Chad: UN Security Council members heard at first hand the stories of refugees of the Darfur conflict when they visited a camp for displaced people, write Maggie Farley and Edmund Sanders in Goz Beida, Chad
Members of the United Nations Security Council wanted to see for themselves how the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan is bleeding across the border into Chad. So, in a snaking convoy of 17 white SUVs, the ambassadors arrived on Saturday at the tallest tree in the refugee camp here, where thousands had gathered to tell their stories and ask for help.
During their brief visit, they heard first hand how borders make little difference when it comes to war.
The Security Council is on a 10-day mission in this conflict-riven part of Africa, trying to press for peace in Sudan and stave off proxy wars with neighbouring Chad. Three years of fighting between rebel groups and tribal militias backed by Sudan's government have killed tens of thousands of people in Darfur and displaced about 2.3 million people, about 213,000 of whom have spilled into Chad.
But the Sudanese militias, known as the Janjaweed, have galloped across the border as well, to punish opponents and recruit - or abduct - young men to join the fight.
Ordinary villagers are caught in the middle. Hanane Adam Ali, a young woman with a faraway look in her almond eyes, said that three months ago, men riding horses and wearing turbans harassed women at the watering hole, then rode into their village to plunder it. She escaped with her father, but her friends were killed, she said.
They sought refuge in a nearby village, which was attacked, and they fled again, ending up here at the camp for displaced people at Goz Beida.
"They killed so many women and men and raped women, and burned crops and took our animals," she said. "The government and NGOs should do the best they can to bring peace."
The ambassadors listened solemnly in the middle of a circle, ringed first by white-robed elders, and surrounded by about a thousand men in skull caps and women in many-coloured abayas. A few younger men climbed up nearby trees for a better perch.
A recent diplomatic effort to forge peace in Sudan, and thus Chad, appears to be in trouble. Although the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement on May 5th with one of the three rebel groups, the two other factions have refused to sign on.
An accord intended to calm the region has sparked new fighting as the factions splinter and turn on themselves, and seek new recruits from the camps in Chad.
Nearby at the Djabal refugee camp, UN dignitaries were confronted with Darfur refugees opposed to the proposed peace deal.
More than 1,000 refugees staged a loud, angry protest, complaining that the peace agreement did not offer strong enough assurances that they would be compensated for their losses. Many also voiced distrust of Minni Minnawi, the head of the Sudanese Liberation Army faction which signed the agreement last month, saying he sold out the Darfur people for personal power.
"The memorandum signed has nothing to do with peace," said Abubakar Ahmed, a camp leader linked to a rival SLA faction. He and about two dozen other camp leaders spoke with UN officials during a brief meeting. "Refugees have no rights," he said. "The pillaging, rape and killing is continuing as we speak."
Emyr Jones Parry, the British ambassador, acknowledged the refugees' concerns but warned them the peace deal represented their best chance of returning home. "It is vital that there is peace and there is a peace deal," he told them.
The question-and-answer session ended abruptly when about two dozen protesters swarmed in. Chadian military and police drove them back with sticks.
Protesters said they feared that the peace deal would be used to lure them back home before adequate protections against Janjaweed attacks were in place and without compensation for lost homes and property.
Although Sudan and Chad have severed diplomatic relations, they share a lengthy border and have long been tied by ethnic tribes. Now they share the misery of ethnic conflict and something else: a government that can't - or won't - protect its people.
In a two-hour meeting after the council visited the camps, Chadian president Idriss Deby told the diplomats that he was unable to care for the Sudanese refugees and his own displaced citizens. He formally asked the council for international forces and more humanitarian aid.
(Los Angeles Times-Washington Post service)