Sudan warns humanitarian organizations of facing expulsion

August 29, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government warned today that it is prepared to kick out any humanitarian organization “if they exceed their mandate”.

Salah Gosh, the head of Sudan’s National Security and Intelligence Services said that laws governing the work of humanitarian organizations will be reviewed.

“Any organization that does not adhere to its mandate will face accountability measures and any that refuses to sign an agreement must leave” Gosh said at a forum organized by the ministry of humanitarian affairs.

“The governments wants aid and not for these organizations to play around” he added.

The Spy chief remarks come less than a week after a raid by Sudanese soldiers and security officers on Kalma IDP camp in South Darfur that killed at least 30 people and injured many more.

Sudanese officials have been actively seeking a way to get disband the IDP camps, observers say as it had become a “media nightmare”.

Last year Gosh along with Defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein and former Interior Minister Zubeir Bashir Taha and Intelligence rushed to Kalma to supervise a security operation.

The operation was met by IDP’s fierce resistance forcing security officers to back off.

Sudan’s presidential assistant Nafi Ali Nafi who spoke at the forum said that they don’t want the aid organizations to “be used by other parties for creating problems”.

Aid organizations in Darfur consistently complain of bureaucratic obstacles and red tape imposed by Khartoum as well lack of security in the region.

The Sudanese government has also gone as far as ousting foreign aid officials out of the country.

Last year Sudan and the UN reached a new agreement designed to ease humanitarian groups’ access to refugees in troubled Darfur in Sudan.

The deterioration of security situation in Darfur come a month after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed charges against Sudan president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder and accused Al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

Most of the Kalma camp residents are from the Fur tribe.

The ICC prosecutor told Sudan Tribune in an interview that the Sudanese government is carrying out a “massive rape campaign” against women in the camps and hindering the delivery of aid to the displaced who are mostly from the African tribes of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups. This he said falls under the definition of genocide.

“The issue for me is to show clearly that what is happening in the camps today is a crime because without humanitarian assistance they will die. Not only is Al-Bashir not providing them with humanitarian assistance but also trying to block and hinder the work of these humanitarian organizations. This is the most compelling issue now and we have to stop it” the ICC prosecutor said.

International experts also say more than 300,000 were killed and 2 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur, a region that is roughly the size of France.

(ST)