African Union: Sudan forces bulldozed Darfur refugee camp

By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press Writer

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov 3, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese security forces bulldozed a refugee camp after forcing thousands of conflict-weary Darfur villagers to another camp, an African Union official said Wednesday.

Displaced women walk in front of a Rwandan soldier belonging to the African Union Force and patrolling a section of the Abu Shouk displaced camp on the outskirts of El-Fasher, Sudan.(AFP).

A Sudanese Cabinet minister denied that the refugees in El Geer camp near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, had been relocated against their will, saying they were taken to another camp so they could get better services.

Word of increasing insecurity in Darfur comes ahead of a Thursday report to the U.N. Security Council on the situation in the troubled western region by the world body’s envoy to Sudan , Jan Pronk, who has condemned Sudanese security forces for forcing several thousand refugees from the El Geer camp before dawn Tuesday.

An estimated 70,000 people have died – mostly through disease and hunger – in a 19-month conflict fought between African rebels and Arab militiamen, according to the U.N. Sudan ‘s government rejects the U.N. death toll as grossly exaggerated.

The U.S. and the U.N. are urging Sudan ‘s government to curb the Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, who are accused of waging a government-sponsored campaign of rapes, arson and killings against the rebels and African villagers. The government denies backing the militias and blames the trouble on the rebels.

The violence has uprooted 1.5 million people in Darfur, which the U.N. says is the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Maj. Mac Dorbi, the Ghanian chief operations officer for the African Union Mission in the Sudan , said African Union monitors in Nyala reported that government forces demolished the nearby El Geer camp, once home to thousands of villagers displaced by the Darfur conflict.

“El Geer was bulldozed completely down by Sudanese forces after they moved the refugees to Sherif camp,” Dorbi said in a phone interview with The Associated Press in Cairo.

Sudanese officials weren’t immediately available for comment on Dorbi’s remarks.

A day earlier in New York, Pronk criticized Sudan for forcing several thousand refugees from El Geer to the Sherif camp.

Sudan Wednesday denied any people had been forcibly moved from camps, including El Geer, saying instead that local authorities had legally moved the people to Sherif camp, which officials say has better facilities and where their presence would be less likely to affect the lives of local Nyala residents.

“It is a simple relocation process from an area that could threaten the whole health and security situation of the 1.2 million people in the town to an area prepared and provided with water and other services,” Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Hamid told the AP in Khartoum.

Hamid said any complaints people had with the Sherif camp, where the refugees were moved, could be addressed, but stressed that the relocation was a “simple” operation undertaken to avoid the spread of diseases from El Geer to Nyala.

Aid workers have said that El Geer refugees had been angering Nyala residents by venturing from their camp into the town looking for work.

Dorbi, the AU peace keeper, said the commanding officer of the 53-member African body’s force in Darfur, Maj. Gen. Festus Okonkwo, is expected to make a fact-finding mission to Nyala Friday.

Okonkwo is also expected to visit the West Darfur town of Zaleinge, where intense violence has been reported since last week’s abduction of 18 Arab villagers by rebels. The AU chief is expected to meet leaders from the rebel Sudan Liberation Army and the Janjaweed militia.

Hamid, who visited Zaleinge Wednesday, said angry Arab tribesmen began gathering in the area after rebels abducted the villagers, mostly students. Three hostages apparently escaped and notified Arab villagers about the kidnappings. Since, African Union peace keepers monitoring a shaky April 4 cease-fire deal have been investigating the claims.

There have been conflicting accounts on the fate of the remaining hostages.

Hamid said Wednesday that the hostages haven’t yet been released, but late Tuesday, a Sudanese government spokesman at Darfur peace talks in Nigeria, Abdulrahman Zuma, said Arab militiamen had “invaded” a refugee camp in Zaleinge and freed the hostages along with another 11 captives captured by rebels at an earlier date.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International released a statement Wednesday saying 13 of the hostages are said to have been killed.

Erwin Van Der Borght, deputy program director of Amnesty’s Africa program, also urged rebels and militiamen to commit to respecting international humanitarian laws prohibiting direct attacks on civilians and humanitarian convoys.