The Displaced : A Generation of Anger

(Amnesty International 01 22 08 V S:A Summary )

Translation Alice Depret

I went to the mountains where I found my people under rocks

I went to Fasher where I found my people under sacks

I went to Nyala where I found my people under trees

I went to Jeneina where I found my people in deserted ruins

I went to Zalingei where I found my people in valleys

I went to Kutum where I found my people under bushes

I went to Kabkabiya where I found my people under sacks

I went to Kass where I found my people under trees

I went to Wadi Saleh where I found my people in valleys

[refrain after each line]

Oh my mother what is happening?

Oh youth come here and see

Oh youth repair your shoes ………… Maryam Ammo, Fur singer

Context

Most of those driven from their homes and communities are now living in more than 65 camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Darfur . People not living in camps are sheltered in towns in Darfur , squatting in shacks or staying with relatives or others who have offered them a corner of their house. Still others are in the bush, where they survive precariously on wild fruits and cereals. Thousands more Darfuris escaped to various regions of Sudan , to Kordofan, to Khartoum or to central eastern areas where they have been hired to work on economic projects. In addition, about 240,000 people from Darfur are known to be sheltered in 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad . Many families have been forcibly displaced several times, and newly displaced people continue to arrive at IDP camps. For mile upon arid mile, the country is all but abandoned save for a few nomads. Here, wild millet and sorghum grow among tall grass and trees. These are the only signs left of old villages marked by burnt mud-brick walls and deserted homes.

IDP camps mainly house women and children. As the displaced tell it, NGOs are the sole suppliers of food and clean drinking water, but are incapable of offering security. Refugees are wary of the army and police, which patrol the camps, relating how often many of them have been arrested on foraging expeditions outside the camps because the authorities believed them to be members of rebel factions.

Danger Stalks the Innocent At the Edge of the Camps

The central government handed over certain zones of Darfur to the SLA/Mini Minawi and to other groups (collectively known as “the signatories”) which accepted the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in Abuja in 2006. This zone contains Gereida, the largest refugee camp in Darfur with an internal population of some 120,000 individuals. In September 2006, after an attack on their camp, the SLA/MM detained Masalit men who “disappeared”. The bodies of eight were found in January 2007 in a mass grave. Witnesses have reported that SLA/MM soldiers rape women.

The camp at Kalma holding 20,000 people (double the number according to some) and the camp at Abu Shouk holding some 50,000 individuals are also significant in size. Those at Kidinger and Rokoro in the rebel area shelter Arab and non-Arab. Most of the people now in camps once made their living as farmers, but there are doctors, teachers, engineers and even a former member of Parliament. Most camps have an internal government system of shaikhs elected by different sectors with an occasional parallel leadership of women shaikhas. The larger camps have initiated a system of communal police patrol. An estimated 500,000 persons remain inaccessible to NGO oversight, and even when access is granted, humanitarian workers are harassed on a daily basis, and often detained for hours at a time. Four wheel travel is unsafe as many of the roads are controlled by the janjaweed or insurgent groups. ( The chief coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated that insecurity mainly affected government controlled areas rather than the zones in rebel hands ).

Women and the Constant Threat of Rape

( VS has often spoken of this hazard. At one point, African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) attempted to accompany parties of women in their wood-gathering expeditions outside the camps when they were at great risk of being raped by the janjaweed. This was no longer done. The Hybrid Force has in part taken over the task with much joy ).

Inside the Camps, Guns are Cheap

The rebel groups brought arms into the camps, mostly J3s and Kalashnikovs . A handgun costs no more than 17 Euros. The government has given the security forces weapons to kill people off. The political alliances in the camps are in constant mutation. In some IDP camps the people are hostile to all the armed groups, in others they maintain a passionate and militant allegiance to one armed opposition group, or are split between different armed opposition groups. Many camps have experienced internal tensions, especially those with a minority supporting the SLA/MM which signed the peace agreement with the government. In some camps supporters of the SLA/Abdel Wahed, use the camp structure to dominate its populace. Although most camps have managed to minimize divisions along either ethnic or political lines, Kalma, with its overcrowded and squalid conditions and 29 different ethnic groups, is the exception to the rule. Since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement, relations with the signatory Zaghawa have become strained. The camp is guarded by security divisions with checkpoints at the entrance to the camp, and police often stop people from entering or leaving. In Kalma, every ethnic group has weapons and people have grouped themselves into vigilante patrols according to Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa, or Dajo affiliation. This has prompted inter-tribal skirmishes as well as robbery and personal assaults. Many accuse Khartoum of aggravating the situation. And as long as insecurity persists, people will hang on to their weapons, often burying them to avoid confiscation. In Zalingei last June, there was a series of attacks in which arms were used, resulting in the killing of at least five camp residents by gunmen who were never identified.

Desperate Youth and a Disaffected Generation

Due to a massive mobilization by UNICEF and NGOs, there are primary schools in every camp, attended roughly by 28% of primary age children,46% of them girls. Sadly, secondary schools are non-existent as is vocational training. Since April 2006, among the one million displaced, about 120,000 of then are children. Before the war, most young people would have been agricultural laborers in some capacity, but today they have nothing to do. With time on their hands they play soccer, smoke marijuana and sniff benzene. Young girls who live close to a town do cleaning or laundry work which barely generates enough income for food and leaves them susceptible to abuse. With so many young idle, frustrated, and hopeless, a surge in recruitment among rebel factions has become apparent and when these young people are subjected to questioning after having left the camps, they are accused of supporting and participating in rebel activity.

The Danger of Forced Relocations and Returns

“I am alarmed about the reports of forced relocation last night from Otash camp in Nyala, South Darfur ,” declared John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on 29 October 2007. From the beginning of the crisis local administrators in Darfur have put pressure on the displaced to leave the camps and return to their villages. But now their land is occupied by Arabs who graze their herds on land that was once farmed. By in large, the refugees refuse to leave saying it is not safe to return home. On 22 August 2004 the government of Sudan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) providing guarantees that repatriation would be voluntary and carried out under conditions of security and that IOM would have full access to internally displaced persons. This agreement has been consistently breached. According to international law, internally displaced people must be enabled to participate fully and freely in any decision as to whether they should remain where they are, return to their homes, or settle elsewhere in the country. To do this they need information: information about the situation in their area of origin or resettlement; information about the procedures for return or resettlement; and information about future conditions, including access to housing, land and the prospect of a livelihood. In 2007, a number of rare agreements were concluded between rebel factions and Arab groups. Safe havens were created and farmers were able to return and work their land. But such developments are exceptional. Most of the time farmers live under the control of Arab overseers like virtual captives. “ When I went back, there were three Arabs with cell phones, baring arms and in uniform. All of us who were there went out to till the fields and at night we slept together under Arab guard. Four months later, we saw that the harvest would be good. But then suddenly 7 Arabs appeared. They killed my brother. We heard gunfire. Then, the Arabs rode into the fields on horseback and destroyed everything, ” one witness recounted. Around the huts in Ardamata camp, displaced people have planted seeds to grow crops on minuscule plots of land. During the rainy season, displaced people try to plant on land on the outskirts of the camps. In other places such as Tawila, displaced people risk janjaweed attacks by going for two or three days to Jebel Marra, where they prepare land and sow crops while hiding from the janjaweed, then return to the camp for safety. In most cases, Arabs have appropriated land for grazing. Among those settled on land of the displaced in parts of West Darfur including Wadi Saleh and Wadi Azoum, are more than 30,000 people who crossed the border from Chad , mostly from Arab communities; they were recognized by UNHCR as refugees. The UNHCR report called for the original owners of the land to be able to return to their villages when it is safe; nevertheless the decision is considered by those displaced as ratifying a land seizure. Could it be that these are the people to whom Khartoum has allegedly given Sudanese citizenship, land, and quantities of seeds?

( The Amnesty International Report then gives a long and detailed account of forced displacement from one camp to another or from camp to village where in general the displaced are poorly received and badly treated. This subject was treated in detail in VS Bulletin No# 144. )

In still other camps, the government has used persuasive means, usually in the form of financial incentives, as well as threats to get people to relocate. This becomes obvious when people tell how they have been moved against their will. Numerous have been those who recounted to Amnesty International that they would not accept to relocate when the government ordered them to unless it was to homes reconstructed on the site of their destroyed former villages. Yes of course they wanted to go home, but could not unless their security was guaranteed. Logically Khartoum wants to prevent overcrowding in the camps along with a growth of militarized factions. But in doing this, by no means excuses the government from shying away from its official engagement.---

MSA is the monthly allowance that has been paid to the representatives at the Ceasefire Commission. This became a big issue because the rate paid was a UN hardship allowance daily rate of $200+ per day, i.e. $6,000 per month. In the middle of last year the AU stopped paying because the CFC funding dried up. The UN doesn't pay MSA for CFC reps. So the CFC has been paralyzed because the SLA reps have been demanding back payment for the last months. QIP Quick Impact project

Humanitarian 14 international aid agencies today warned that vital assistance of people across Sudan will soon be put in jeopardy unless there is renewed commitment to provide long-term funding for humanitarian flights in the country with violent conflict continuing in Darfur and heavy annual rains due to fall in southern Sudan,