Sudan launches fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur-UN
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Sudan carried out fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur on Tuesday and worsened an already desperate humanitarian situation while Arab militia targeted refugees trying to escape the conflict, the United Nations said.
“Fresh violence today (Tuesday) included helicopter gunship bombings by the Sudanese government and Janjaweed (militia) attacks in South Darfur,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement from Geneva.
“The violence has already led to more displacement,” the statement said, adding: “Janjaweed attacks on internally displaced persons in and around IDP settlements continue to be reported in all three Darfur states,” it added.
Civilians have previously said Sudan used helicopters and other military aircraft to attack villages in Darfur, but there have been fewer reports of such attacks since rebels and the government signed a ceasefire in April.
In Khartoum, Sudanese officials were not immediately available for comment. Sudan’s ambassador to Britain, Hassan Abdin, told Channel Four News his government was committed to disarming the Janjaweed militias.
Talking generally, the ambassador said: “”Sudan has already been delivering on some of the promises it made. There is no bombing now, it has stopped long ago. After the ceasefire in April, the Sudanese government observed the ceasefire.”
Under a joint plan agreed with the United Nations last week, Sudan said it would establish safe areas for the displaced and cease military operations by its troops and rebels there.
SUDAN HAMPERED ACCESS, UN SAYS
Despite recent pledges to cooperate to end the humanitarian crisis the U.N. has called the worst in the world, the U.N. said the Sudanese government has hampered access to hungry Darfuris by restricting relief flights and causing “major delays” in deployment of aid workers.
The world body also said Sudanese authorities were pressuring traumatised refugees to return to unsafe villages.
“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,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Peter Kessler in Geneva.
“We can’t tell if people are being led into a trap — we would hope not,” he added.
Meanwhile, a human rights group said civilians in Darfur are being routinely imprisoned or harassed by Sudanese authorities for talking to foreigners about the conflict in the remote western area bordering Chad.
London-based rights group Amnesty International said in a report Sudan had rounded up scores of people who spoke to journalists and foreign leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, on recent visits to Darfur.
Security officials told Reuters people were being questioned and some had been detained but that it was a matter of security and not a reprisal for speaking to foreigners.
Amnesty counted at least 50 people arrested, including 15 men detained at the Abu Shouk camp after Powell’s June 30 visit, and another five taken from there after French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier’s July 27 trip.
A U.S. State Department official called the reports “of serious concern”.
After long conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels launched the revolt in February 2003 accusing Khartoum of arming Arab militias known as Janjaweed to carry out a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The Janjaweed, a term loosely derived from the Arabic for “devils on horseback”, are accused of looting, burning, killing and raping. The United Nations estimates the death toll to be at least 50,000, with 1 million people displaced and 2 million in need of aid. The U.S. Congress has called the violence genocide.
Khartoum disputes the death toll and denies it supports the militias, which it calls outlaws. But under threat of possible sanctions it has said it will try to meet a U.N. Security Council demand that it disarm the Janjaweed.
SUDAN NEEDS TO “TURN OFF” JANJAWEED
Powell has said Sudan faces a difficult task to “turn off” the Janjaweed in Darfur, an area the size of France, where tens of thousands of men carry arms.
About 100 African Union (AU) monitors are deployed in Darfur to record and investigate attacks. The Dutch ambassador to Ethiopia said the Netherlands would begin to airlift 154 Rwandan troops into Darfur on Saturday to protect them. Nigerian troops could follow on Aug. 25, the ambassador said.
The AU hopes to increase the proposed number of AU forces protecting the monitors from 360 to about 2,000 and extend their mandate to peacekeeping, which Sudan refuses.
The African Union said rebels and Khartoum had agreed to peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Aug. 23, but the rebels said they had not received formal invitations and the date was unsuitable, although they welcomed the location.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Anna Atkinson in London, Opheera McDoom in Cairo, Katie Nguyen in Nairobi, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Arshad Mohammed in Washington)