'No more villages to burn'

2004-05-13 08:20

Geneva - A fragile calm has returned to Sudan's western Darfur, wracked by 15 months of war, but only because "there are no more villages to burn," a UN official said on Wednesday.

"Because there are no villages left to burn, the situation has calmed down," said UN emergency relief officer Daniel Augstburger, who visited Darfur from April 28 to May 1.

Since rebels in Darfur signed a ceasefire pact last month with the Khartoum government, systematic attacks on civilian populations in the north and south of the region have dropped off, but the far west has seen no change, he said.

"Forced movements of populations have stopped to a certain extent," said Augstburger, adding that "harassment of civilians was continuing", especially in the form of gang rape.

Reign of terror

UN human rights chief Bertrand Ramcharan last week accused the Sudanese government of conducting a "reign of terror" and "repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity" by supporting militia and nomads who have been driving black Africans out of the region.

An estimated one million people have been displaced inside the country, and a UN report has said the government was deliberately starving some of them. More than 100 000 others have fled across the border into Chad.

Augstburger said that a death toll often cited by the media of 10 000 since war broke out in Darfur in February last year was "highly restrictive."

"Vast numbers of people who fled their villages have not been found in camps for displaced people," he said, alluding to a group of some 50 000 people who have not been seen or heard of since they fled their homes in Darfur.

We aren't saying they are dead

"We aren't saying they are dead, but we don't know where they have got to," he said.

UN humanitarian aid to Darfur "will continue for at least the next 18 months," said Augstburger.

During his visit to Darfur, Augstburger saw several villages that had been razed, with the tents of Arab nomads cropping up where African villagers' huts used to stand.

"There is a deliberate effort to prevent people from returning home," he said, calling on Khartoum to establish conditions that would allow Darfur's displaced, who the UN has said number in the millions, to return to their villages.

"We're not talking about forced relocation but of voluntary returns to the place of origin," said Augstburger.

"Internally displaced people don't want to go back for the moment. Conditions are not ready in terms of protection," he said, adding that many of the militias who have been blamed for the atrocities in Darfur "have been integrated with the (Sudanese) armed forces, which is not creating an environment where people will feel safe."

- AFP