Sudanese security forces raid refugees camp in Darfur: BBC

NYALA, West Sudan, Nov 10, 2004 (BBC) — Sudanese security forces have again stormed a refugee camp in the troubled region of Darfur and attacked crowds.

Police fired tear gas and assaulted residents at El-Geer camp near Nyala, just hours before the UN’s Sudan envoy arrived at the settlement.

Sudanese police bulldoze debris at El-Geer refugee camp near Nyala in the Darfur area of Sudan on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2004. Inhabitants were forced to move to another refugee camp. (AP).

The UN and African Union are seeing the assault as a calculated affront, says a BBC correspondent from the scene.

The assault comes a day after Sudan’s government and rebels signed an agreement aimed at ending the crisis.

It is also a week before the UN Security Council visits the region to focus on the Sudan crisis.

UN chief visits

It is the second time in a week that the camp has been attacked in this way.

Government officials in the area knew that the UN Secretary General’s representative was due to visit the camp shortly afterwards, says BBC correspondent Fergal Keane.

In spite of this, government forces staged two assaults on displaced people, and would not desist from bulldozing their camp, despite the presence of representatives of the UN, the African Union and international aid agencies.

At one stage a plastic bullet was fired at a BBC cameraman standing next to a UN vehicle.

The BBC has also confirmed that tear gas was fired at people, mostly women and children, queuing at a nearby medical clinic.

‘Open contempt’

Our correspondent witnessed harrowing scenes, as tear gas was fired into another compound, where women and children had sought shelter.

One woman was crying hysterically because her baby son had been lost in the panic.

An earlier police action last week was condemned by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
A police commander at the scene told the BBC’s correspondent that he was under orders to move the people to a new camp several kilometres away.

Forcible relocation is a breach of international humanitarian law.

The police showed open contempt for UN officials when they arrived.

Some 1.6 million people have fled their homes and tens of thousands have lost their lives in the conflict in Darfur.

Pro-government Janjaweed militias are accused of driving the region’s black Africans from their villages, since two rebel groups began an uprising in February 2003. A UN team is in Sudan probing genocide allegations.

African Union peacekeepers at the camp said they did not have power or mandate to intervene, our correspondent adds.

More police have now arrived to reinforce the earlier contingent.

The BBC ‘s reporter says that when Jan Pronk arrives in the camp he will find a population that is terrorised and bewildered, and with little faith in the power of the international community.

Peace talks

The raid took place a day after the Sudanese government and the rebels signed what has been described as a breakthrough agreement aimed at ending the crisis.

At peace talks in Nigeria, sponsored by the African Union, the Sudanese government accepted a ban on military flights over Darfur.

A separate agreement covers humanitarian aid.

Talks aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict in Darfur are to resume in December.