Bashir: Mass Rape in Darfur a “Myth”

Ladies and gentlemen, your peacemaker:

Al-Bashir who rarely gives interviews told the British Channel 4 News from Khartoum that rape claims are made up by Darfuri women.

“The women inside the camps are under the influence of the rebels and some are even relatives of the rebels. That’s why they make these claims” Al-Bashir said.

“We are fully convinced that no rape took place. It might have happened at an individual level, but this is a normal crime that can happen in any country in the world. Mass rape does not exist”.

[snip]

Al-Bashir told Channel 4 that DNA tests can be performed on children who are born from women who claim to have been raped.

“There are scientific methods that can reveal who are the fathers of these children which are born” he said.

But the interviewer Lindsey Hilsum challenged him by asking “So you are going to take the DNA’s of all the Janjaweed”?

Al-Bashir responded by saying “You can bring the accused and take his DNA”.

Hilsum again asked the Sudanese president how the raped women would be able to know the names of militia members who sexually assaulted them to perform the DNA test on them.

Al-Bashir ended up saying that “these [rape claims] are all false allegations. It is not in the culture of the Darfuris. The Darfurian society does not have rape. It’s not in the tradition”.

No snarky commentary necessary.