Sudanese refugee camp at center of Darfur outrage destroyed: U.N.

By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5, 2004 (AP) — Displaced people who were kicked out of a camp in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region returned to find the site destroyed and its generators and water pump looted, the United Nations said Friday.

Sudanese refugees wait for relief under the watch of a soldier(R). Britain circulated a draft UN resolution pushing for a comprehensive peace accord in Sudan. (AFP).

The camp, known as El Geer, was at the center of an outcry Tuesday when security forces in southern Darfur allegedly forced several thousand people who had taken refuge there and in nearby camps to leave in the middle of the night.

The top U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, called it an outrageous violation of international law. The U.N. Security Council on Thursday reiterated its call for the government “to cease all forcible relocations of civilians,” to return those taken from El Geer, and to allow humanitarian workers immediate access to all internally displaced camps.

U.N. investigators who returned to the camp near the southern Darfur city of Nyala on Thursday found it had been leveled by road graders, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. That finding confirmed a report from African Union monitors on Wednesday that the camp had been bulldozed.

Police had reportedly looted generators and a water pump installed by the U.N. Children’s Fund, Eckhard said.

He said internally displaced people who had returned to the camp were searching for their possessions and refused to leave, even though security forces still weren’t allowing assistance into the area.

Sudan has denied closing off El Geer and other camps.

The U.N. World Food Program said several camps were surrounded — apparently in retaliation for the abduction of 18 Arabs by Darfur rebels — and that the world body was forced to pull 88 relief workers from other areas where there has been an upsurge in violence in recent days.

In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Pronk warned that Darfur is descending into anarchy and urged immediate action.

Attacks have uprooted 1.5 million of Darfur’s people, and at least 70,000 have died, mostly through disease and hunger, according to the world body. The United Nations and aid groups have called Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Sudan’s government is accused of backing pro-government Arab militia known as Janjaweed in a campaign of violence — including rapes, killings and the burning of villages — to help put down a 19-month rebellion by non-Arab African groups. The government denies backing the militias.