We are victims too, say Darfur's Arab refugees

[reorg]

We are victims too, say Darfur's Arab refugees
By Kim Sengupta in Mossei, Darfur

13 August 2004

A few miles from a camp at Opash is another at Mossei. One is packed with African refugees, the other Arabs, the dispossessed from the opposing sides of Darfur's internecine conflict.

The perceived view is that the African civilians have been the victims of the murderous Janjaweed militia in a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Sudanese government.

But the Arabs say they have been so demonised their own suffering is being ignored. They say they too have been attacked, driven from their homes, and abandoned to face pending epidemics of cholera, malaria and hepatitis. They say their persecutors are African tribes in league with the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, with their own campaigns of driving out another community,

(...)

Abdullah Hassan Suleiman, the omdar or chief sheikh at Mossei, vehemently denied links with the Janjaweed, and said this was the kind of false accusation which was putting them in danger. "If we were with the Janjaweed, do you think we'd be sitting here in this misery? We had to flee our village because the Zarghawa and the Daju attacked us. They killed 18 of our men and kidnapped three women and two men.

(...)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=550819

* The Independent's Darfur Appeal has now collected £32,892 from readers, the charity Concern reported yesterday.