The heavy presence of Sudan's military during an investigation by international peacekeepers of an alleged mass rape incident in Sudan's western Darfur region has raised serious concerns at the Security Council, Australia's U.N. envoy said on Monday.
Those concerns were reinforced by remarks from a U.N. official, who described the menacing atmosphere the alleged rape victims were subjected to due to the presence of Sudanese troops while they were interviewed about possible acts of sexual violence.
Last week the United Nations said Sudanese troops had denied U.N. and African Union peacekeepers access to a town in Darfur called Tabit where they wanted to investigate reports of an alleged mass rape of some 200 women and girls.
The joint U.N.-AU force in Darfur, known as UNAMID, issued a statement on Monday saying a verification team it sent to Tabit had been granted access to the village after a delay of nearly one week. UNAMID said none of those interviewed confirmed they had been raped and the investigation team found no evidence to support the allegations.
The issue was discussed by the Security Council. Australia Ambassador Gary Quinlan said U.N. special envoy on sexual violence in armed conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura and a number of council members voiced concern about the Sudanese military being present when alleged rape victims were interviewed.
"Ms. Bangura added ... that there had been a heavy military presence during the team's visit and she stressed that while the rape allegations remained unverified, in her view it was not possible to conclude that no sexual violence took place," said Quinlan, president of the 15-nation council this month.
"A number of members of the council expressed very strong concern over this," he said, adding that Bangura was worried about a possible "a wall of silence" and that the atmosphere created was one of threats and "fear of reprisal".
A U.N. official familiar with UNAMID, who is not authorized to speak to the media, said in an interview the situation during Sunday's investigation was not conducive to a proper examination of allegations of mass rape.
"It was an obvious atmosphere of intimidation," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the military were present in every house the UNAMID team visited to conduct interviews.
One alleged rape victim told members of the team that Sudanese military officials ordered them not to speak to the UNAMID team, saying that a committee headed by an army commander would talk to UNAMID on their behalf.
The U.N. official added that some of the Sudanese soldiers were drunk, which only heightened the menacing atmosphere for the alleged rape victims. The official also noted that some of the soldiers were in uniform and others in civilian clothes.
Sudan's U.N. mission did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Law and order have collapsed in much of Darfur, where mainly African tribes took up arms in 2003 against the Arab-led government in Khartoum, which they accused of discriminating against them. UNAMID has been deployed in the region since 2007.
Last month, an internal U.N. review found that UNAMID had failed to provide U.N. headquarters in New York with full reports on attacks against civilians and peacekeepers. The review had been ordered in response to media reports alleging that UNAMID intentionally covered up details of deadly attacks.
