UN: Sudan government forces are responsible for a "reign of terror" in war-torn province of Darfur that may constitute crimes against humanity, according to a confidential UN report.
Armed Arab militias and regular army forces are responsible for "massive human rights violations" says the report, citing a litany of racially driven violence that some officials liken to ethnic cleansing.
Since war erupted in Darfur - a remote western province the size of California - last year, Arab militias and regular army troops have mounted a ruthless "scorched-earth" campaign against ethnically African civilians in rebel-friendly areas.
Women are raped, men and boys of fighting age slaughtered, and entire villages have been torched. More than one million people have fled their homes and another 110,000 have crossed into the harsh, mine-strewn deserts of eastern Chad.
Darfur is the "potential horror story of 2004" according to the International Crisis Group (ICG), while the Overseas Development Institute warns of "a clear risk of large-scale famine mortality".
Until now international reaction has been muted, largely because of sensitivity about the ongoing peace negotiations between the Sudan government and another rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), to end their 21-year war in the south.
But exactly a decade after the Rwandan genocide, the UN is becoming increasingly vocal about preventing another ethnic slaughter in Darfur.
The still confidential UN report, of which The Irish Times has obtained a copy, echoes reports of widespread abuses already catalogued by human rights organisations.
However, apparent obstruction tactics by the Sudanese government have prevented it from being aired at a key session of the UN Human Rights Commission today.
The delay has provoked outrage from human rights campaigners, who see it as a ploy to skirt scrutiny of its notoriously poor human rights record.
"The Sudan government is trying to delay and delay these missions. It is trying everything it can to avoid UN censure," said Ms Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch.
There is much to hide. Darfur has been at war since the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) launched a rebellion early last year, citing economic marginalisation, chronic underdevelopment and the government's failure to protect farming tribes from attacks by armed Arab nomads. The SLA was later joined by a second rebel group, the loosely allied Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
The war has pungent echoes of the 22-year war against the SPLA rebels, which is now winding down due to peace talks in neighbouring Kenya. To quell the southern insurgency Khartoum sent squadrons of bomber aircraft, armed local Arab militias and manipulated western aid. Now it is using the same ruthless tactics in Darfur.
Ageing Russian cargo planes attack first, lobbing crude bombs over key towns and villages with wells or markets.
Refugees describe the bombs - which in the southern war were simply oil drums packed with explosive and metal shards - as "big barrels". Others say they were attacked by helicopter gunships.
Those who survive the aerial bombardment are targeted by follow-up offensives led by the Janjaweed militia, regular government soldiers, or both. From nomadic Arab tribes, the Janjaweed have traditionally battled with Darfur's farming and trading tribes for control of the area's scarce resources.
According to the UN report: "Janjaweed were invariably said to use horses and camels, while government soldiers were described as travelling in military vehicles," it said. "Both were dressed in combat fatigues and both were well-armed."
Houses are torched, women raped, and men and boys of fighting age singled out for torture and murder. Cattle, camels and other possession are stolen. Some survivors describe being stripped and whipped, or beaten with the butt of a gun.
Gangs of Janjaweed violently rape non-Arab women, sometimes at gunpoint and in front of family members. Some assaults have clear racial overtones.
One 18-year-old woman told Human Rights Watch that her attacker stuck a knife into her vagina, saying "You get this because you are black." Human rights groups say the spectre of ethnic cleansing hangs over the co-ordinated attacks. The allegation is denied by the Islamic government of President Omar al Bashir, who nonetheless blocked international humanitarian assistance to Darfur until last January.
Since then a trickle of agencies have move into the province, but their movements remain severely restricted. Some relief workers have witnessed the atrocities.
UN aid worker Ben Parker said yesterday: "I saw a village on fire east of El Genenina on Wednesday. The people ran away when they saw our car. We felt it wasn't safe to stop.
"I can't say I saw the Janjaweed lighting the match, but that is their modus operandi."
Exhausted, terrified and hungry, and with nowhere else to run, a flood of 110,000 refugees have crossed into neighbouring Chad. They have found scant protection in the hot and inhospitable desert area.
Some parts are still littered with landmines and other unexploded ordnance from Chad's own civil war in the 1970s. Western aid agencies are struggling to provide them with water, food and medicine in extremely difficult conditions. Disease is a threat - in Tine town doctors reported 25 incidences of meningitis, which is above the threshold for an epidemic.
Relief workers fear a rapid deterioration of conditions over the coming two months once seasonal rains start. But the refugees' greatest fear is for their own security.
Even across the Chad border, they are not guaranteed sanctuary from the ravages of their own government. In February three people were killed and about 50 injured when bombs from a Sudanese aircraft landed just over the border.
According to the UN report the Chadian military has engaged in battles with Janjaweed militiamen who slip across the border to harass refugees and steal cattle. In a recent exchange two Chadian soldiers died and one was injured.
President Bashir denies supports for the Janjaweed - an account disputed by diplomats, aid workers and human rights activists.
According to analysts the Janjaweed are heavily armed; and their leaders use government offices, vehicles and satellite phones. "They are not out-of-control bandits. They work in close co-operation with the government forces. They loot and rape and nobody is allowed touch them," said Ms Rone.
Until now the international community has largely ignored reports of atrocities in Darfur. Western donors have concentrated on a policy of quiet diplomacy and "constructive engagement" with Khartoum to nudge the peace process in Kenya forward.
But now pressure is building to force the Khartoum regime to stop the abuses. Aid workers are lobbying the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, to use his influence while Ireland holds the presidency of the European Union.
Irish agencies Goal, Trocaire and Concern are providing aid to the victims of the forced displacement in Darfur.
On Wednesday peace talks between Khartoum and the two rebel groups re-opened in the capital of Chad, N'djamena. The two sides signed a 45-day ceasefire on April 8th to allow humanitarian access to the region.
But so far the government has allowed only a handful of aid workers into the area and banned journalists. The attacks on civilians have continued.
According to ICG, international diplomatic attention is urgently required to resolve the dispute and end the atrocities.