Arab militias that use systematic rape to intimidate African women in the war-torn Darfur region have been backed, protected, and recruited by the Sudanese government, documents and testimony collected by human rights groups showed yesterday.

Two days ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote on sanctions against militia leaders, confidential memos obtained by Human Rights Watch provided evidence of a governmental policy of protection, support, and recruitment of militiamen known as Janjaweed, despite continued denials by officials in Khartoum.

“I really don’t know anything about that as such,” the deputy chief of mission at the Sudanese Embassy, Abdel Kabeir, told The New York Sun. “Common sense would tell you that there is no connection, and I think it’s too naive to take that direction.” He added that groups such as Amnesty “are always against the authority in any country, whether it be Russia or Sudan.”

Accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, released in a separate Amnesty International report entitled “Rape as a Weapon of War,” include the widespread rape and torture of women, the keeping of sexual slaves, and the beating of women’s legs to prevent women from escaping sexual abuse.

While diplomats and humanitarian groups have long known of both rampant sexual violence and militia-government ties, such claims have not previously been widely or publicly documented, said the director of the New York office of the U.N.’s High Commission for Human Rights, Bacre Ndiye.

He added that resistance by the Sudanese government has prevented investigators from his office from entering the region. “What exactly is the degree of control [over the Janjaweed] is not always clear,” he said. “What is clear is that what they are doing could not have been done without the support of the government.”

Despite a public declaration on February 9 by President el-Bashir that the war was over and there would be an “end of all military operations in Darfur,” one “highly confidential” directive from the office of the Commissioner of Kutum Province in North Darfur and dated that month urges the support and conscription of the Janjaweed, who are responsible for pervasive torture and killing of non-Arabs in the region.

Addressed to those in charge of “mobilization” or “recruitment” in the provincial localities, the memo calls for an “increase in the process of mobilizing loyalist tribes, and providing them with sufficient armory to secure the areas.”

Another memo, dated February 13, advises its recipients to “allow the activities of the mujahedeen and the volunteers under the command of [Janjaweed comannder] Sheikh Musa Hilal to proceed in the areas of [North Darfur] and to secure their vital needs.”

“This was an unacceptable way of conducting war, especially when you know the civilians will be the first and often the only victims,” Mr. Ndiaye said.

While Mr. Kabeir acknowledged that more humanitarian work was necessary in Darfur, he said that rebel groups should be held responsible for the continuing violence in the area.

Despite pledges by the Sudanese government to protect displaced persons in the Darfur region, militia violence against civilians continued unabated there, the Human Rights Watch report said. A new round of peace talks between the government and rebel groups fell through on Saturday after officials rejected demands to disarm the Janjaweed and to investigate charges of genocide. So far, the U.S. Agency for International Development has warned that the death toll in the Darfur region could rise from 30,000 to 1 million.

After meeting with Secretary of State Powell two weeks ago, Mr. el-Bashir had pledged to send troops to Darfur to end militia violence and to remove all obstacles to delivery of relief supplies. Though the Sudanese yesterday invited a group of eight U.N. monitors to Darfur after months of visa wrangling, Mr. Ndiaye said there was still little indication that the government was encouraging humanitarian assistance.

The difficulty of obtaining visas has prevented many humanitarian groups from entering the region, including Amnesty, which conducted much of its research by phone and in displaced persons camps in Chad.

Interviewees told of beatings, gang rapes, and sexual violence against pregnant women by the militiamen. One woman, identified only as A., was abducted from the town of Mukjar.

“When we tried to escape they shot more children. They raped women; I saw many cases of Janjaweed raping women and girls,” the 37-year-old said. “They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish.”

Last week, senators presented a bipartisan resolution that would declare the killing of non-Arab civilians in Darfur genocide, keeping in mind the long delayed humanitarian assistance during Rwanda’s genocide in 1994.