Sudanese aid workers released by rebels
By ED JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
AL-FASHER, Sudan, Sep 1, 2004 (AP) — International aid agencies were stepping up efforts in rebel-controlled areas of Darfur, with UNICEF saying on Wednesday it had just vaccinated up to 50,000 children against polio during a mission that saw workers traveling by camel and donkey to reach people sheltering in the bush.
Also Wednesday, a U.N. official said a group of Sudanese aid workers held since Saturday by the rebel Sudan Liberation Army were released early Wednesday.
However, Minni Minnawi, secretary-general of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, denied the rebels had detained the workers, saying instead that they had been held by civilians until the rebels intervened to free them.
It was the second time rebels had been accused of detaining aid workers in North Darfur, one of the three states in a region the United Nations has said is the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The crisis ensued after two African rebel factions that took up arms in February 2003 claiming discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in the capital Khartoum.
Human rights groups, the U.S. Congress and U.N. officials accuse the government of trying to crush the rebellion by backing Arab militiamen in a scorched earth campaign. Khartoum has repeatedly denied backing the militia, known as the Janjaweed, who are blamed for killing thousands, raping women and driving more than 1 million villagers from their homes.
Sasha Westerbig, an Al-Fasher-based spokeswoman for UNICEF, returned late Tuesday from the polio-vaccination campaign in a barren region nine hours’ drive north of Al-Fasher, capital of North Darfur.
She said the joint UNICEF-World Health Organization team had received excellent cooperation from commanders in the field of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army.
Westerbig said workers plan to vaccinate 150,00 children against measles in the same area between Sept. 4-7, with the help of WFP helicopters.
Westerbig told The Associated Press that many in the region were sheltering in the bush, living on berries and goat meat, too afraid to stay in their mud-and-straw hut settlements in case they were attacked by helicopter or planes by government forces.
Westerbig said the area had few wells and little basic infrastructure. The team encountered people suffering from malaria and waterborne diseases, she said.
“We took the SLA (rebels) with us to go from village to village,” said Westerbig. “They were going out on donkeys and camels to vaccinate the people. It was heartwarming to see how dedicated they were.”
The Sudanese government has accused the rebels of hampering the aid effort by violating the April 8 cease-fire and abducting aid workers. Both sides have been accused of truce violations.
Barry Came of the U.N. World Food Program said the six aid workers — three from WFP and three from the Sudanese Red Crescent — were safe and well after negotiations with their Sudan Liberation Army captors secured their release. He said they had been picked up by helicopter in Tabit, south of Al-Fasher, Wednesday morning.
Officials had originally said eight workers were missing, but Came corrected that on Wednesday, saying two workers scheduled to have gone out with the team never made the trip because of illness.
The team had been assessing conditions and registering displaced people.
The Sudan Liberation Army had earlier denied it was holding the missing workers. Minnawi of the Sudan Liberation Army repeated that denial Wednesday, saying: “These people were kidnapped by civilians because the civilians suspected they were government people. Our people saw and gave back those people.”
Minnawi spoke in Abuja, Nigeria, where rebels and government officials were participating in peace talks.
In June, 16 relief workers from international aid organizations were detained for several days in North Darfur, one of the region’s three states, by the Sudan Liberation Army. The rebels said they had stopped the workers to ascertain their identities because they were in a military zone. The United Nations said then that the detention was “totally unacceptable” and contradicted rebel promises to facilitate relief work.
In addition to objecting to rebel detention of workers, aid agencies had complained in the past about the government preventing them from getting workers and aid to Darfur. In recent weeks, though, U.N. and other aide officials have said the government was more cooperative and had removed obstacles.