Rights Group Reports Evidence of War Crimes in Mali

International human rights experts say the armed groups occupying northern Mali have committed war crimes, including rape and using children as combatants. And there's evidence of crimes by Malian soldiers too.

Human Rights Watch says separatist Tuareg rebels and other armed groups who've taken over northern Mali have abducted and raped girls and women, used children as combatants, and - in rampant looting - robbed communities in their very technique of survival.

Among the scores of witnesses and victims human rights researchers spoke with in Mali was a 14-year-old girl who said she was gang-raped for four days by fighters with the Tuareg separatist group National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or MNLA.

Corinne Dufka is Human Rights Watch's senior Africa researcher.

“We noted an incredibly worrying dynamic of abduction and sexual abuse by primarily the MNLA in addition to the Arab militia," said Dufka. "I spoke with the witnesses to 17 abductions after which we spoke with either direct victims or with relations and friends who had direct knowledge of plenty of girls being sexually abused to boot.”

While tens of thousands of Malians have fled the occupied regions, individuals who remain say attacks on civilians continue.

This resident of Gao, who didn't want her name used, said girls as young as 10 years old and pregnant and nursing women were raped.

She says rapes are still happening. Today, she says, girls and women are being kidnapped and raped.

She says it is crucial that the sector know the reality in regards to the separatist Tuareg rebels.

She says the international community must remember that contrary to what the rebels say - that they're here for independence of northern Mali - they have got come raping our women, raping our girls, looting every very last thing we now have.

The Tuareg rebels, who for many years have mounted sporadic uprisings in a bid for autonomy, fought alongside Islamic militant groups in attacks on Mali's north in recent months.

The New-York based Human Rights Watch says all the armed groups have committed offenses. Ansar Dine, the Tuareg Islamic group trying to enforce an intensive interpretation of Sharia law across Mali, is reported to have performed severe punishments, including slitting the throat of 1 man and removing the hand of another.

Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director with Human Rights Watch, says fallout from the newest violence can be dangerous, as some non-Tuaregs laid low with the unrest inside the north are talking revenge.

“They're very keen to take revenge for the suffering that was attributable to the rebel groups within the north and are actually organizing their very own militias and a few in their rhetoric is extremely extreme," he said. "They feel just like the Tuareg rebels have caused problems within the north for a very long time they usually would like to return and basically cleanse the north of Tuareg.”

There is an ethnic element also in crimes allegedly committed by members of the Malian army. Human Rights Watch says it found credible evidence that during the aftermath of the rebel sweep of the north, Malian soldiers performed arbitrary detentions and summary executions of Tuaregs and other light-skinned people.

Corinne Dufka says the abuses by Malian soldiers generally is a sign of items to come back.

“We are concerned that these kinds of trends could continue as perhaps a few of the militia groups engage in an operation against the north and we'll be watching that," said Dufka. "We call on each side to abide by international humanitarian law and make sure that those members in their respective militaries maintain discipline and are disciplined in case they do commit abuses.”

Human Rights Watch is asking at the Malian government to ask the UN human rights commission to observe and investigate abuses within the north.

The International Criminal Court said on April 24th that it's been closely watching the location in Mali because the latest rebellion broke and may come to a decision soon on whether to envision further.

From WhatNewsToday.net

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