SUDAN: POLICE AND TROOPS SURROUND A REFUGEE CAMP NEAR KHARTOUM WHERE AT LEAST 17 POLICE AND RESIDENTS DIED IN RECENT CLASHES

Record ID: 275166

  • Title: SUDAN: POLICE AND TROOPS SURROUND A REFUGEE CAMP NEAR KHARTOUM WHERE AT LEAST 17 POLICE AND RESIDENTS DIED IN RECENT CLASHES
  • Date: 24th May 2004
  • Summary: (EU)NEAR KHARTOUM, SUDAN (MAY24, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV: POLICE TRUCKS 0.03 2. INTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER SHOUTING ALLAH AL AKBAR AND CROWD ANSWERING 0.07 3. WS: POLICE VEHICLES 0.10 4. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) ASSISTANT INTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER, AHMED MOHAMMED HAROUN SAYING: "We are sure that the country is keen to keep good life for it
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR KHARTOUM, SUDAN
  • Country: Sudan
  • Reuters ID: LVA8KFC68GALQ3E1PJOPCTMSS64D
  • Story Text: Police and troops surround refugee camp where a
    crowd burned a police station last week, when police tried
    to relocate refugees.


    Thousands of police and soldiers conducted house to
    house searches and made arrests in a Sudanese refugee camp
    south of Khartoum on Tuesday (May 24), where at least 17
    police and residents died in clashes last week.

    At least 6,000 soldiers and 400 police officers sealed
    off the area, about 30 km (19 miles) south of the Sudanese
    capital Khartoum, and arrested 50 people in connection with
    the deaths of 14 policemen in the violence last week.

    Another 32 people were arrested for looting and burning
    the camp police station, the police chief of Khartoum
    state, Tariq Othman, told reporters on Tuesday.

    Clashes erupted last week when Sudanese police tried to
    relocate refugees, mainly from southern Sudan, away from
    the camp.

    Officials said only three civilians were killed and the
    police did not open fire. But the residents of the camp
    said the police did open fire and up to 17 civilians died.

    Sudanese Assistant Internal Affairs Minister, Ahmed
    Mohammed Haroun, said the operation was to restore order
    and security in the area.

    "We are sure that the country is keen to keep good life
    for its residents and the country policy for those who
    suffered due to the war conditions in the past or any other
    conditions is to prepare good housing for them," he said.

    Correspondents saw at least 20 police vehicles and six
    lorries full of soldiers in an area outside the camp.

    The police were heavily armed, with machine guns
    mounted on many of the vehicles.

    The police were searching homes and had beaten some
    people before taking them away. It was not possible to say
    exactly how many had been detained. The minister said the
    police and troops were not there to harrass people.

    "Those men are here for keeping security and for a
    clear message that we will not take lightly our duty to
    protect people's security," said Ahmed Mohammed Haroun.

    A Reuters photographer and a driver as well as a BBC
    correspondent were released from police custody after being
    beaten and detained. The three men suffered bruising.

    Security officials had said the detentions were a mistake.

    Slums and camps surrounding the sprawling capital are
    home to more than 2 million people, mostly southerners
    displaced by two decades of civil war.

    The slum areas around Khartoum have little or no
    running water or electricity and aid agencies have found it
    difficult to improve the situation there.

    Khartoum authorities say they want to demolish the
    slums to relocate residents to permanent, planned housing
    plots.

    But the United Nations criticises the policy, saying
    the authorities have failed to consult the people being
    moved, and that refugees were being moved to desert areas
    far from the capital and where there are no services.


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