Darfuris stone policeman to death after attack
Dec 20, 2005 (EL-GENEINA) — Darfuris stoned to death a policeman in the main western town el-Geneina on Tuesday during a protest over a militia attack on a village they say killed 20 people, including children and the elderly.
Relatives of those killed and injured and residents from the town of Abu Surooj demonstrated outside the hospital in the West Darfur state capital.
Authorities flew an attack helicopter low over the crowd to try to disperse them, but the angry crowd marched to the market. In a chaotic scene, with shots sounding in the background, the crowd turned on a policeman.
“They stoned a policeman to death because they were angry that their relatives had been killed,” said the head of humanitarian work in el-Geneina al-Tijani Tajeddin.
Trucks full of police carrying machine guns and rifles took to the streets to patrol the tense town.
Witnesses said Monday’s attack on Abu Surooj occurred when more than 150 green-khaki clad Arab militia, known locally as Janjaweed, rode into town at 6 a.m. on horses and camels, opening fire randomly and burning houses.
Initial reports indicated 12 people had died, but relatives of the victims said 20 civilians and five policemen were killed, and 16 people were injured.
Relatives said Ali Adarahman Yagoub, who was more than 80 years old and blind, was burnt alive in his house. Three children between the ages of 5 and 10 were also killed, they added.
More than a dozen men and young children lay with gunshot wounds in blood-stained beds in the dusty, rickety hospital in el-Geneina where they had been brought after the attack.
“Everyone who is still there is living in terror,” said Ishaq Mohamed Ahmed. “This is the fifth attack in the past month.” But he added this was the largest by far.
Ahmed said two months ago the Janjaweed rode into town and tried to abduct eight teenaged girls. “They refused to go with them, so the Janjaweed beat them and raped them,” he said.
Abakr Adam of Abu Surooj said the Janjaweed wanted to chase the non-Arab tribes off their land.
“They had already burnt all the villages around Abu Surooj and chased the people here and now they want to chase us away from here to Chad,” he said.
“They don’t want any black people here anymore. The government arms them and then sends them over to us,” he added.
CHAD TENSIONS
The conflict in Sudan’s vast west has raged since February 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government accusing them of marginalisation. The government dispatched militias to help fight the revolt but those militias have been accused of widespread looting, murder and rape.
More than 2 million people have fled their homes in the face of the violence and moved into crowded refugee camps.
In West Darfur the situation has deteriorated markedly in recent months and the United Nations has grounded some aid flights and evacuated some aid workers.
Now the conflict is complicated further by cross border tensions with Chad.
Patients at el-Geneina hospital said between 25-30 fighters injured in a separate attack by Chadian army deserters and allies on the border town of Adre two days ago had been brought to the hospital.
But armed soldiers and plain-clothed security men prevented journalists from entering their ward.
The Chadian government said they chased the dissidents into Sudan, killing about 300 of them, and blamed Sudan for the attack.
The dissidents say they want to remove Chadian President Idriss Deby from power.
“They were brought here at night by relatives, with the permission of the government,” said one patient who was present in the hospital at the time. “It took five trips to bring them in,” other witnesses added.
The witnesses declined to be named for fear of being targeted by authorities.
Sudan denies any support for the Chadian deserters. El-Geneina is about 30 kilometres from the Chad border.
(Reuters)