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| Africa: Horn |
| Information About Janjaweed Leader Musa Hilal |
| 2004-07-18 |
| From The Washington Post .... Musa Hilal is accused of being a commander of the Janjaweed militia. According to human rights groups, aid workers and U.S. officials, the militia, supported by Sudan's government, has displaced 1.2 million people in Darfur through violence and pillage. .... U.S. officials have pressed the Sudanese government to end its support for the Janjaweed and hold Hilal and six other commanders accountable for the crisis. .... But ... Hilal sat in plain sight here in the capital [Khartoum], sipping mango juice and joking about his three wives and 13 children as he wound and unwound a lilac scarf around his back and shoulders. ... Hilal portrayed himself as a defender of Arab tribes against African groups, dismissing claims that the Janjaweed have engaged in ethnic cleansing. .... Darfur has long been home to Arab herders and African farmers, two Sudanese groups that were both Muslim, shared resources and sometimes intermarried. Clashes occurred sporadically, but tensions grew more serious 25 years ago as drought spread over the continent and the Arabs began to search for better grazing land. Hilal's family was among those Arabs looking for more fertile areas. In 1976, Hilal's father moved his tribe to Amo, an area in northern Darfur where African tribes already lived, according to an investigation by the Congressional Research Service this year. The inquiry found that Hilal's father obtained the land through a corrupt official. In 1997, Hilal was jailed for killing 17 Africans in Darfur, according to the inquiry. Years earlier, he had also been imprisoned for killing a security guard and robbing a bank in Nyala, a city in southern Darfur. The tensions in Darfur exploded in early 2003. African rebels, saying that the Arab-led government in Khartoum had discriminated against them, attacked a military garrison. They destroyed four helicopter gunships, two Antonov aircraft and, according to government officials, killed about 75 soldiers. So the government decided to use the Janjaweed militia to help put down the Darfur rebellion. Hilal was in prison again, for crimes allegedly committed in 2002, but the government chose him to help organize the militia .... Hilal was released from prison after personal intervention by Sudan's first vice president, Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha. ... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |