Sudan promotes militia leader in Darfur violence

Sudan’s government said Monday that it had appointed a militia leader accused of atrocities in Darfur as the special advisor to its president, sparking outrage from human rights groups.

Musa Hilal is under a Security Council travel ban for his alleged role in the two-year targeted attacks on civilians in Darfur, and his assets have been ordered frozen.

Hilal was also named by the State Department as one of six militia leaders alleged to be responsible for serious crimes in the conflict-riddled region.

“Musa Hilal is the poster child for janjaweed atrocities in Darfur,” said Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch, referring to the militias accused in the Darfur violence. His group videotaped a 2004 interview of Hilal in which he told of how he recruited and mobilized militias under government orders in Darfur.

“Rewarding him with a special government post is a slap in the face to Darfur victims and to the U.N. Security Council,” Dicker said in a statement.

The move is considered a defiant gesture by the government in Khartoum. Hilal’s promotion comes before President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir’s meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the end of the month.

U.N. diplomats say that Hilal’s elevation is part of a provocative pattern they have come to expect from Khartoum’s leadership.

Two other men, both indicted by the International Criminal Court last year for war crimes, have since been appointed to official positions by the Sudanese government.

One, a Darfur militia leader known as Ali Kushayb, has recently been given a post on the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission, which oversees aid for Darfur, diplomats said Monday.

A second war crimes suspect indicted by the international court, Ahmed Haroun, became state minister of humanitarian affairs last year -- overseeing aid for the very people he and Kushayb allegedly helped displace. In September, just before Ban visited Khartoum, Haroun was nominated to cochair a committee that hears complaints from victims of human rights abuses.

A U.N. diplomat said a Foreign Ministry official told her after the visit that Haroun’s nomination was a test. When Ban did not protest and demand that the government remove Haroun and hand him over, the promotion was made official.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked the Security Council not to let the issue of justice be dropped from the debate over Darfur, even though U.N. officials fear that it may undermine efforts to deploy peacekeepers and advance peace talks.

Hilal denies responsibility for war crimes in Darfur, and Bashir defended him Monday during a state visit to Turkey.

“Mr. Hilal himself is a Sudanese citizen. He [is] a very influential personality in Darfur. He has contributed greatly to stability and security in the region,” Bashir told a joint news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

“In Sudan, we don’t think the claims against Hilal are true. We absolutely do not believe them. The people who really commit murders in Darfur are receiving help from Europe and others.”

Hilal, an influential tribal leader, will advise the Ministry of Federal Affairs on the government’s relations with tribes throughout Sudan, not just Darfur, a government spokesman said Monday.

Arab tribes in Sudan have recently begun to fight among themselves for land and power, and even to turn against the government for not delivering promised rewards for clearing land of rebels and civilians.

maggie.farley@latimes.com