Despairing refugees await Darfur security force

ABU SHOUK CAMP, Sudan - Hawa Abdallah Mohamed says she fled to this miserable camp after government forces and state-backed militia attacked her village in North Darfur almost five years ago.

But instead of refuge, she found the same violence here that has killed as many as 200,000 people and driven 2 million more from their homes to create one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Now she and others in Abu Shouk Camp say a joint United Nations-African Union force is their only chance at finally knowing safety.

"It's so important that this force, which we have asked for for so long, will protect us in the camps where we now find the same rape and killing we fled from," the 23-year-old said.

The 26,000-strong mission, which is due to deploy around Jan. 1, will take over from struggling AU peacekeepers who have failed to stem violence in Sudan's west.

Refugees hope the peacekeepers will put a stop to rapes and killings, remove settlers from their lands and disarm the militias who drove them away.

But while the force hopes to be able to at least protect civilians, Khartoum has refused to let it have a mandate to disarm militias. Western states have also failed to provide helicopters and other needs, casting doubt on its effectiveness.

"NO FUTURE"

The United Nations, under pressure from Western governments, has tried for years to win support from Khartoum for an international force for Darfur where rebels took up arms against the government in 2003 charging neglect.

The Sudanese government responded in part by arming militias, known locally as Janjaweed and accused of atrocities against civilians, to put down the revolt.

The government says only 9,000 people have died in Darfur, and denies arming the Janjaweed, which Khartoum calls outlaws.

Elderly Khadija Ibrahim Mahmoud said she had first-hand experience with Janjaweed. She saw them burn houses, killing toddlers in their beds.

"The forces have to come as quickly as possible and then life will be better," she said. "Otherwise there's no future."

Many in the camps are too frightened to talk to foreigners for fear of harassment or arrest by government authorities.

Tribal leader Umda Salah Bakhour said that has happened to him. He was arrested three times after visits by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and top U.S. African official Jendayi Frazer.

He has been on the run since militia and government forces raided his North Darfur village in 2002, before the outbreak of major revolt. After three days of bombing and ground assaults he tried to move the weak and wounded out of the area.

But they were intercepted by militia who killed some of those with him and gang raped the women, including his 14-year-old cousin. They forced him to watch or be shot dead.


TRUST

After walking for days he made it to the outskirts of el-Fasher, but said authorities refused them entry.

"A lot of people got sick and died of malnutrition, diarrhoea and infections," he said. "I watched 27 children and 16 old people die in front of my eyes."

For the new force to be successful, Bakhour said they must not just stay in nearby towns but set up bases in the camps, where many feel the small, inexperienced AU force has become too close to the government, which says rebels have infiltrated the camps.

"They (UN troops) must come directly to the camps and listen to the people not just ask the government what's happening," he said.

The new force will have to work hard and fast not to lose the trust of the people, who in some larger camps have burned down the AU police posts within.

For Ishaq Ismail Adam, the force's arrival is in some ways too late. Just three weeks ago he was walking in the camp when a man shot his friend in the head right before his eyes.

"They are so late for Darfur because we have been living a tragedy," said the 24-year-old.

"Do we need to pay them to make them come? I want to ask a high-level U.N. official just what do you want us to do so you can come?"