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Interpreter dies in Darfur camp protest
A Sudanese interpreter has been killed in Darfur when an angry protest turned violent during a senior UN official's visit to a camp for displaced Sudanese.
The man was killed in an African Union (AU) police station on Monday after Jan Egeland, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, and his entourage beat a hasty retreat from the Kalma camp in the face of violent protests.
Egeland said: "After we left, the AU civilian police post was overrun and a member of the force was killed. He was a Sudanese interpreter."
Egeland and aid workers had cut short their visit to the camp in South Darfur State after a demonstration spun out of control and an aid worker was attacked.
Thousands of Darfuris took the opportunity of his visit to demand international troops deploy there to protect them.
A female refugee shouted that an aid worker was a member of the Janjawid militia.
The crowd attacked a UN vehicle with axes and stones, shattering its windows.
The UN entourage travelling with Egeland left to return to the town of Nyala, about 15km away.
The residents of the camp said they rejected the peace deal signed on Friday between Darfur's main rebel faction and the government, calling it "incomplete".
"This peace in Abuja is not complete. We reject it totally," said Ezz El-Din Ahmed, who is from the Fur tribe, Darfur's largest.
Peace deal
Egeland, who is on a visit to Darfur a month after the Sudanese authorities prevented him from travelling to the region, has called on Khartoum to give aid workers better access to Darfur, as agreed in the peace deal.
The main faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, signed the peace agreement in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. But a rival faction, led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, and a second Darfur rebel group rejected the deal.
Minnawi is from the smaller Zaghawa tribe but is militarily stronger than Nur, who, like many of those in the camps visited by Egeland on Monday, is from the Fur tribe.
"This peace is not reality," said Mohammed Jaama Sineen from the Fur tribe, who has lived in Kalma camp for the past three years.
"We are asking for international forces. We want to ask Jan Egeland to send the UN to protect us," he said.
Suffering
Western governments have called for a UN mission to take over from the 7,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur. Sudan says it is undecided on the issue but said in the past it would only consider a UN mission after a peace agreement.
Thousands of camp residents chanting "Welcome, welcome international protection", surrounded Egeland with signs which read: "Enough suffering for the Darfur people."
"They [the government] want us to go home, but we will not go back until Abdel Wahed himself comes to Kalma to tell us there is peace," said a Fur tribesman.
The SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took up arms in early 2003, accusing the government of neglecting Darfur, an arid region the size of France.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1BE52177-6D34-47E8-BBCF-1A741F3E0485.htm
Egeland said: "After we left, the AU civilian police post was overrun and a member of the force was killed. He was a Sudanese interpreter."
Egeland and aid workers had cut short their visit to the camp in South Darfur State after a demonstration spun out of control and an aid worker was attacked.
Thousands of Darfuris took the opportunity of his visit to demand international troops deploy there to protect them.
A female refugee shouted that an aid worker was a member of the Janjawid militia.
The crowd attacked a UN vehicle with axes and stones, shattering its windows.
The UN entourage travelling with Egeland left to return to the town of Nyala, about 15km away.
The residents of the camp said they rejected the peace deal signed on Friday between Darfur's main rebel faction and the government, calling it "incomplete".
"This peace in Abuja is not complete. We reject it totally," said Ezz El-Din Ahmed, who is from the Fur tribe, Darfur's largest.
Peace deal
Egeland, who is on a visit to Darfur a month after the Sudanese authorities prevented him from travelling to the region, has called on Khartoum to give aid workers better access to Darfur, as agreed in the peace deal.
The main faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, signed the peace agreement in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. But a rival faction, led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, and a second Darfur rebel group rejected the deal.
Minnawi is from the smaller Zaghawa tribe but is militarily stronger than Nur, who, like many of those in the camps visited by Egeland on Monday, is from the Fur tribe.
"This peace is not reality," said Mohammed Jaama Sineen from the Fur tribe, who has lived in Kalma camp for the past three years.
"We are asking for international forces. We want to ask Jan Egeland to send the UN to protect us," he said.
Suffering
Western governments have called for a UN mission to take over from the 7,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur. Sudan says it is undecided on the issue but said in the past it would only consider a UN mission after a peace agreement.
Thousands of camp residents chanting "Welcome, welcome international protection", surrounded Egeland with signs which read: "Enough suffering for the Darfur people."
"They [the government] want us to go home, but we will not go back until Abdel Wahed himself comes to Kalma to tell us there is peace," said a Fur tribesman.
The SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took up arms in early 2003, accusing the government of neglecting Darfur, an arid region the size of France.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1BE52177-6D34-47E8-BBCF-1A741F3E0485.htm
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The trouble started during a march calling for foreign troops to be sent to protect the camps, when a woman said a translator belonged to a militia.
He escaped but another interpreter, who worked for the African Union, was set upon and killed a short while later.
More than two million people have fled since fighting began in 2003.
Some of the worst atrocities, such as mass killings, rape and looting has been blamed on the pro-government Janjaweed militia.
The translator accused of being a Janjaweed fighter managed to escape with bruises despite being attacked by a mob.
But shortly after Mr Egeland's group had left, a crowd overran an African Union mission in the Kalma camp and killed one of their Sudanese interpreters.
Mr Egeland, the UN's Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, said he was devastated by the news.
After the violence at the camp, home to some 90,000 people, Mr Egeland returned to the nearby town of Nyala.
Mr Egeland was due to travel to the capital, Khartoum, on Monday for talks with government officials.
He earlier said it was vital that UN peacekeepers were allowed into Sudan's Darfur region to help end the humanitarian crisis.
Some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers have failed to end the violence.
However, the government and the biggest rebel group signed a peace deal on Friday, which could pave the way for Sudan to allow the UN to take over.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Kalma says many of the protesters said they had little faith in the new peace agreement and only after an international force is deployed could they think about returning home.
'Strangled'
Earlier, Mr Egeland also called for aid workers to be given free access to Darfur, as laid out in the agreement.
"At the moment Darfur is slowly being strangled, it's dying in front of us," he said.
"Half of the population now has become war victims... so I believe, yes, we are turning the corner, but the whole world has to put pressure on the parties."
He was speaking in the town of Gereida which is held by the rebel group which signed the peace deal, the Sudan Liberation Movement.
But two smaller rebel groups rejected the agreement.
Just a month ago, the government banned Mr Egeland from visiting Darfur.
Tens of thousands of people around Gereida have been displaced in recent weeks, and the UN has warned of an impending disaster.
The three-year conflict has killed about 200,000 people and left about two million homeless.
Aid organisations say the conflict has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Money for the world's largest aid operation is running out. Rations for May have been cut in half .
The rebels took up arms in 2003, accusing the government of discriminating against the black African residents of Darfur.
Pro-government Arab militia then launched a campaign, described as "genocide" by the US.
The Sudan government denies backing the Janjaweed militias.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4984178.stm