Sudan forcibly displaces civilians from Otash, South Darfur

29 October 2007 –As the Sudanese Government’s unilateral ceasefire was last night being welcomed at peace talks in Libya, which have been boycotted by three major Darfuri African rebel groups, Sudanese forces were driving African men, women and children out of an IDP camp in South Darfur.

Lorries and Government jeeps equipped with heavy machineguns arrived at the Otash IDP camp outside Nyala, capital of South Darfur, late afternoon. As Government forces began to round up hundreds of IDPs who had recently fled to Otash following violence in the nearby Kalma camp, a joint AU/UN/IOM team was denied access by an official of the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the Sudanese Government’s body responsible for overseeing all aid operations in Darfur. Sources on the ground have revealed that several days ago, HAC ordered NGOs not to provide services for the arrivals from Kalma.

“This clearly illustrates the difference between what Khartoum says and what Khartoum does,” says Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust. “This clear breach of international law is part of the process of ethnic cleansing. Aside from further eroding any vestige of trust the African tribes may have in the Sudanese Government it devalues the ceasefire – there is no need to fire a shot when the aim is to drive out unarmed civilians.“

“The camps are finished.”

This morning, as some of those in Otash who escaped last night’s round-up spoke to the Aegis Trust about their experiences, Government trucks and jeeps fitted with machineguns returned, met by the screams of women and children. Again, Government forces began herding people onto trucks. An African Union team arrived on the scene immediately and was mobbed by IDPs seeking protection from the Government, but most of the AU team quickly withdrew.

“The soldiers are saying all the camps are finished, that they have a special place to put us, that they won’t take us to another camp,” one hidden onlooker told Aegis. “Most of these people are not typical military. Most are janjaweed. The Wali [Governor] of South Darfur is leader of this group.

“Right now, most of the people being taken are children and women. Some of the children are no more than five or six months old. If the women refuse to go, they’re taking the children and putting them on the trucks. Then the women go to be with their children. Many people are refusing to go and are being beaten… Now there’s three lorries full of people, but the AU is just standing there. One of the AU had a camera. The Sudanese said, ‘give us the camera,’ and the AU gave it. Now they’re just taking notes.”

It is alleged by a number of sources that the Governor of South Darfur recently stated that the IDP camps will be dissolved. This would be in keeping with a speech made by Omar Bashir earlier this year during a visit to Shearia, South Darfur, when he described the IDP camps as “museums of despair and suffering” and said that they should be removed “before the arrival of the west.”

For more information, contact David Brown, mobile: 07921 471985, email: [email protected]