Darfuris plead for protection against killings, beatings

Nov 14, 2006 (AL-FASHERAFP) — A group of displaced Darfuris have pleaded for protection against continued killings and beatings in the troubled region of western Sudan, in a meeting with France’s foreign minister.

“We have lived here long enough, and the executions, humiliations, beatings have not stopped,” a representative for the displaced told the visiting minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy.

“What we need is security,” said another on condition of anonymity. “If this is not possible, we will go elsewhere.”

Douste-Blazy was visiting a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kuru in North Darfur, western Sudan, where some 23,000 IDPs live.

“You are in our hearts and we will not forget you,” Douste-Blazy told the IDPs, as a dozen armed Sudanese policemen watched closely.

At least 200,000 people have died from fighting, famine and disease in the Darfur region and 2.5 million others have been displaced since early 2003 in what Washington calls a genocide against black Africans by Arab-led forces.

The government denies accusations of ethnic cleansing and says the figures are exaggerated.

The French envoy is currently on a tour of Egypt and Sudan aimed at finding alternative solutions to the deployment of UN troops there — a proposal repeatedly rejected by Khartoum.

Earlier Monday, the governor of North Darfur accused the international community of pursuing a “hidden agenda” in the war-torn region, following a meeting with Douste-Blazy.

“Resentment must not build up before an agreement (over Darfur) is reached, and there must also be no hidden agenda,” governor Yussuf Othman Kibir said.

Douste-Blazy for his part, insisted there was “no hidden agenda and no conspiracy to weaken the Sudanese government … There is only the will to no longer see thousands of people in war.”

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on August 31 which calls for the deployment of up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers in Darfur, an area the size of France which overstretched African Union monitors have failed to stabilise.

But Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir’s regime has repeatedly rejected the resolution, branding it a US-engineered conspiracy aimed at invading his country and plundering its resources.

(AFP)