UNITED NATIONS – The head of a Sudanese militia that has been accused of committing war crimes in Darfur declared that he had acted on direct orders from the government in Khartoum.

The leader of Darfur-based nomadic militias known as Janjaweed, Musa Hilal, told Human Rights Watch in a televised interview scheduled to be released today that the government backed and directed the horse and camel-mounted fighters responsible for much of what Washington described as the systematic “genocide” of villagers in the western region of Sudan, as part of a drive to put down a rebellion there.

The new revelations are bound to complicate diplomacy on the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, where up to 400,000 people have already been killed according to some assessments, and where the death toll continues to rise by 10,000 a month, according to the U.N.

Any attempt to put fresh pressure on the government has to take into account its fragility. It was formed as a result of a recently reached peace agreement between the government and rebels in the southern part of the country. The U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, has increasingly stressed in recent reports on Darfur the responsibility of Janjaweed militias and of the rebels who fight them, thus reducing the responsibility of the well-armed government.

Describing Janjaweed attacks on villagers in the town of Tawila in northern Darfur early in the carnage, in February 2004, Mr. Hilal told Human Rights Watch, according to a transcript of the interview, that the attacking militias were “led by top army commanders.” He added that the attackers also “got their orders from the western command center and from Khartoum.”

The government, he said, gave the fighters guns, recruited them, paid their salaries, and supplied them with identification cards. His own responsibility, he added, was to help in recruitment among nomadic tribes. “The government has told us to mobilize people,” he said, telling them “that you have to fight for your survival and the country’s stability.”

In the interview, which was recorded in September 2004, Mr. Hilal denies any involvement in the killing beyond recruitment for the government. But Human Rights Watch has confronted him with clear eyewitness evidence, which implicated him in atrocities in Kebkabiya in northern Darfur in January 2004.

In a recent report, the U.N. identified 51 persons as responsible for crimes against humanity, which might have included Mr. Hilal. The names were sealed until they could be judged in a “competent court,” the U.N. said.

Beyond the attempt to protect the north-south agreement, the Security Council has been bogged down by a major dispute between European members and America. The Europeans demand that criminals be tried in the International Criminal Court, which is strongly opposed by the Bush administration.