Sudan launches fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur
KHARTOUM - Sudan carried out fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur on Tuesday, worsening 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 attacks in South Darfur. The violence has already led to more displacement," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement from Geneva.
"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.
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.
Despite recent pledges to co-operate to end the humanitarian crisis the UN has called the worst in the world, the UN 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 US Secretary of State Colin Powell, on recent visits to Darfur.
One woman from Western Darfur state told Reuters she was imprisoned several times and routinely harassed after she translated for a recent visiting group of foreign diplomats.
"Nineteen security officers jumped down from two trucks and threatened me with weapons," said the woman, who was too frightened to give her name.
"They took me back to the headquarters and threatened me saying that they had scorpions and snakes and accusing me of mistranslating for the diplomats," she said.
Another woman, who works in development and declined to be identified, said authorities threatened to make her disappear one day after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited 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 US State Department official called the reports "of serious concern".
"The United States and its other partners from the international community have been clear about the need for information and cooperation from the government of Sudan regarding the situation in Darfur," spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington.
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 US 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 UN Security Council demand that it disarm the 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. One senior UN official said it was easier to buy a Kalashnikov than a loaf of bread in Darfur.
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 2000 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.
- REUTERS
KHARTOUM - Sudan carried out fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur on Tuesday, worsening 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 attacks in South Darfur. The violence has already led to more displacement," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement from Geneva.
"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.
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.
Despite recent pledges to co-operate to end the humanitarian crisis the UN has called the worst in the world, the UN 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 US Secretary of State Colin Powell, on recent visits to Darfur.
One woman from Western Darfur state told Reuters she was imprisoned several times and routinely harassed after she translated for a recent visiting group of foreign diplomats.
"Nineteen security officers jumped down from two trucks and threatened me with weapons," said the woman, who was too frightened to give her name.
"They took me back to the headquarters and threatened me saying that they had scorpions and snakes and accusing me of mistranslating for the diplomats," she said.
Another woman, who works in development and declined to be identified, said authorities threatened to make her disappear one day after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited 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 US State Department official called the reports "of serious concern".
"The United States and its other partners from the international community have been clear about the need for information and cooperation from the government of Sudan regarding the situation in Darfur," spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington.
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 US 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 UN Security Council demand that it disarm the 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. One senior UN official said it was easier to buy a Kalashnikov than a loaf of bread in Darfur.
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 2000 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.
- REUTERS
publicado por MP às 21:50
