Fear runs high in west Sudan despite cease-fire

By Nima Elbagir

KUTUM, Sudan, April 9 (Reuters) – Sudan’s government says it is trying to disarm Arab militias who have rampaged through west Sudan, but residents here said on Friday they still feared attacks even when gathering wood.

“Young girls can’t leave the camp. We are scared to send them out. They rape them. We can’t send the young men out because they will kill the men,” said Fatma, an African villager clutching her infant, in a camp on the edge of Kutum.

Just a few kilometres (miles) outside the town, armed members of the Janjaweed militias, who have looted and burned African villages over the last year, watched from their camels unperturbed as a government convoy passed by.

The United States on Friday welcomed Thursday’s 45-day ceasefire signed by the government and two rebel groups in the west who took up arms a year ago saying Khartoum had neglected the impoverished region.

“This agreement is a crucial, first step toward ending atrocities and reversing the humanitarian crisis in Darfur,” said a U.S. State Department spokesman, urging the two sides to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid.

U.S. President George W. Bush called on Sudan on Wednesday to stop “atrocities” by Arab militias against black Africans in west Sudan, where the United Nations says the conflict has affected a million people.

Aid workers said one of Khartoum’s biggest challenges was to end the scorched-earth campaign of the lawless, mounted militias. They added that a food crisis was in the making unless the displaced felt safe enough to return to tend their land.

“The question is: will the government be able to control the militias, and will they be willing to voluntarily hand their weapons over when you are dealing with such a vast area and the government has such limited resources?” said a Western aid worker in Kutum who asked not to be identified.

Residents accuse the government of arming the militias to pillage African villages, a charge Khartoum dismisses. Analysts say the militias have taken on a life of their own — looting, raping and killing at random.

CRACKDOWN

“The problem is the word Janjaweed has become a coverall for so many things. There are militias that are outside the rule of law, and this is one of the things we are going to crack down on,” Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Reuters as he passed the camel-riding militiamen on his way to Kutum.

The United Nations has said a Rwanda-style genocide could be in the making in the Darfur area and international military force may be needed — a suggestion Khartoum rejects.

Ismail said the government was sending auxiliary units to help the shattered security forces in Darfur re-establish the rule of law. Government officials also said they were setting up committees to assess compensation for conflict victims.

Thursday’s ceasefire deal included offering access for relief groups.

“We have free access along a number of corridors. Certain areas, in which we have concerns, we still have not been granted permission to travel to,” said Glyn Taylor from the U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs for Sudan.

He told a meeting of aid representatives and government officials in Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, that displaced people would only return when they felt safe.

“Should this not happen and should they not be able to engage in agricultural activity before the rains then we will be looking at a severe food security situation over the next 12 months,” he said.

Back in Kutum, camp residents gathered round the foreign minister telling him they needed water and medicine. But they also told visitors that the lack of security kept them trapped in their camp.

“There is a police station inside the camp, so we are not attacked inside the camp. But if we leave the camp for any reason we are attacked,” said one African woman, saying one woman gathering wood was seized by the Janjaweed on Thursday.