South Darfur to disarm Kalma camp

August 14, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The South Darfur state will launch a campaign to retrieve voluntarily weapons in the restive Kalma camp, the governor said this week.

The largest Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp which is the home of some 100,000 residents witnessed recently bloody clashes between two groups of people over the participation in the peace process in Doha.

Governor Abdel Hamid Moussa Kasha declared considering to remove the camp and relocate the IDPs in other areas. He said that the camp has become a den of criminals and outlaws. He stressed the proximity of the camp from Nyala airport and railway “increases the security threat for UNAMID planes”.

“The state government has developed a plan to collect arms voluntarily from inside the camp to establish social peace,” Kasha said on Friday in statements reported by the official news agency SUNA.

He further presented an overview of the state government’s efforts to upgrade essential services of interest to the citizens in the areas of electricity and water.

For the first time a Sudanese government –State minister for humanitarian affairs Mutrif Sideeq — visited the camp with the head of the peacekeeping mission on Wednesday and attended a meeting held between Ibrahim Gambari and six delegates who sought refuge at the UNAMID police center in the camp.

The six IDPs representatives told Sudan Tribune that Gambari tried to convince them to accept joint patrols by the Sudanese police and the peacekeepers. They also claimed he threatened to hand them over to the government if they refuse.

However, the hybrid mission dismissed their statements in a letter sent to Sudan Tribune. “Gambari reassured the IDPs that all issues related to the Kalma incident are being discussed with a view to mutually-acceptable outcomes for all parties,” the mission said.

The UNAMID further said that the Joint Special Representative “underscored the need to rid IDP camps of weapons ‘in order to facilitate early restoration of normalcy in the camp and enhance the return of sustainable peace to Darfur so that the IDPs can return back to their homes, in honour and dignity'”.

Kalma IDPs resisted an attempt by the Sudanese security forces to enter the camp in August 2008. At the time the police killed some 32 IDPs.

The spokesperson of Kalma IDPs camp, Yagoub Furi reiterated their rejection of the presence of government troops inside the camp saying they would work to dismantle it as the governor had announced.

(ST)