UNTIED NATIONS, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed on Thursday an independent panel to investigate reported serious human rights violations in Darfur, west Sudan, and to determine whether or not acts of genocide have occurred in the region.

    The International Commission of Inquiry will be chaired by Italian judge Antonio Cassese, the first president of the UN-backed international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters.

    The panel, created as required by a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on Sept. 18, will comprise four other members former Peruvian Justice Minister Diego Garcia-Sayan, Pakistani lawyer Hina Jilani, Ghanaian judge Therese Striggner Scott and Egyptian human rights expert Mohammed Fayek.

    South African human rights lawyer Dumisa Ntsebeza will serve asexecutive director heading a technical team supporting the commission.

    Some members of the commission will meet with Annan later on Thursday and the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will provide support to the panel, Eckhard said.

    Darfur, an impoverished region the size of France, grabbed global attention early this year after UN officials reported a serious humanitarian crisis in the region, where two rebel forces formed by local settled tribes have fought against the government since February 2003.

    UN estimates said the conflict has left at least 30,000 people dead and some 1.2 million others internally displaced. Another 200,000 people fled to neighboring Chad.

    A militia group, known as the Janjaweed and drawn from local nomadic tribes which have long competed for water and land resources with the settlers, has been accused of launching brutal attacks against settled tribes with the connivance of the government.

    But the government denied any links with the Janjaweed, labeling it as an outlaw group composed of robbers and bandits. Khartoum also questioned the UN-estimated death toll and put its own estimate at no more than 5,000.

    The US administration declared the violence in Darfur as genocide last month. But the declaration got little active support from other countries. Enditem