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| November 4, 2010 |
Earlier this month death squads entered Hamadiya Camp and killed three of seven camp leaders.
Five sheikhs or Oumdas of N. Darfur camps are still being detained after more than a year <http://www.radiodabanga.org/node/5281>
Although for 7 years the UN has failed to provide adequate protection for Darfur’s desperate people, the October 7-8 visit to Darfur by 15 members of the UN Security Council gave some people a renewed hope that the UN will finally step up and help them. In an interview with Radio Dabanga, after making clear that that there is no security in Darfur for the displaced and they are constantly threatened, a camp leader pleaded for the UN Security Council to form a body that would hear and acknowledge the human rights abuses being perpetrated against the displaced. He also asked the UN to restore justice and security to Darfur. May someone at the UN hear that plea and persuade the UNSC to respond. As I write these words I realize how pointless they are. After seven years of genocide and the continuing abuse of 2.7 million survivors in deplorable camps across Darfur and eastern Chad, all we can conclude is that the world cares nothing about Darfur’s people as they suffer. They are simply expendable.
The UN Security Council delegation, consisting of diplomats and ambassadors representing 15 member states, spent two days in North Darfur,. They were led by US Ambassador Susan Rice and UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant. After the visit, two Sudanese humanitarian workers ( Abdullah Ishaq Abdel Razek, supervisor of the nutrition program of the camp’s schools, and Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed Al-Haj, a driver) were imprisoned by Sudanese officials. Their crime was that they spoke frankly to delegation members. The men have been detained at an unknown place and have not been allowed access to lawyers or their families. Both men knew the risks of speaking speaking honestly and all had been warned by authorities not to talk to the delegation about security in the camps or the humanitarian situation.