Darfur violence spreads to Chad, CAR -Actress Farrow
Noc 21, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — American actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow said that violence in Sudan’s Darfur region has spread to neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic and called for an urgent deployment of UN peacekeepers.
“Violence has reached well across the border. In eastern Chad 60 villages have been destroyed since November 4,” said Farrow, who recently returned from eastern Chad where she spent several days visiting refugee camps and devastated areas.
“It’s impossible to mention Darfur without mentioning eastern Chad and Central Africa Republic,” she said at a news conference.
The United Nations Children’s Fund ambassador visited war-stricken Darfur twice in 2004 and in June this year, but was unable to obtain a visa to go back in November.
She went to eastern Chad with the Save Darfur Coalition, an umbrella organization representing 176 groups calling for peace in Darfur.
“The displaced people of eastern Chad and the refugees from Darfur urgently need a United Nations peacekeeping presence with a mandate to protect the civilian population and the courageous humanitarian workers who risk their own lives every day,” she said.
Speaking in front of video images collected in Chad, an amulet given to her by a refugee woman hanging from her neck, the petite, fragile-looking actress described the humanitarian crisis she witnessed.
“People are suffering unimaginably. Women described their terror, fleeing Darfur, losing family members, and children dying along the way,” she said.
The situation in Chad was reminiscent of the Darfur Sudanese in 2004, with “people living under trees, not eating for nine days,” she said.
The 61-year-old actress said she wanted to return to the region “as soon as possible”, and particularly wanted to go to the northeastern area of the CAR, where a UN assessment mission arrived Tuesday to determine what is needed to protect the refugees from Sudan’s western Darfur region.
“The situation can no longer be portrayed as an internal conflict. It’s a spreading conflict,” said retired US ambassador Lawrence Rossin, who is the Save Darfur Coalition’s ambassador-at-large and senior international coordinator.
Rossin has served in several US diplomatic posts and in UN posts related to the UN stabilization mission in Haiti and the UN interim administration mission in Kosovo.
The war in Darfur erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum, prompting a heavy-handed crackdown from government forces and proxy militia known as the Janjaweed.
The conflict and associated famine and disease have left 200,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million more, according to UN figures. Some sources give much higher figures.
(AFP)