KENYA: SENIOR UN OFFICIAL SAYS ETHNIC ATTACKS ON REFUGEES ARE STILL A PROBLEM AS DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR SUDAN TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS IN DARFUR

Record ID: 275255

  • Title: KENYA: SENIOR UN OFFICIAL SAYS ETHNIC ATTACKS ON REFUGEES ARE STILL A PROBLEM AS DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR SUDAN TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS IN DARFUR
  • Date: 30th August 2004
  • Summary: (W3)NAIROBI, KENYA (AUGUST 30, 2004)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF BRIEFING ROOM 0.06 2. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(English) UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL ADVISOR DENNIS MCNAMARA SAYING: "The government of Sudan, the authority of course needs to be pressurised to make more effective protective measures...security needs to be improved, perpetrators need to be p
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAIROBI, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVA7XPRDQDL1AQWWCLJ31AVMNC6U
  • Story Text: Even as a United Nations dealine approaches for
    Sudan to improve conditions in Darfur, a senior U.N. official says
    that attacks on refugees are still a major problem.




    Attacks on refugees in Sudan's Darfur region are
    still a major problem, a senior U.N. official said on
    Monday (August 3), as a deadline approached for Sudan to
    give them better protection or face U.N. sanctions.

    Dennis McNamara, special advisor to the U.N. Emergency
    Relief Co-ordinator on Displacement, said the attacks
    included multiple rapes by armed militia of Darfuri women
    and girls.

    "The government of Sudan, the authority of course needs
    to be pressurised to make more effective protective
    measures...security needs to be improved, perpetrators need
    to be prosecuted," he told a news conference in Nairobi
    after visiting victims in the camps.

    He was speaking as the Sudanese government and Darfuri
    rebel groups prepared to resume peace talks in the Nigerian
    capital Abuja meant to find a political solution to a
    conflict which has killed up to 50,000 people since it
    began in February 2003.

    Sudan, under international pressure, began the talks
    with the rebels last week, but negotiations have so far
    foundered amid accusations of ceasefire violations on both
    sides.

    More than a million Darfuris have fled their homes for
    fear of attack by Arab militia, known as Janjaweed,
    mobilised by the Sudanese government as auxiliaries in the
    campaign to crush the rebels. Khartoum says the attacks on
    Darfuris were carried out by "outlaws" and it is not
    responsible for their actions.

    The U.N. Security Council has set an Aug. 30 deadline
    for the Sudanese government to improve safety for Darfuri
    refugees or face possible sanctions.

    McNamara said that, though there had been improvements
    in getting humanitarian aid through, many refugees were
    still living in atrocious conditions. But even though
    conditions are deplorable in the camps, most people in them
    would rather tough it out than fearfully try to return home.

    "We didn't see any indication from IDPs (Internally
    Displaced People) or agencies that there was any likelihood
    of any large scale return to their areas of origin in
    Darfur at this time. Everybody we talked to said that that's not
    going to happen in the near future. The IDPs we
    talked to looked at us with some shock and amazement that
    we talked about going back to areas of their origin," he
    said.

    And in what has become a multi-pronged international
    drive to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, 155
    Nigerian troops arrived on Monday in Darfur to join an
    African Union force mandated for the region.

    They arrived on two military transport planes in
    el-Fasher, capital of Northern Darfur state, a Reuters
    witness reported. They would join 155 troops sent by Rwanda
    to protect African Union representatives monitoring a
    ceasefire there.



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