UNICEF head meets with Sudanese president after tour of Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan, June 15, 2004 (AP) — The head of the U.N. children’s agency urged Sudan ‘s president Tuesday to protect the more than 1 million people who have fled their homes because of violence in the country’s west.

Carol Bellamy wrapped up a fact-finding tour of Darfur – the western Sudanese region where thousands have been killed and thousands more have fled their homes since last year – with a meeting with President Omar el-Bashir.

U.N. officials and international human rights groups have said el-Bashir’s government backs militias accused of raping women and other human rights abuses in an “ethnic cleansing” campaign in Darfur.

Bellamy said in a statement released after her meeting with el-Bashir that she had heard often on her trip of sexual assaults of women and girls, leaving many afraid to leave their camps to collect firewood and fodder “lest they be attacked again. …Everybody I met is too frightened to return home.”

She said the president had told her more police had been sent to the region.

“I noted that particular attention must be paid to women and children who are at risk whenever they leave their encampments,” said Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF.

Sudanese of Arab and African descent in Darfur have long clashed over resources in one of Sudan ‘s least developed regions. In February 2003, two ethnic African rebel groups -the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement – took up arms, saying the government, seen as controlled by Sudan ‘s northern Arab elite, was marginalizing Darfur.

The government is accused of responding by backing a campaign against African villagers by Arab militia known as janjaweed. El-Bashir’s government denies the charges, blaming the trouble in Darfur on the rebels and on criminal gangs.

Darfur has erupted just as Sudan appears to be nearing an agreement to end an unrelated civil war that has raged for 21 years in the south and killed more than 2 million people, mainly through war-induced famine.

Bellamy said Tuesday she had congratulated el-Bashir “on the progress toward peace between the north and south, but stressed the need for peace throughout the entire country.”