UN Says Sudan Forces Killed Darfur Civilians

GENEVA (AP) â?? Sudanese government forces arbitrarily shot into a crowd of Darfur civilians last year, killing dozens, the U.N. human rights office said Friday.

Some 33 people died and 108 were wounded in the Aug. 25 incident when members of the police, army and other security forces opened fire inside the Kalma camp in south Darfur.

"Security forces failed to abide by international law principles of proportionality and of necessity," the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a 12-page report.

"Witness testimonies confirmed that security forces shot arbitrarily at a large crowd of IDPs (internally displaced persons) including women and children," it added.

Ali Sadiq, a Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman, dismissed the U.N. report, saying government forces were met with fire when they stormed the camp in an attempt to execute a search warrant.

"Kalma was hosting anti-government rebels and is a place for the accumulation of weapons, robbers, and outlaws," he said.

U.N. investigators determined that although some inhabitants of the camp tried to prevent the security forces from entering, there was no evidence to support the government's claim that gunmen inside the camp shot at security forces.

"It did not appear that the crowd posed any imminent threat to the security forces before they opened fire on the crowd," the report said.

Among those killed were nine children and a 75-year-old woman who drowned in a pool of water as she attempted to flee, the report said.

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