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<p align="left"><font size="4"> MASS GRAVES UNCOVERED IN SUDANæ‹… DARFUR REGION FEEDæ‹… FEAR IN
REFUGEES <br>
<br>
MUKJAR, Sudan - Uncovered by a restless wind, skulls and bones poke above<br>
the thin dirt in this corner of Darfur, lying surrounded by half-buried,<br>
rotting clothes.<br>
<br>
A short, bearded man named Ibrahim, 42, scratches through the sand. He is<br>
quiet and serious, close to tears. There are other, bigger grave sites<br>
elsewhere, he says, but the bones he is looking at are those of 25 people<br>
who he is sure are his friends and fellow villagers.<br>
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank">
<img src="http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa133/candyfire03/Corys%20Pics/massgrave.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" align="right" width="525" height="400"></a><br>
Some of them were dragged from the prison where he was held and were axed to<br>
death, he says.<br>
<br>
Ibrahim is showing the burial ground to an Associated Press reporter and<br>
photographer, the first Western journalists to visit this remote town in<br>
more than a year. The western Sudan region is about to enter a new phase in<br>
its four-year-old conflict _ one that villagers fear may encourage more<br>
killing.<br>
<br>
Sudan's government recently agreed to let in 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers, a<br>
fraction of the 22,000 mandated by the Security Council last August. The<br>
deployment could still take months and villagers here fear the government<br>
will want to get rid of all witnesses to atrocities before peacekeepers move<br>
in.<br>
<br>
"We need them to come as fast as possible, because we're all in danger,"<br>
said Ibrahim.<br>
<br>
Aid workers and U.N. personnel say the burial site is one of three dozen<br>
mass graves around Mukjar, a town at the center of the Darfur calamity,<br>
holding evidence at the heart of the international community's case against<br>
Sudanese leaders for war atrocities.<br>
<br>
Ibrahim and others interviewed insisted their full names be withheld because<br>
they fear reprisals. It is difficult to independently verify their accounts,<br>
<br>
but they cited dates and victims' names and drew maps of grave sites.<br>
<br>
Ibrahim named nine of the people buried in the grave he showed to the AP.<br>
<br>
Some of what the witnesses say matches up with what a prosecutor for the<br>
International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, has documented: at<br>
least 51 cases of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in the<br>
Mukjar area _ mass executions, torture and rapes of civilians.<br>
<br>
The prosecutor says most of the killings were done by the Sudanese army and<br>
the janjaweed, Arab militiamen backed by the Sudanese government. Their war<br>
on Darfur rebels, which turned against all black African villagers, has<br>
become the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 200,000 dead<br>
and 2.5 million made homeless.<br>
<br>
This month, the court issued arrest warrants for two men _ a Sudanese<br>
government minister and an alleged janjaweed commander _ who it contends<br>
directed atrocities here.<br>
<br>
Most of the mass killings in this area happened in late 2003 and early 2004,<br>
when long-simmering tensions in Darfur flared into its latest bloodbath.<br>
<br>
Ali Kushayb, the alleged janjaweed commander named by the ICC, has been<br>
fired as the Mukjar region chief of the "central reserve" police, a force<br>
regarded as a cover for the janjaweed. He was replaced by his deputy, Addaif<br>
al-Sinah, who villagers say remains the area's janjaweed chief.<br>
<br>
Ahmed Harun, who was a government minister and head of the government's<br>
Darfur task force when the killings occurred, is also sought by the court.<br>
He is now the minister of humanitarian affairs.<br>
<br>
Mukjar offers a sobering look at the results of a government victory:<br>
Impoverished and frightened ethnic Africans huddle in refugee camps where<br>
they survive on humanitarian aid, while Arab nomads control the hinterland,<br>
threatening any farmer who tries to return.<br>
<br>
"They did such a good job at cleansing the region in 2003 that there's not<br>
much left to fight over," said an aid worker, who like all others<br>
interviewed refused to be quoted by name for fear of being expelled by the<br>
government.<br>
<br>
Aid workers say the town is like "a security bubble," where refugees can<br>
live in relative safety as long as they don't venture more than a mile or so<br>
into the countryside.<br>
<br>
Janjaweed fighters still stroll through the marketplace, automatic rifles<br>
slung over their shoulders.<br>
<br>
"We live side by side with the murderers of our families, and we can't do<br>
anything," said Ibrahim.<br>
<br>
Nearly four times the size of Texas, Sudan is Africa's biggest country. It<br>
straddles black and Arab Africa, a patchwork of over 100 tribes and<br>
ethnicities ruled by an Arab-dominated government.<br>
<br>
Sudan has been plagued for decades by rebellions, some separatist, driven by<br>
feelings of discrimination and economic neglect. Darfur's tensions escalated<br>
into all-out conflict just as the government was negotiating an end to a<br>
20-year civil war with its African, partly Christianized south, and it<br>
apparently feared a new threat to Sudan's territorial integrity.<br>
<br>
Its response was a fierce counterinsurgency.<br>
<br>
The government is accused of arming some of Darfur's Arab nomads and paying<br>
them to attack not just the rebels but innocent black African villagers. The<br>
name janjaweed roughly translates as "demons on horseback." The Sudanese<br>
army also is allegedly involved.<br>
<br>
These forces swept through parts of Darfur searching for rebels, and some<br>
black Africans fled Mukjar _ a coveted part of the arid region where water<br>
and vegetation are more abundant.<br>
<br>
The International Criminal Court's prosecution, issuing a report in February<br>
that capped 20 months of investigation, limited itself to events between<br>
August 2003 and March 2004. It charged that Harun and Kushayb bore "criminal<br>
responsibility in relation to 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity<br>
and war crimes, including persecution, torture, murder and rape."<br>
<br>
All the cases stemmed from the Mukjar area. The Sudanese government disputes<br>
almost all the allegations.<br>
<br>
For Ibrahim, finding his friends' bones in a shallow grave was just one of<br>
the torments he described.<br>
<br>
In February 2004, he said, his father, a sister, three brothers and five<br>
nephews were slain during an army-janjaweed raid on his village, Trindi. He<br>
said it was targeted because it is inhabited by people of the same tribe as<br>
that of a rebel group.<br>
<br>
He managed to bury his relatives in a hurry, then fled to Mukjar, a<br>
three-hour hike away. But the following week he was arrested and jailed.<br>
<br>
He and other witnesses said that nearly every day for over a month,<br>
government forces would pluck a few men from the jail. Ibrahim said he saw<br>
or heard people being killed. Others just disappeared, and sometimes their<br>
bodies would turn up later, he said.<br>
<br>
"I learned to survive by hiding at the back of the cell when they came to<br>
pull people out," Ibrahim said.<br>
<br>
He said he was jailed until April 2004, when the international aid group<br>
Doctors Without Borders reached Mukjar and first reported atrocities.<br>
<br>
The ICC report says large-scale purges had begun some eight months<br>
previously after Harun, the minister, met in Mukjar with Kushayb, whom the<br>
ICC describes as the "colonel of colonels" of all janjaweed in the zone.<br>
<br>
It says Harun armed and funded the janjaweed with government cash and made<br>
regular follow-up visits to Mukjar.<br>
<br>
Ibrahim recalled watching from his jail cell when about 1,000 janjaweed<br>
gathered in front of the prison to receive their share of looted cattle.<br>
<br>
"The minister (Harun) told them their mission was to burn all the region<br>
down," he said.<br>
<br>
Next, he said, Kushayb ordered his men to "get rid of every Fur" and turn<br>
their territory into Dar al-Arab, meaning "Land of the Arabs." Fur are the<br>
main tribesmen of this region, hence the name Darfur.<br>
<br>
Kushayb then opened the cell's barred door, pulled out a prisoner and split<br>
his head open with an ax, Ibrahim said. He said he witnessed the killing.<br>
<br>
Ibrahim said Kushayb then axed two more prisoners to death while his men<br>
shook their right fists and shouted "janjaweed, janjaweed."<br>
<br>
As for Harun, Kushayb's boss, "The minister was sitting under the shade, and<br>
he was also cheering," Ibrahim said.<br>
<br>
With Ibrahim in prison was Abdallah, a young man who said he never belonged<br>
to a rebel group. In a separate interview, he said he witnessed the ax<br>
killings described by Ibrahim.<br>
<br>
Abdallah said he was repeatedly beaten with an iron rod and saw others being<br>
burned or lashed or having their nails torn off.<br>
<br>
He said two men were crucified on the prison wall. "A janjaweed then<br>
hammered a nail through one man's forehead," he said, and the other was<br>
nailed through the chest.<br>
<br>
Both Ibrahim and Abdallah separately said they had seen and heard women<br>
being brought to the prison and raped for hours by janjaweed.<br>
<br>
They said the janjaweed shouted they were "planting tomatoes," a reference<br>
to their skin color. Darfur Arabs describe themselves as "red" because they<br>
are slightly lighter-skinned than ethnic Africans.<br>
<br>
"I heard the women's cries all night," said Abdallah.<br>
<br>
After the ICC report pointed its finger at Kushayb, the Sudanese government<br>
said it arrested him. That cannot be independently verified, and Sudan's<br>
justice minister told the AP he could not comment on when the government<br>
investigation into Kushayb's doings would be concluded.<br>
<br>
But Abdallah Khamis, acting governor of the West Darfur region, said the<br>
"central reserve" force in Darfur is now commanded by al-Sinah, the former<br>
deputy.<br>
<br>
"It's standard procedure _ everywhere in the world: A deputy replaces his<br>
superior if he is removed," Khamis said in an interview in el-Geneina,<br>
capital of West Darfur.<br>
<br>
As for Harun, a prominent figure of the ruling party, Sudan's justice<br>
minister has said authorities investigated and found "not a speck of<br>
evidence" against him.<br>
<br>
Harun initially agreed to an interview with the AP but then bowed out,<br>
saying his schedule was full.<br>
<br>
Harun has told other interviewers, mostly for Arab media, that all his<br>
orders came from the top. The ICC report quoted him as saying the government<br>
gave him "all the power and authority to kill or forgive whoever in Darfur<br>
for the sake of peace and security."<br>
<br>
Sudan says that, like the U.S., China or Israel, it is not party to the<br>
International Criminal Court and will not hand over suspects.<br>
<br>
The ICC prosecutor's office says it has the right to investigate Darfur<br>
crimes nonetheless and will push ahead. In an e-mailed reply to a question,<br>
the court said, without elaborating, that the prosecution "continues to<br>
gather information about alleged crimes committed in Darfur."<br>
<br>
Most rebels are gone from the Mukjar area, nearly all the villages have been<br>
burned to the ground and the Sudanese government considers the zone peaceful<br>
by Darfur standards.<br>
<br>
But some 14,000 refugees have moved into Mukjar.<br>
<br>
"We're always frightened," said Ibrahim. "We live in Mukjar like in a prison<br>
without walls. ... We're not safe, but we can't leave."<br>
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