UN panel: ‘Sudan violating sanctions with Darfur air strikes’

The UN Security Council’s independent panel of experts, who monitor sanctions imposed on Darfur in 2005, said on Friday that Sudan’s government has violated UN sanctions on the Darfur region by carrying out air strikes and using aircrafts from Belarus and Russia. The panel said it is investigating whether Sudanese troops had violated the sanctions by using Iranian armored personnel carriers in Darfur, Reuters reported on Friday. In a report recently presented to the Security Council, the panel said Sudan violated a Security Council resolution and written pledges to Belarus and Russia not to use aircrafts purchased from them in Darfur by carrying out “aerial bombardments and intimidating flights.” The report, which covers most of 2012, also said “the panel received reliable information that the Sudanese Armed Forces had conducted several offensive military overflights and bombardments in Darfur using Antonov aircraft, Mi-24 attack helicopters, MiG-29 aircraft and Su-25 aircraft”. According to the panel, the Sudanese government told them the aircraft “had only limited-scale use and were in conformity with the rights of a sovereign state” and that “it emphasized it would never use, nor had it previously used, its Darfur-based aviation assets to target its own people.” Earlier this month, the Security Council warned that foreign military support such as weapon systems and spare parts may be used in Darfur to support the aircraft deployed there in violation of Darfur sanctions.Among the recommendations made by the panel, one was that states exporting military aircraft to Sudan “incorporate an electronic-tracking system … to ensure that they are not used in violation” of Darfur sanctions and that the exporting states report any violations.Source: ReutersPhoto: UN Security Council (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)