Amnesty International charges the Janjaweed with systematic, strategic rape: An international human rights group has accused pro-government militias in the Darfur region of Sudan of using rape and other forms of sexual violence "as a weapon of war" to humiliate black African women and girls as well as the rebels fighting the government in Khartoum. In a report to be released Monday, Amnesty International said the sexual attacks in Darfur amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. But it said it did not have sufficient evidence to show that the Janjaweed, as the government-backed militias are known, have carried out genocide in Darfur, as some critics of Sudan's government maintain. "The horrific nature and scale of the violence inflicted on entire groups in Darfur appears to be a form of collective punishment of a population whose members have taken up arms against the central government," the Amnesty International report said. "It may be interpreted as a warning to other groups and regions of what could happen to the local population if certain groups decided to rebel against Khartoum," it added. Amnesty International called for the creation of a commission of inquiry to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for sexual violence against the women of Darfur. Rape is a cultural taboo in Sudan and families often ostracize victims. Although rape has been so widespread over the last year that many women feel emboldened to discuss it, many others are believed by experts to be denying that it ever occurred.