SUDAN/ USA: US SECURITY ADVISOR CONDOLEEZA RICE SAYS THERE IS A "BREWING DISASTER" IN THE DAFUR REGION OF SUDAN

Record ID: 679522

  • Title: SUDAN/ USA: US SECURITY ADVISOR CONDOLEEZA RICE SAYS THERE IS A "BREWING DISASTER" IN THE DAFUR REGION OF SUDAN
  • Date: 7th June 2004
  • Summary: (W7) KALMA CAMP, SOUTH DARFUR, SUDAN (JUNE 7, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN KALMA CAMP VARIOUS OF INTERIOR OF CLASSROOM WITH STUDENTS LEARNING SCU BOY'S FACE SCU HANDS DRAWING SLV CHILDREN SHOWING TEACHER THEIR BOOKS WIDE OF CHILDREN HOLDING UP THEIR BOOKS TO SHOW DRAWINGS OF SOLDIERS WITH GUNS CLOSE OF DRAWINGS OF SOLDIERS VARIOUS OF CHILD SHO
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KALMA CAMP IN NYALA - SOUTH DARFUR, SUDAN / SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5DFHCTBXC3X8MWEBYN1MPR53A
  • Story Text: Bush adviser Condoleezza Rice calls situation in Darfur a "brewing disaster" while children in a school in the region are coping with their plight by sketching their experiences of the war during art lessons.
    Sudan's government bears much of the blame for the "brewing disaster" in its western region of Darfur and should act to resolve the crisis, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Monday (June 7).
    Aid agencies warn that hundreds of thousands of people face death from hunger and disease in the vast territory, where the United Nations accuses government-backed militias of carrying out ethnic cleansing. According to the United Nations, more than 1 million people have been driven from their homes, many of them fleeing over the border into neighbouring Chad.
    Rice told reporters ahead of the Group of Eight industrial nations summit in Sea Island, Georgia, that Sudan would figure prominently in discussions between G8 members and African leaders invited to the meeting.
    "Darfur is a brewing disaster for which the Sudanese government bears a lot of responsibility, and people will look to them to act responsibly to defuse that crisis," she said.
    Rice said Darfur had also been discussed during President George W. Bush's visit to Italy and France last week.
    "There was a lot of concern when we were in both France and Italy. We talked about ... the need of the Sudanese government to do everything that it can to make sure that the violence has ended there, to do everything that it can to let international aid relief workers into the area," she said.
    The United States has a special interest in oil-rich Sudan because of Khartoum's record of hosting militant Islamists, including Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.
    Rice said the talks between G8 leaders and the Africans would probably also deal with renewed fighting in Congo that has flared near the eastern city of Bukavu.
    In the southern Dafur region some children are coping as best as they can, by reliving their worst moments on paper - they are trying to get rid of the horrors they have encountered.
    Some draw images depicting Janjaweed militia on camel back - others draw armed soldiers pursuing villagers, and others draw jet-fighter planes as vividly as they can remember.
    The school, set up by UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), is like a safe haven for the just over 2,000 students enrolled here. According to their instructors, drawing relieves them from their withdrawn state.
    Seventeen year old Abbakar has been at this school since the start just over two months ago. He recalls he saw planes bombing his village - and the Janjaweed, the so-called Arab tribesmen, burning his home village - and this is what he draws.
    "The planes flew and bombed our village. The soldiers came in cars, and after that the Janjaweed came and burnt our village. We were lucky because we hid in our farm. We hid in sorghum fields before moving to the mountains," says Abbakar.
    The fighting in poverty-stricken Darfur has pitted Arab militias and government troops against two rebel groups who draw their members largely from black African farming communities.
    The United Nations says a major humanitarian disaster is looming in Sudan's Darfur region.
    The conflict in Darfur has affected two million people and displaced about one million.
    With rain imminent and infrastructure already poor, various aid agencies working in the area say the crisis will become catastrophic. People could lose their make-shift shelters to possible floods, and they will have nowhere to shelter.
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