Islamists rape 100 women in attack

Mukesh Kapila

There is nothing in Islamic law that forbids this practice. Indeed, it is buttressed by numerous incidents in early Islamic history. From WND:

Arab militias backed by Khartoum's radical Muslim regime raped more than 100 women in an attack in western Sudan.

Mukesh Kapila, the United Nations coordinator for Sudan, told the BBC 75 people were killed in the attack on the village of Tawila two weeks ago.

"All houses as well as a market and a health center were completely looted and the market burnt," he said. "Over 100 women were raped, six in front of their fathers who were later killed."

The attack, in which a further 150 women and 200 children were abducted, was one of many as village after village was razed by the militias, Kapila said.

Hundreds of thousands were ousted from their homes and more than 100,000 have fled across the border into Chad, where they have continued to face cross-border raids.

Kapila called for more international aid and urgent intervention to bring a ceasefire in the war.

Sudan's cleric-backed National Islamic Front regime in the Arab and Muslim north declared a jihad on the mostly Christian and animist south in 1989. Since 1983, an estimated 2 million people have died from war and related famine. About 5 million have become refugees.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Khartoum government forces also are alleged to have gang-raped women, sometimes forcing them to deny their Christian faith or be killed.

Kapila said he was in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994 but still is "totally shocked" at what is going on in Sudan.

"This is ethnic cleansing, this is the world's greatest humanitarian crisis, and I don't know why the world isn't doing more about it," he told BBC Radio 4's Today program.

The U.N. is concerned the fighting in western Sudan could undermine the peace talks as they come to an end.

Posted by Robert at March 20, 2004 9:06 AM
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