'Gun easier to get than bread'
2004-07-06 09:49
On The Sudan Border - They strike without warning, thundering into villages on horses and camels, cutting down with swords and bullets those who try to flee - leaving bombed and burned out homes in their wake.
After more than 16 months of terror, a promise by the Sudanese president to disarm the mostly Arab Janjaweed militias does not reassure the more than 1 million black Africans chased from their homes in attacks that human rights groups say amounts to ethnic cleansing. Some aid workers question whether the government is able to fulfil its pledge.
"He will never get rid of the Janjaweed," said Mohammed Ahmat Mohammed, one of the more than 200 000 Sudanese sheltering in neighbouring Chad. "He just wants us to go back so he can kill us all."
Mohammed watched helplessly as the armed horsemen who overran his village late last year stole his cattle, set fire to his home and shot his 28-year-old son dead.
He, his two wives and 15 surviving children fled over the border with only the clothes on their backs. They have huddled for the past nine months under thorn trees, which offer little protection against the beating sun, swirling sandstorms and sudden downpours in one of the world's most inhospitable regions.
Dwindling resources
Nomadic Arab tribes have long been in conflict with their African farming neighbours over Darfur's dwindling resources - particularly water and usable land. The tensions exploded into violence when two African rebel groups took up arms against the government in February 2003 over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle with Arab countrymen.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army accuse the government of arming the Janjaweed, a charge Khartoum denies. But across the region, refugees describe how Sudanese aeroplanes and helicopter gunships have backed the militia attacks.
Residents of the North Darfur provincial town of al-Fater claim a nearby military garrison was handing out cash and identity cards to Arab herders a year ago, when rebels were advancing in the area. "Soon after, we heard on the radio that the Janjaweed were causing havoc," one resident said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a concerted diplomatic push with US Secretary of State Colin Powell last week, won a commitment from Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to contain the militias and allow human rights monitors into Darfur.
The African Union on Monday said it would send 300 peacekeepers to Darfur, to protect the growing number of refugees. Sudan's pledge came as the United States raised the possibility of sanctions if the government failed to stop the attacks and allow international aid to reach the displaced.
Aid workers welcomed the agreement as an important first step in ending the violence they say has caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Up to 30 000 people have died in the uprising, and the US Agency for International Development predicts the number could surge to 300 000 if aid doesn't reach the estimated two million in desperate need.
'Situation is dire'
"What matters now is the implementation (of the agreement)," said Jasmine Whitbread, international director of the British aid group Oxfam. "Time is running out ... The humanitarian situation is dire. The people of Darfur can't wait any longer for progress."
The Sudanese refugees have heard such promises before. When the government and rebel groups signed an April 8 ceasefire, some returned to the ruins of their villages to rebuild - only to be attacked all over again.
There wasn't even time to bury the bodies still lying where they fell, said Abel Chatter, who returned to the Chad border town of Birak less than two weeks ago.
"If we go back now, it will be the same thing all over again," said Khatir, a tall man in a white turban and dark sunglasses trying to make enough to feed his wife and three children by selling straw at the market.
Even if el-Bashir's government is serious about disarming the militias, some humanitarian workers in the embattled Darfur province privately questioned their ability to contain the armed bands roaming a vast and desolate region the size of France.
In previous disarmament efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, fighters lay down their weapons only to pick them up again soon after because they could find no better livelihoods.
Nightmare situation
Jan Egeland, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, concedes the situation is "a nightmare".
"The only thing there is an abundance of now in Darfur is arms. It is easier to get a Kalashnikov than bread," he told reporters on a tour of Sudan and Chad with Annan last week.
For many of the armed bands roaming the region, raiding and looting have become a way of life.
"To pillage is their profession," Egeland said.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters last week that 6 000 soldiers and policemen would be deployed in Darfur to improve security, but he did not say when or where they would come from.
"What we don't want is to see these same people in police and security force uniforms now," Egeland said of the Janjaweed, whose name means "men on horseback" in the local dialect.
Annan says robust monitoring by international observers will be key to resolving the devastating conflict.
But Mohammed isn't taking any chances. Sitting on a bag of millet amid a throng of refugees, he waited with his head in his hands to board a UN truck to a refugee camp deeper inside Chad.
- AP