Militias force Sudanese to return home

[Rose Siding]

After a murderous rampage which has left around 50,000 dead and a further 1.4 million homeless, there are growing fears that Sudan's government-sponsored Arab militias are involved in a covert operation to force displaced people back into the homes they have fled, to divert international attention from the crisis.
Pressure has been growing on the Sudanese government to end the year-long campaign by the militiamen, or Janjaweed, and government soldiers who have have been burning, raping, looting and killing their way across the Sudanese province of Darfur in a bid to ethnically cleanse the area of black, non-Arab Africans. The terror has forced communities to flee their homes, livelihood and families and has been labelled 'genocide' by the United States.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, said last week that Sudan's government is not following through on promises to protect refugees and there is evidence that the Janjaweed who chased villagers off their land are policing the camps. Earlier this month the UN Security Council passed a resolution threatening sanctions if the violence does not come to a swift end.

Now aid workers report that Janjaweed working as camp police are offering bribes to refugees who will agree to return to their homes in the danger zones. In Kass, a town in Darfur that is home to more than 40,000 refugees, the local police have been seen offering sweets to children as a lure to return to the villages from which they fled.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1312891,00.html

[gottaB]

1. About the phony relief agencies

I have read news stories and reports from OCHA regarding some aid agencies that offer money to refugees so they will go home. I will give the aid workers the benefit of the doubt, and assume they have the refugees' best interests at heart. The violent reactions to these agencies in some camps should alert them that they are not attuned to the refugees' needs.

The refugees' fear, anger and distrust of the government is, by all accounts, deep and genuine. It would be foolish not to recognize that when devising and implementing strategies to assist them.