Sudan pushing Darfuris back to unsafe areas-U.N.
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities are forcing traumatised refugees to return to unsafe villages in the troubled Darfur region where they face fresh attacks by Arab militias, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
“We have interviewed people in hospital who tell us they have gone back to the villages, believing the government commitment, and have been shot by Janjaweed raiders,” UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler told Reuters.
“We can’t tell if people are being led into a trap – we would hope not,” he added. “But people are being misinformed about going back to places where there is not yet an effective police presence in place.”
Sudan, under a Plan of Action agreed with the United Nations last week, pledged to set up safe areas for the displaced, disarm the Arab militias and cease military operations by its troops to ease what the U.N. has called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and the U.S. Congress has called genocide.
The agency has told Sudanese officials that any movement of internally displaced persons must be “entirely voluntary”.
But the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing some of the movement was the result of government pressure.
“In West Darfur, UNHCR is concerned that the local authorities and government of Sudan are continuing to put pressure on displaced people to return to villages that are not safe and do not offer any possibility of a decent life, since most of the crops and homes have been destroyed by rampaging militias,” she said.
An aid worker who just returned from West Darfur, who asked not to be named, told Reuters: “It is happening and it is not voluntary or nice. People are being forced to move.”
Pagonis said that while there are fewer reports of rape in West Darfur, it is concerned women are being pressured not to report the attacks.
“We have contrary reports that rape of women inside the camps – which are not run by UNHCR – by Janjaweed militiamen from outside, is in fact escalating,” she said.
The United Nations says the conflict, launched by two rebel groups in early 2003, has claimed about 50,000 lives and uprooted 1.2 million African Darfur villagers who have fled the militia’s brutal campaign of killing, raping and looting.
VOLUNTARY REPATRIATION
Under the Plan of Action, a top official of the International Organisation for Migration was heading to Khartoum to negotiate an agreement to organise voluntary repatriation.
The plan gives Khartoum 30 days to identify parts of Darfur that can be made safe and secure, set up safe access routes and escort convoys as well as controlling all forces.
“These conditions have to be met before voluntary returns happen. The voluntariness of the return is paramount,” IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy told reporters.
Malnutrition and disease are spreading in Darfur, which the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the World Health Organisation said poor sanitation had caused an epidemic of hepatitis E, with 623 known cases and 22 deaths, in West Darfur.
“It is the first time we have documented hepatitis E in Sudan. The initial analysis shows that the majority of cases and deaths have been among pregnant women,” spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.
The viral liver inflammation typically strikes young adults and can cause up to five percent mortality. But it is about four times more lethal for pregnant women.