They're still at it

The Sudanese government has arrested and detained yet another international aid worker over the same report detailing rapes in Darfur. Both aid workers are with the Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders.

Vincent Hoedt, Darfur coordinator for MSF Holland, was arrested yesterday in the western area of Nyala and taken to Khartoum for questioning. The organisation's country director, Paul Foreman, was arrested on Monday and charged with spying and spreading false information. He was released on bail and forbidden to leave the country.

The MSF report, The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur, was published in March. Based on the treatment of 500 women over a four-and-a-half month period in Darfur, it details nearly 300 cases.

The report contains harrowing accounts by anonymous victims who tell of being held, beaten and raped repeatedly for several days. The report says more than 80% of the victims identified their attackers as government soldiers or members of government-allied Janjaweed militia.

The article also contains this tidbit, with no further info: "In a separate development, Sudan has also arrested a translator who went with the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, last weekend to hear the testimony of rape victims."

But Reuters reports the translator was "harassed but not arrested." I suppose one is technically better than the other, but sheesh!