The Sudanese government is supporting the feared Janjaweed militia, which the United States accuses of genocide against non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
Citing an interview with a man identified only as "Ali", a former member of the militia who admitted to killing innocent villagers in Darfur, the BBC said that Sudanese soldiers trained Janjaweed militiamen, and that the country's air force bombed a village before the militia went in to kill villagers.
"Ali" served in the militia for two years, and is currently seeking asylum in Britain. The BBC consulted other Darfuri exiles in Britain and presented the
interview to a psychologist who studied his interview, all of whom believed him.
"The people who trained us came from the north, from the government. They gave us orders, and they say that after we are trained, they will give us guns and ammunition. We will be split into two groups -- one on horses, one on camels," the man told the broadcaster's evening current affairs programme.
Asked how he knew the men training him were from the government, "Ali" said: "They were wearing the uniforms of the military."
When asked to name the members of the government who were ordering his forces, the man said that one "very well known and regular visitor" was Sudan's interior minister -- Abdul Rahim Hussein.
"I tell you one fact. The Janjaweed don't make decisions. The orders always come from the government," the man added.
"Ali" said he was involved in more than 50 attacks on villages, and recalls a specific attack on the village of Janga: "The (Sudanese government's) aircraft went ahead of the janjaweed. We saw the smoke, we saw the fire, then we went in."
The man also admitted that others in his unit raped women in villages that were attacked: "Yes, there are many rapes. But they don't do it in front of others. They take the victim away and rape her."
Presented with the interview, Britain's International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, who had himself just returned from Sudan, told the BBC: "It's clearly very serious evidence and what I would urge is ... that that information is passed to the International Criminal Court investigators".
Sudan on Monday announced a plan to disarm the militia, on the same day a human rights report charged that the huge death toll in the region could have been avoided if the world had learned the lessons of Rwanda.