Refugees from Darfur guard their watering hole from Janaweed attack on their makeshift camp. Picture: Ian Rutherford
Posted on 07/06/2004 10:43:48 PM PDT by MadIvan
Refugees from Darfur guard their watering hole from Janaweed attack on their makeshift camp. Picture: Ian Rutherford |
Key points
Key quote
"Despite a cease-fire signed in April between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups, fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region continues to displace civilians who say they are innocent victims" - UN spokeswoman
Story in full SUDANESE government forces and Arab militia have launched a fresh wave of murderous attacks on black African villagers in Darfur in defiance of demands from the United Nations and the United States for an end to the fighting.
Fleeing refugees have described how villages in south eastern Darfur were bombed by Antonov aircraft and helicopter gunships before Janjaweed militia men in pick-up trucks and riding horses and camels swarmed into the villages, killing men, women and children, raping women, stealing property and animals, and setting houses alight.
Survivors say that the attacks took place last week, while Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, and Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, were visiting the country to demand an end to the genocide which aid workers have warned could result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
The UN High Commission for Refugees said more than 100 desperate people had fled the latest killings and braved heavy fighting to make it to a refugee camp at Kalma, near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
At least 40,000 people are living in the camp and aid agencies say they are struggling to provide food, water and medical care to the displaced people, who include many severely malnourished babies.
A UN spokeswoman said that the latest attacks on villages came as the Sudanese government and Janjaweed militia launched a fresh offensive against two rebel groups in breach of a cease-fire agreement signed in April. Rebel groups have warned that they will retaliate if the Khartoum regime continues to break the cease-fire.
She said: "Despite a cease-fire signed in April between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups, fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region continues to displace civilians who say they are innocent victims."
The UNHCR also released details of an attack on aid workers inside nearby Chad, where tens of thousands of refugees have fled.
On Sunday a group from Norwegian Church Aid, which is based in Iriba about 50km from the Chad-Sudan border, were kidnapped by armed men as they drove from the nearby Touloum camp to Iridimi camp a short distance from the town. They were later released and their vehicle stolen. The identity of the attackers is not known.
Yesterday John Bercow, the shadow international development secretary who has recently returned from an all-party trip to Khartoum and Darfur, called on the British government to consider backing military action to halt the genocide.
"Only when you apply pressure to the regime will you get results," he said. "It is a mistake to rule out military action.
"The government of Sudan are not gentlemen who abide by the Queensberry Rules. You have to bring pressure to bear on them."
He said he had written to Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, to ask what had become of the Prime Minister’s pledges to consider a no-fly zone in the region.
Tony Blair yesterday reiterated his claim that Britain was doing all it could to end the crisis.
"We’re doing our level best in Africa," he said. "It’s a very serious situation. The situation in Sudan is still very, very serious."
At a meeting of the African Union yesterday Kofi Annan warned African leaders that the humanitarian crisis in Darfur may lead to "a catastrophe that could destabilise the region" if they did not take action.
"The ruined villages, the camps overflowing with sick and hungry women and children and the fear in the eyes of the people should be a clear warning to all of us," he said.
In response, the African Union said it would send 300 troops to protect refugees in Sudan and Chad and to protect military observers monitoring the supposed cease-fire in Darfur.
The deployment was reluctantly accepted by the Sudanese government.
READERS of The Scotsman have now donated £49,000 to the UNICEF Children of Sudan Emergency appeal - nearly five times the amount anticipated when the newspaper joined forces with the charity.
UNICEF says it is optimistic that the total will break through the £50,000 barrier before the end of the week.
Denise McNiven, fundraising manager for the charity in Scotland, said: "This will make an enormous difference to the children that are surviving in such difficult conditions."
UNICEF is using the money to supply water, repair and install hand pumps, distribute blankets, shelter, jerry cans, cooking pots, bowls and many other basic relief items.
3,000 to 4000 refugees in the camp the day before UN officials show up to inspect the camp. Now they are gone. Where?
Arab Imperialism.
The Sudanese Lost Boys are a very different Group, Christian, and sponsored by Churches.
It is Bantu Somalians who have been given refuge in large numbers in this country through the auspices of the State Department. They are also black and Muslim, and have been discriminated against by the Arab Somalians.
Yes, you're right, but that is illegal, as it is considered operating an independent foreign policy of the U.S.
It was these constraints which were at the root of the Iran-Contra fiasco; the attempt to arm the Contras in Nigaragua after the U.S. Congress denied them aid.
I'd love to have the money and ability to run my own foreign policy.
No, the rapist is a Sudanese Christian engineering student, one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," and he raped a 14 year old and a 16 year old girl. I'm not sure how many others there are also involved.
I say, back to Sudan for them, if he is convicted (after he serves his sentence).
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