In a letter addressed to the prime ministers of the European Union member states, Human Rights Watch called on the E.U. to shine a spotlight on widespread human rights violations in Africa and take concrete steps to end impunity for such abuses.
Human Rights Watch urges the E.U. and its member states to take effective steps that would ensure coherence and integration of human rights concerns and commitments into its Common Foreign and Security Policy and its external relations, including development cooperation. Such a strategy calls for incorporating specific policies to address issues of human rights, accountability and the rule of law in Africa, and to use E.U. cooperation agreements and diplomatic activity to further these goals. Programs designed to support and strengthen civil society, including African human rights organizations, should receive particular attention. Robust public and private diplomacy to protest human rights violations by governments or rebel groups is an essential component of this strategy. Effective and transparent implementation mechanisms must be attached to such enhanced E.U. efforts on behalf of existing E.U. human rights and development policies and commitments.
The following memorandum reflects some of the principal concerns about E.U. policy toward Africa from the work of Human Rights Watch, but does not discuss every country where we work or every issue of importance.
Support for Civil Society
The emergence of a vibrant civil society is among the most important developments sweeping the continent, yet it remains precarious and vulnerable in many countries. We were therefore alarmed to learn that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) prohibited the Civil Society Forum sponsored by the North-South Center from taking place prior to the opening of the Summit in Cairo. Although the forum will be held in Lisbon, its significance and potential impact on the E.U.-Africa Summit has been drastically reduced.
The E.U. and its member states should strongly protest this attempt to silence civil society groups in Africa, and firmly commit to raise support and strengthening of civil society in Africa at the Summit and in its action plan. The E.U. should give visible, high-profile support to efforts by organizations of civil society to promote human rights standards and monitor their governments' compliance. The E.U. should develop transparent mechanisms to regularly monitor and protest attacks on civil society activists, and instruct its representatives in Africa to work with other international actors to create a network to protect activists in danger. We also urge the E.U. to increase its aid to civil society organizations so that they have the necessary resources to continue their work.
Prevention of War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide
Nowhere is the need for justice and accountability more apparent than in the Great Lakes crisis. Given the interlinked nature of these conflicts -- the past slaughter of Hutu refugees in the DRC and the current fear and hatred between those identified with Tutsi and those identified with Hutu in the Kivu provinces of the DRC, the possibility of future threats against the government of Rwanda, and the ethnic killing in Burundi -- the E.U. and its member states must show that genocide and crimes against humanity will be punished no matter where or by whom they are committed. To leave allegations of such crimes unaddressed in any part of this region will undermine the potential deterrent effect of judgments by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Human Rights Watch urges the E.U. and its member states to support the creation of an international jurisdiction to try cases from Burundi, the DRC, and Rwanda since 1994, which would reinforce the impact of judgments from the ICTR. Given the present work load as well as the troubled administrative history of the ICTR, it would be best to establish separate but coordinating divisions, with their own administration, prosecution, and trial chamber. They should be structured in such a way as to benefit from the existing jurisprudence created by the ICTR and with recourse to the same appeals chamber. Like the International Criminal Tribunal for Ex-Yugoslavia, these tribunals should have no fixed date for the end of their mandates. By creating a jurisdiction able to prosecute crimes not yet committed as well as those of the past, the international community would deliver a clear warning to extremists of all kinds who might otherwise be tempted to organize ethnic violence in order to disrupt any peace accords.
At the same time, we urge the E.U. and its member states to increase and ameliorate support for independent national judiciaries in Africa. In the long term, defense of human rights and the rule of law will be best assured by credible and independent institutions of justice. However, such assistance should not simply target government programs, but must also aim to enhance nongovernmental capacities in the justice arena.
Child Soldiers
The use of hundreds of thousands of children as soldiers worldwide is a global crises that demands continued international attention, especially in Africa. Recently, two milestones in the effort to end this appalling practice have been achieved: the entry into force of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in November of 1999, and the agreement by a working group in January on a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts. The Charter is the first regional treaty to prohibit any recruitment or participation in hostilities of children under the age of eighteen.
We urge all E.U. and OAU member states to swiftly sign, ratify and implement the new child soldiers protocol after its formal adoption by the General Assembly, and to also declare a minimum age of at least eighteen for voluntary recruitment. We also urge all OAU member states that have not already done so to ratify the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. In addition, we urge cooperation among states to ensure that children who have been used as soldiers are swiftly demobilized and receive support for their rehabilitation and social reintegration.
Land Mines
The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty provide the best framework for the total eradication of antipersonnel mines, including their clearance. We call on the E.U. to work for universalization of this important agreement. The E.U. should urge the nine OAU member states that have not yet signed the ban treaty to do so now (CAR, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Nigeria, Libya, Somalia). The E.U. should urge the twenty-one OAU member states that have signed but not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty to ratify immediately (Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia). The E.U. should also work to ensure that Finland, the only E.U. member state that has not yet joined the Mine Ban Treaty, signs the ban treaty now. The E.U. should also work to ensure that Greece, the only E.U. member state that has signed but not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, ratifies the ban treaty now.
Refugee Protection
Human Rights Watch is very concerned that the E.U. and its member states should take all necessary measures to secure the civilian and humanitarian nature of refugee camps. Efforts should be made to disarm and separate combatants from civilians refugees; to exclude from international protection those individuals suspected of having committed crimes against humanity or war crimes, with a view to investigate and prosecute where appropriate in accordance with international standards; and to preserve the civilian and humanitarian institution of asylum. The E.U. and its member states should provide appropriate assistance to governments and to international humanitarian agencies, such as UNHCR, to carry out these tasks and to guarantee the security of humanitarian staff.
Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned about those who have become refugees as a result of their human rights work. Human rights defenders in the Great Lakes region often face severe persecution aimed at silencing them for documenting and speaking out against human rights violations. We are particularly concerned about Congolese human rights defenders who are working in eastern Congo and have investigated human rights abuses by both Kabila's government during the 1996-97 war and the rebel RCD which took over the region in August 1998. Many activists, fearing for their lives at the hands of the rebels, have fled to neighboring countries; many have been unable to find safe asylum in these countries. The E.U. and its member states should urge UNHCR in neighbouring countries to guarantee the safety and protection of human rights defenders seeking asylum who may face grave danger.
Angola
Angola returned to all-out war in December 1998. The human cost of the war in 1999 was impossible to determine, but it is estimated that more than 2.1 million people had been displaced. Both the government and the rebels, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), were responsible for appalling levels of death and destruction.
Human Rights Watch welcomes the report by Canada's ambassador to the U.N., Robert Fowler, chair of the Angola Sanctions Committee. From 1993 until January 1999, despite the introduction of three packages of sanctions against UNITA, the U.N. largely turned a blind eye to their violation. Following the appointment of Robert Fowler as chair, the Sanctions Committee has become much more active, producing three reports with detailed recommendations. The challenge is now to see the panel's recommendations enacted, such as ensuring that compliance with U.N. sanctions regimes be among the criteria considered by the E.U. when evaluating candidates for new membership (aimed at Bulgaria especially), and that candidacies of nationals from offending countries should not be supported for senior positions within the U.N. and international organizations should be discouraged from holding conferences and meetings in listed countries (a recommendation aimed at Togo, which is an incoming chair of the Organization of African Unity).
The E.U. should work with the Security Council to support an arms embargo on Angola, applicable to both the government and UNITA. The E.U. has played a supportive role in the Angolan peace process but lacked the leverage of the United States. Portugal, the former colonial power and a member with Russia and the U.S. of the "Troika" monitors in the peace process, continues to play an important role but, disappointingly, has not been active in pressing rights issues. The E.U. has issued a number of communiques which included condemnations of human rights abuses by both sides, and we urge the E.U. to continue denouncing such abuses publicly.
Burundi
In September 1999, Burundian authorities abruptly ordered some 350,000 residents of the province of Bujumbura-rurale to move into regroupment sites, purportedly to reduce Hutu support for the rebel groups and to slow their advance on the capital. They acted also to quiet growing restiveness among extremist Tutsi who were accusing Buyoya's government of inaction before the insurgent threat. Soldiers have been responsible for killing civilians in the course of operations against rebels around the capital. Insurgents too, representing several different factions, have also slaughtered civilians.
More than one hundred thousand civilians have been slain in Burundi, both by Hutu and by Tutsi. Many of these killings are crimes against humanity and some have been described as genocide by a U.N. commission of inquiry. They must be prosecuted promptly and effectively by an international tribunal as well as by Burundian courts. Some Burundians and foreign observers now propose yet another international investigation as well as a Burundian Truth and Reconciliation commission. Such commissions may add greater detail to what is already known of this tragic past, but they serve a different purpose from that of prosecutions and must not become a pretext for delaying them. In order to end impunity, leaders on all sides who were responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity must be brought to justice, using Burundian national courts as well as an international tribunal. The E.U. should support an extension of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to include prosecution of such crimes. As an immediate priority, the E.U. and its member states should press delegates to the Arusha talks to request this extention in the final accords for ending the war in Burundi.
The majority of cases now pending would be judged in Burundian courts. Given the current limitations in number and resources of these courts, the E.U. should begin preparing the assistance that will be needed for them to function effectively and according to due process. To remedy the shortage of judicial personnel, the E.U. and its members states should assist in the intensive training of new staff. Such training should also be seen as an opportunity to integrate greater numbers of Hutu into the judicial system, a move which would help make judicial decisions more credible in the eyes of Hutu. The E.U. should also press Burundian authorities to accept the help of foreign jurists who could serve as judges, assessors, and prosecutors in these trials, just as they are now serving as lawyers for the defense.
Donor governments, including the E.U., have denounced violence against civilians and the regroupment policy and called for investigations into the worst massacres. In September, the E.U. urged the U.N. human rights operation to assist in investigating the August massacres reportedly perpetrated by Burundian soldiers. Human Rights Watch welcomes the E.U.'s calls for such investigations in Burundi and urges the E.U. to respond publicly to reports of massacres and support investigations into such abuses.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
The DRC conflict continues to present the biggest security crisis in the continent, contributing to the worsening of the humanitarian situation in much of central and southern Africa. The principal belligerents signed a shaky peace pact in Lusaka, Zambia, on July 14, that competing rebel factions later joined, but there are few illusions that progress towards implementation of the Lusaka pact will be anything other than slow and painful.
Since the signing of the Lusaka agreement, inhabitants of rural areas in north and south Kivu have complained about the intensification of attacks by Hutu rebels on their villages. At the same time, the rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and members of the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries backing them developed a pattern of reprisal attacks on civilians whenever their soldiers came under fire from the Hutu rebels or the Mai-Mai. Caught in the crossfire, hundreds of thousands of civilians in eastern Congo are forced to flee their homes to district and provincial capitals of the Kivus, and even to seek asylum in neighboring countries. The generalized insecurity has set the scene for a likely social explosion in the near future.
Forces of the RCD on several occasions have massacred scores of civilians. Human Rights Watch recently spoke to survivors of an attack which took place on February 5 in the village of Kilambo in north Kivu. According to witnesses, Kilambo was first attacked in last week of January by a group of Hutu rebels believed to be Interahamwe. The attackers raped, looted and killed many villagers. When the RCD rebels arrived, they also killed and looted the villagers, accusing them of sympathizing with the Hutu rebels. In South Kivu, over the 1998-99 New Year, the RCD massacred up to 500 civilians in and around the village of Makabola; other mass killings of civilians by the Hutu fighters and RCD forces took place throughout the year. The RCD repeatedly promised to investigate these and other similar incidents, and to punish perpetrators, but failed to deliver on such promises.
A breakaway faction of the RCD headed by Prof. Wamba dia Wamba claims to control, with the backing of Uganda, northeastern areas of the Congo along the border with Uganda. The presence of the rebels and their Ugandan backers, an increased availability of small firearms, and the emergence of an alarmingly exclusive ethnic ideology, were contributing factors in the deadly escalation of a localized interethnic conflict between the pastoralist Hema and agriculturalist Lendu tribesmen. Triggered by long-standing disputes over land rights in mid-June 1999, humanitarian sources reported that by mid-October the conflict had resulted in the displacement of over 100,000 people, and up to 5,000 to 7,000 killings.
Both the Kabila government and the rebels stepped up their harassment of Congolese human rights defenders and civil society activists. The Kabila government's attempts to intimidate the political opposition, the press, and the country's dynamic civil society and human rights movement led to severe restrictions on the freedoms of expression and association. The government made cosmetic concessions to an ever-retreating democratization agenda. Its Court of Military Order sent to the firing squads scores of soldiers and civilians convicted of disciplinary and a variety of criminal offenses after trials that lacked both in due process and venues of appeal. The RCD cracks down on dissenting voices in areas under their control in much the same way as the government does by seeking to intimidate opinion leaders through detention, harsh and degrading treatment, and travel restrictions.
Provided that the belligerent parties themselves respected their own accord, the E.U. pledged in several public statements support for its implementation, particularly in the areas of resettling civilians displaced by the war, fostering national reconciliation in the DRC, and supporting the country's rehabilitation plans. In June 1999 the European Commission issued a communication to the E.U. Council of Ministers and Parliament reviewing the E.U.'s economic cooperation with countries at war in the DRC. The report was intended to avoid the misuse of development funds provided by the E.U. for military purposes. Also in June a presidential declaration expressed concern at the continuing flow of arms and military equipment to the Great Lakes and Central Africa regions. The statement called on member states to strictly adhere by the E.U.'s own Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, and recalled that, under the E.U. code, countries agree not to authorize arms exports that might "aggravate existing tensions or armed conflicts in the country of final destination" or risk fueling human rights abuses.
The E.U. and its member states should energetically denounce violations of human rights and humanitarian law by all parties involved in the DRC war, including Rwanda and Uganda, and insist upon accountability for the perpetrators. Strong and constant pressure should be exerted on all foreign countries involved in the war in the Congo as well as the Congolese government to observe their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law. The E.U. and its member states should insist that the U.N. complete a prompt and thorough investigation of charges of violations of international humanitarian law against all parties, and support the creation of a separate chamber for the DRC of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to prosecute such crimes. Close scrutiny of the E.U.'s economic assistance to all the states involved in the conflict should continue to ensure that funds earmarked for social and economic development programs do not end up in the war chests of the belligerents. The E.U. and its member states should call for a embargo on the sale and transfer of arms to the region, and to governments with troops in the DRC. The E.U. and its member states should extend technical and financial assistance to the process of inter-Congolese dialogue after ensuring that the process in all its phases is transparent and accessible to all stake holders, namely the government, the rebel factions, the unarmed opposition and civil society.
Nigeria
The inauguration on May 29 of the first civilian government for 16 years in Nigeria offers a real hope that the country can take its rightful place as a leader of the African continent and that its citizens can enjoy the respect for human rights to which they are entitled. Nevertheless, serious concerns remain, including defects in the electoral process and the lack of a democratically drafted constitution, as well as the heritage of military rule; in particular, ongoing security force abuses. In recent months, ethnic and religious tensions have led to clashes in which hundreds of people have died, threatening the stability of the state. The federal government has failed to show leadership in attempts to solve these problems, and to insist that the rights of Nigerians must be respected by state governments and by the security forces.
The E.U. and its member states can play an important role in supporting legal and practical reforms by the Nigerian government through technical assistance and diplomatic pressure, and by assisting civil society organizations working towards increased respect for human rights. Any military assistance from the EU or its member states to the Nigerian military should be carefully tailored to ensure that it cannot be used to benefit officers who have been responsible for human rights violations or in situations where human rights violations are likely. The E.U. should also express its grave concern about recent incidents in which soldiers have fired indiscriminately on civilians during disturbances in Kaduna and elsewhere over the introduction of sharia, or in the oil producing regions of the Niger Delta.
EU countries have major investments in the Nigerian oil industry. It is therefore especially important that the EU and make clear to the Nigerian government that any attempt to resolve the crisis in the Niger Delta, where there is serious discontent at the terms of oil production, in a way that does not respect the rights of those who live in the oil producing regions is unacceptable. In particular, the EU should protest the use of the army to raze the village of Odi, Bayelsa State, in November 1999. Equally, the E.U. should insist to the multinational oil companies working in Nigeria that they must play their part in ensuring that oil production does not continue only due to the threat or actual use of force against those who protest their activities.
Rwanda
The Rwandan government is fighting an active war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and facing the possible renewal of serious violence in northwestern Rwanda where attacks by insurgents in December 1999 and early January broke a period of relative calm that had lasted for several months. In both arenas, Rwandan troops are reported to have committed serious abuses against civilians.
In 1999, the Rwandan authorities imposed a program of forced villagization on the people of northwestern Rwanda. Originally implemented in the eastern part of the country in an effort to provide land for the hundreds of thousands of Rwandans who returned from exile following the RPF victory, this program was transferred to the northwest with a different purpose, that of contributing to security in a region threatened by insurgency. Local officials, sometimes backed by military or police, have insisted that people destroy their homes and move to government-designated sites where they have been obliged to live in shelters of wood and leaves, perhaps covered with a piece of plastic, until they find the resources to construct a new home. Naturally the weak, particularly widows, the elderly, and minors heading households, have the hardest time in building new homes for themselves. The government has argued that this program will permit the easier delivery of services, but in fact few of the sites provide any services at all and many residents are now farther from their fields, sources of water, schools, churches, health centers, and markets than they were before. Some who have resisted destroying their homes have been fined, jailed or threatened with physical harm by the authorities.
Some 130,000 persons remain imprisoned on charges of genocide, while fewer than 4,000 have been brought to trial. Rwandan prosecutors and judicial police undertook a major initiative to prepare dossiers for the tens of thousands of persons whose cases had never been investigated in order to comply with a December 31, 1999 deadline for completing this work. As of late January, some 34,000 persons still had not yet been investigated and the National Assembly had passed a law again extending the time period during which people could be held without formal charges. The slow progress of trials, understandable at first because of the enormous difficulties of organizing a new judicial system, now has no such justification, given the very significant amount of funds and technical assistance that has been delivered to the Rwandan ministry of justice.
The Rwandan government has decided to implement a new system of state-organized popular courts called gacaca, although they have virtually nothing in common with the customary system of conflict resolution which bore this name. Arguing that conformity with tradition requires banning lawyers, they have made no provision for legal advice to either accused or victims. The system for choosing judges will be carried out, as were elections last year, by having people line up behind the persons of their choice. Those persons said to have "divisive" ideas would not be permitted to serve, but there is no indication how or by whom this test would be applied. Some 220,000 judges are supposed to be trained in a few days time to interpret the genocide law as well as to implement Rwandan judicial procedure. In addition to paying for the training of judges and other personnel for the gacaca system, the E.U. should support the training of legal defenders to assist the accused and of independent monitors to follow the proceedings. Local human rights associations would be the most appropriate groups to organize this monitoring, perhaps through the use of small tape recorders to help record the proceedings.
The Rwandan government continues to receive substantial support from the E.U. and its member states. During 1999, about 45 percent of its budget was paid for by foreign aid. The World Bank, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands continue to be major donors and Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Norway all indicated their intention to increase aid to Rwanda. In March 2000, the European Commission announced its new aid program, known as the national indicative program, to Rwanda, which signals a normalization of E.U. cooperation with Rwanda.
The E.U. and its member states should insist more vigorously that the Rwandan government investigate and bring to trial those soldiers, including senior officers, allegedly responsible for massacring civilians and for other serious human rights abuses. The E.U. and its member states should seek the expansion of the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda so it would be empowered, like the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, to prosecute crimes on an ongoing basis until the Security Council deems the conflict in the region no longer a threat to international peace. The E.U. and its member states should make assistance to gacaca conditional upon revision of the proposed system to provide the right of legal assistance to accused and victims and to eliminate existing measures for excluding persons who hold ideas unpopular with the government. The E.U. and its member states should not offer assistance to the villagization program as presently being implemented.
Sierra Leone
The international commitment to justice shown to Sierra Leone falls far short of that shown to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, especially Kosovo and East Timor, even though the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone match or surpass anything seen in these crises. Human Rights Watch is alarmed by the ongoing human rights abuses being committed by rebel groups in Sierra Leone since the signing of the Lomé peace accord, including extrajudicial killing, rape of girls and women, torture, abduction, ambushes, mutilation, attacks on aid workers and their beneficiaries, and looting of property. The attacks on villages have caused the displacement of thousands of civilians. Most of the victims were civilians in internally displaced persons camps, who were attacked when they ventured out to get food, wood and/or water. Several of the attacks occurred less than one kilometer from checkpoints manned by ECOMOG [the West African peacekeeping force], Sierra Leonean Army soldiers, and/or UNAMSIL peacekeepers.
Rebels forces have also refused to release all abducted civilians still being held by them despite having agreed to do so under the Lome Peace Accord. The rebels seem particularly reluctant to release girls and women who they continue to hold as sex slaves and 'rebel wives.' Abducted civilians who have recently escaped describe living under repressive conditions which include forced labor (particularly in the diamond mining areas), forced taxation and intimidation by rebel fighters. Residents of the capital Freetown report frequent incidents of extortion, theft and intimidation by rebel fighters who've settled in the capital. Governmental (police, loyal Sierra Leonean Army, ECOMOG) bodies responsible for the protection of the civilian population seem reluctant to establish the rule of law and intervene to stop these flagrant violations for fear of undermining the implementation of the peace accord.
The management of the country's diamond resources will be critical for the success of the peace process. The Lomé agreement set up a Commission for the Management of Strategic Resources, National Reconstruction and Development (CMRRD), which is headed by Foday Sankoh and which has yet to begin functioning. Given the well-known link between diamonds and arms purchases in Sierra Leone, effective and transparent control of the diamond resources is essential. In this regard, the E.U. and its member states should continue to notify neighboring governments, especially Liberia, that its assistance with the peace process, as well as with ending arms flows to Sierra Leone, will be a key to future E.U. assistance.
Human Rights Watch urges the E.U. and its member states to use all possible means to pressure the rebels to cease their attacks on civilians, to release all abductees, and to allow for full access by humanitarian organizations. We call on the E.U. and its member states to support the operation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a strong investigative component as required by the Lomé accord, and to support the rebuilding of the judicial system. In addition, we urge support for the work of Bethuel Abdu Kiplagat, appointed by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to explore the possibilities for establishing an international commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Sierra Leone. The E.U. and its member states should also urge the human rights observers, deployed as part of the operation in Sierra Leone, to report promptly and publicly on current abuses affecting all civilians and call on the U.N. leadership to be responsive to the human rights observers reporting.
Sudan
The seventeen-year civil war continued in the south, in the Nuba Mountains, and in the east of Africa's largest country between the Islamist government and against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of armed opposition movements. Settlement proved elusive because of difficult issues of religion and the state, economic and political marginalization of minorities, and the diversity of Sudan's Arab and African, Muslim and non-Muslim population of thirty million.
The government persistently bombed civilian installations, including hospitals, and relief sites, killing and injuring civilians and destroying scarce infrastructure. Western Upper Nile has been the scene of many aerial bombardments at airstrips and in civilian areas as the government seeks to push the inhabitants who are southerners away from oil sites. On several occasions, the government military has made use of oil company equipment and a company airstrip in the south to conduct those bombing raids. Tens of thousands of people in Western Upper Nile have been forcibly displaced.
The most serious abuse of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is the armed ethnic conflict between its Bor Dinka soldiers and officers and the Didinga tribe which formerly supported the SPLA until its abuses—summary executions, torture, stealing food—led the Didinga to revolt. The SPLA planted antipersonnel land mines freely in the Didinga area. Despite many peace delegations, the SPLA has not implemented the recommendations to end this slaughter.
E.U. countries and others rushed to do business in Sudan, particularly in the petroleum sector, despite fears that oil development would only fund more weapons acquisition. The E.U. has decided to broaden its assistance from strictly emergency assistance to "humanitarianism plus." In June 1999, the French government promised to side with Sudan within the E.U. The representative of the E.U. to Sudan noted in September that Sudan had taken practical steps that will lead to the full normalization of relations with the E.U., and cited the formation of a government fact-finding committee on slavery.
The progress in human rights, however, has not gone nearly far enough. Although the Sudanese made a stab at dealing with the slavery problem, the continued refusal to recognize the problem for what it is -- slavery -- underlines the government's unwillingness to make any real reforms or to prosecute individuals for grave crimes committed against children and women. With minor exceptions, the ban on humanitarian operations in the rebel-held Nuba Mountains remains, and the continued arbitrary imposition of bans on humanitarian operations in southern Sudan kept the displaced and needy continually on the edge. There was no access for the U.N. or international NGOs to the rebel-held east.
Human Rights Watch calls on the E.U. and its member states to support the establishment of a U.N. human rights monitoring office in both rebel and non-rebel areas of Sudan, an end to flight bans for humanitarian operations, and access to the whole country for humanitarian relief. The E.U. and its member states should urge the government to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention against Torture and its Additional Protocol, and cease all bombing in the south and Nuba Mountains until a system is in place to guarantee and verify that civilian objects and civilian populations are not targeted and are very rarely hit indiscriminately. The E.U. and its member states should do everything possible to support the peaceful settlement of the SPLA/Didinga conflict, and the People-to-People reconciliation process sponsored by the New Sudan Council of Churches. The E.U. and its member states should use all means of pressure with the Sudanese government to ensure the unconditional release of all children being held by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) at their bases in Sudan.
Thanks you for your attention to these important matters.
Sincerely,
/s/
Peter Takirambudde
Executive Director for Africa
/s/
Lotte Leicht
Brussels Office Director
cc: Mr. Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission
Mr. Chris Patten, member of the European Commission
Mr. Poul Nielson, member of the European Commission
Mr. Javier Solana, Secretary General-High Representative for CFSP
