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Fresh violence in Darfur
10/08/2004 21:37 - (SA)
Geneva - Fresh violence erupted on Tuesday in Sudan's Darfur region, with attacks by government helicopter gunships and government-backed militias in the region, the United Nations said.
Aid agencies also alleged that the Sudanese government was putting pressure on displaced people in Darfur to return to their home villages despite continuing violence, but said this fell short of intimidation.
"The violence has already led to more displacement" of civilians, the UN's humanitarian co-ordination office (OCHA) said in a note to media.
OCHA spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told AFP the helicopter gunships were thought to have been used during clashes with rebels in Darfur.
But OCHA said attacks by government-backed militias - known as the Janjaweed - targeting internally displaced people in the region were still being reported across all three states in Darfur. Pressure
The UN refugee agency also warned that people were being pressed to return to dangerous areas.
"In west Darfur, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned that the local authorities and government of Sudan are continuing to put pressure on displaced people to return to villages," UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis said.
However, the refugee agency said there was no evidence that violence or intimidation was being used to force villagers home.
Pagonis told journalists that the villages "are not safe and do not offer any possibility of decent life, since most crops have been destroyed by rampaging militia". Tribal leaders offered money
Sudanese government authorities have been offering up to $400 to tribal leaders to persuade people who had sought refuge in camps to go home, the UN said on Monday in New York.
Khartoum had stationed policemen in empty villages in an attempt to persuade displaced people that it was safe to go back, Pagonis said.
"However, displaced people tell us they are not reassured by government policemen and do not feel the time is yet right for their return home," she added.
One group of villagers interviewed by UNHCR in hospital had been attacked after returning to their homes, although they said they were told it was protected.
"It doesn't sound like they were led into a trap but there was no police authority and they were attacked. It was an error to tell people they were safe," UNHCR spokesperson Peter Kessler said. Returns 'must be voluntary'
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which is negotiating an agreement with the Sudanese government to help the return of the 1.2 million displaced in Darfur, insisted on Tuesday that returns must be voluntary.
"The voluntariness of the return is paramount, it is key to these returns happening," IOM spokesperson Jean-Philippe Chauzy said.
The UN also said that despite formal pledges last month by the Sudanese government, access to the strife-torn region for aid workers "has deteriorated over the past week".
New obstacles included restrictions on flights by the World Food Programme (WFP), delaying the deployment of aid staff, as well as government red tape for non-UN agencies hiring local Sudanese staff.
The UN Security Council has threatened to impose sanctions on Sudan unless Khartoum eases the crisis in Darfur by the end of this month.
- AFP
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