U.N. Envoys Meet With Darfur Conflict Refugees

U.N. Security Council diplomats wanted to see for themselves how the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan is bleeding across the border into Chad. And so, in a snaking convoy of 17 white SUVs, the ambassadors arrived Saturday at the tallest tree in the camp for displaced people here, where thousands had gathered to tell their stories and ask for help.

During the ambassadors’ brief visit, they heard firsthand how borders make little difference when it comes to war.

The Security Council is on a 10-day mission in this conflict-riven part of Africa, trying to press peace in Sudan and stave off proxy wars with neighboring Chad. Three years of fighting between Sudanese rebel groups and government-backed tribal militias have killed tens of thousands of people in Darfur and displaced about 2.3 million people, about 213,000 of whom have spilled into Chad.

But the Sudanese militias, known as the janjaweed, have galloped across the border as well, to punish opponents and recruit -- or abduct -- young men to join the fight.

Ordinary villagers are caught in the middle.

Hanane Adam Ali, a young woman with a faraway look in her almond eyes, said that three months ago, men on horses and wearing turbans harassed women at the watering hole, then rode into their village to plunder it. She escaped with her father, but her friends were killed, she said.

They sought refuge in a nearby village, which was soon attacked, and they fled again, ending up here at the camp for displaced people at Goz Beida.

“They killed so many women and men, and raped women, and burned crops and took our animals,” she said. “The government and NGOs should do the best they can to bring peace.”

The United Nations ambassadors listened solemnly in the middle of a circle, ringed first by white-robed elders, and surrounded by about 1,000 men in skullcaps and women in many-colored abayas, or head-to-toe coverings. A few younger men climbed up nearby trees for a better perch.

“It’s painful,” Ghanaian Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng said as he walked slowly through the throngs of curious camp residents. “They have been through so much.”

“I feel very sad,” Argentine Ambassador Cesar Mayoral said. “They are asking us for help, and we are not giving them much. We hope we can do more.”

A recent diplomatic effort to forge peace in Sudan, and thus Chad, appears to be in trouble. Although the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement May 5 with one of the three rebel groups, the two other factions have refused to sign on. An accord intended to calm the region has sparked new fighting as the factions splinter and turn on one another, and seek new recruits from the camps in Chad.

Nearby at the Djabal refugee camp, U.N. dignitaries were confronted by Darfur refugees opposed to the proposed peace deal.

More than 1,000 refugees staged a loud, angry protest, complaining that the peace agreement does not offer strong enough assurances that they’ll be compensated for their losses. Many also voiced distrust of Minni Arcua Minnawi, the head of the Sudan Liberation Army faction that signed the agreement last month, saying he had sold out the Darfur people for personal power.

Hundreds of refugees lined the road to the Djabal camp as the U.N. delegation arrived, waving banners and shouting, “No! No! No to Minni’s peace agreement!”

“The memorandum signed has nothing to do with peace,” said Abubakar Ahmed, a camp leader linked to a rival SLA faction. He and about two dozen other camp leaders spoke with U.N. officials during a brief meeting.

“Refugees have no rights,” he said. “The pillaging, rape and killing is continuing as we speak.”

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry acknowledged the refugees’ concerns but said the peace deal represented their best chance of returning home.

“It’s vital that there is peace and there is a peace deal,” he told them.

The question-and-answer session ended abruptly when about two dozen protesters swarmed outside. Chadian military and police drove them back with sticks.

Protesters said they feared that the peace deal would be used to lure them home before adequate protections against janjaweed attacks were in place and without compensation for lost homes and property.

“We want our land back,” said Aden Mohammed Ahmed, 36, who has lived at the camp for a year.

Sudan and Chad, which have severed diplomatic relations, share a lengthy border and ethnic tribal ties. Now they share the misery of ethnic conflict and something else: a government that can’t -- or won’t -- protect its people.

In a two-hour meeting after the Security Council diplomats visited the camps, Chadian President Idriss Deby told the envoys that he was unable to care for the Sudanese refugees and his own displaced citizens. He formally asked the Security Council for international forces and more humanitarian aid.

“We certainly have to take into account the need for better security in the camps here,” Jones Parry said after the meeting, but he did not promise Deby any U.N. peacekeepers.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said his nation wouldn’t send troops.

“We think it is not for us to do,” he said, hinting at France’s days as the colonial ruler of Chad. “But when it is time, we will take our share.” But De la Sabliere added that the U.N. would send help.

“We told them we think the Security Council will help the U.N. find the funds to help.”