Sudanese Accuse 15 Of Rights Violations
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The Sudanese government has for the first time arrested military and security officials accused of raping and killing civilians and burning villages in the western region of Darfur, the justice minister said Monday.
Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin said that a government committee had arrested 15 members of the police, military and security forces in Darfur for human rights abuses and that they would immediately be sent to court.
The announcement came ahead of an expected U.N. Security Council vote Wednesday on a French-drafted resolution that would authorize the International Criminal Court to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes in Darfur. Sudan opposes the measure.
"Now it is high time for us to prove ourselves and to prove how genuine we are and how seriously the Sudanese judiciary can do the job," Yassin said.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the outbreak of fighting in early 2003, and many more have been driven from their homes.
ASIA
• KABUL, Afghanistan -- At least four civilians were injured when a bomb exploded on a busy, frequently patrolled road linking several U.S. and NATO military camps in Afghanistan's capital, NATO officials said.
No one has asserted responsibility for the bombing, the first in the capital since October.
The bomb, which authorities said was probably hidden in a roadside barrel or cart, went off at about 1 p.m. as a van belonging to the Canadian Embassy was passing. None of the occupants of the van was injured.
-- N.C. Aizenman
• KABUL, Afghanistan -- The United States is spending $83 million to upgrade its main military bases in Afghanistan, in a sign that American forces will likely remain in the country for years, an Air Force general said.
Brig. Gen. Jim Hunt, commander of U.S. air operations in the country, said funds were being spent on construction projects already underway at Bagram, the main U.S. base north of Kabul, and Kandahar, the main city in the south. Both are being equipped with new runways.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Kabul this month, said the Bush administration had not decided how long to keep troops in the country.
• PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Thousands of opposition activists rallied in this city in northwestern Pakistan, chanting "Death to dictatorship!" in the latest demonstration against Gen. Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
