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Sudan's Troops Burned Town, U.N. Official Says

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By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, The Associated Press

Published: October 8, 2007

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A Darfur town under the control of Sudanese troops has been razed in apparent retaliation for a rebel attack on a nearby base of African peacekeepers. U.N. officials who inspected the town said Sunday that about 15,000 civilians had fled the area.
International aid workers and United Nations officials dismissed claims by some rebel chiefs that 100 people died in the North Darfur town of Haskanita. The officials said the town emptied as the army moved in Sept. 30, and troops started burning it on Wednesday.

A U.N. statement did not say who set fire to the ethnic African town but said Sudanese government forces took control after suspected Darfur rebels attacked the nearby base of African Union peacekeepers a week ago, killing 10 peacekeepers.

Haskanita, 'which is currently under the control of the government, was completely burned down, except for a few buildings,' the U.N. mission to Sudan said.

A U.N. official who had just returned from Haskanita said it was clear the army or its allied militias of nomad Arabs known as the janjaweed were behind it.

The Arab-dominated government and the janjaweed militias are accused of regularly burning ethnic African villages as part of their counterinsurgency campaign against rebels.

The official said a full army battalion of 800 troops was stationed at the entrance of the smoldering town, which was otherwise empty.

The rebel attack on the base came amid a government offensive that had been raging for two weeks in the same region. Some rebels have said the attack on the African Union peacekeepers may have happened because some rebel groups suspected the African Union of collaboration with Sudanese forces, something the agency sharply denies.

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