UNITED NATIONS - Sudan's government said yesterday that it had appointed a suspected Janjaweed militia leader accused of atrocities in Darfur as the special adviser to its president, sparking outrage from human-rights groups.
Musa Hilal is under a Security Council travel ban for his role in the two-year targeted attacks on civilians in Darfur, and his assets have been ordered frozen.
Hilal also was named by the State Department as one of six militia leaders alleged to be responsible for serious crimes in the conflict-riddled region.
"Musa Hilal is the poster child for Janjaweed atrocities in Darfur," said Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group that videotaped an interview with Hilal in 2004 describing how he recruited and mobilized militias under government orders in Darfur.
"Rewarding him with a special government post is a slap in the face to Darfur victims and to the UN Security Council," Dicker said in a statement.
The moves are considered a defiant gesture by Khartoum, and Hilal's promotion comes days before Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the end of January.
UN diplomats said his elevation was part of a provocative pattern they have come to expect from Khartoum's leadership.
Two other men, both indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2007 for war crimes, have been appointed to official positions by the Sudanese government. One, a Darfur militia leader known as Ali Kushayb, has recently been given a post on the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission, which oversees aid for Darfur, diplomats said.
A second war-crimes suspect indicted by the ICC, Ahmed Haroun, became Sudan's State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs in 2007, overseeing aid for the people he and Kushayb allegedly helped displace. In September, just before Ban visited Khartoum, Haroun was nominated to cochair a committee that hears complaints from victims of human-rights abuses.
Haroun's nomination was a test, a UN diplomat said she was told after the visit by a foreign ministry official. When Ban did not protest and demand that the government remove Haroun and hand him over, the promotion was made official.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, ICC prosecutor, has asked the Security Council not to let the issue of justice be dropped from the debate over Darfur, even though UN officials fear that it might undermine efforts to deploy peacekeepers and advance peace talks. Khartoum is blocking progress on all three issues.
Hilal denies responsibility for war crimes in Darfur, and Bashir yesterday defended him during a state visit to Turkey. "Mr. Hilal himself is a Sudanese citizen. He has contributed greatly to stability and security in the region," Bashir told a joint news conference with President Abdullah Gul of Turkey. "In Sudan we don't think the claims against Hilal are true. The people who really commit murders in Darfur are receiving help from Europe and others."
Hilal, who remains an influential tribal leader, will advise the Ministry of Federal Affairs on the government's relations with tribes throughout Sudan, not just Darfur, a government spokesman said.
Arab tribes in Sudan recently have begun to fight among themselves for land and power, and they are even turning against the government for not delivering promised rewards for clearing land of rebels and civilians.
