UN-AU police mull plans to protect Darfur camps
January 15, 2007 (EL FASHER) — The head of police department in the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) yesterday said that they are working out plans to protect the displaced in Darfur camps
The protection of Darfur civilians is one of the main objectives of the hybrid force. However, Khartoum was very reluctant to give UN police a free hand in Darfur, in UNAMID mandate is was clearly stipulated to protect civilians ” without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Sudan.”
Police Commissioner, Michael Fryer, has stated that UNAMID Police advisors will concentrate their efforts to establish community policing in the camps for the internally displaced (IDPs) in Darfur, map out strategies to protect women and children, and build the capacity of the local police to meet international standards of professional policing.
Fryer made this statement on Saturday January 12, 2008 during a five-hour inaugural confidence-building patrol to Zamzam Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in North Darfur during which he urged the IDPS and the local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with the Police Advisors to improve the security situation in the camp.
The UNAMID Police Commissioner informed the Umdas (local chiefs), Sheiks, women and youth leaders in the camp that the aim of the confidence-building patrol is to introduce UNAMID Police Advisors to the IDPS and the local police around the camp.
Earlier, the Chief Umda of Zamzam main IDP camp, Ali Isaak Ahmed, expressed delight at the presence of UNAMID Police in the camp “We’ve been waiting for this for months and now we are happy you have come,” he said.
Commissioner Fryer, who was accompanied by his Deputy for Policy and Planning, Mrs. Elizabeth Muwanga, appealed to the IDPS to join hands with UNAMID Police in providing security in the camps. She said, “We are here to work with you, especially the women and children.”
Sexual violence against women in Darfur was described by rights organisations as an integral and devastating part of the conflict aimed at breaking the will of the local people, humiliating them so that they will abandon their lands and weakening tribal ethnic lines.
The Khartoum backed militias considered women rape as part of their means to fight the rebellion. Nonetheless, despite the important number of testimonies, Sudanese authorities denied these reports and speak about isolated cases.
The Police Commissioner and his team also visited part of the camp where over one thousand people, who escaped fighting in Muhajeria, South Darfur, had pitched camp almost three months ago.
(ST)