtained by Agence France-Presse. 'The behavior and responses of interviewees indicated an environment of fear and intimidation. Some of the sub-teams had to ask the military personnel to stop following them and also asked them to allow the conduction of interviews in some privacy.'

A local teacher cited in the report said that Sudanese officials had warned locals not to cooperate with the investigation. The end result, according to the report, was that 'the public was shy to openly discuss the allegation of mass rape.'...

[A] top Sudanese official told reporters that the United Nations would not be allowed to return to Tabit to investigate the allegations."