The situation in Darfut hasn’t become better

Even as peace talks continued in an effort to stanch the suffering in &to= english.pravda.ru/world/2002/07/31/33495.html ' target=_blank>western Sudan, kidnappings, land mines and, most recently, a government crackdown on a camp for displaced people, have created new pockets of no-go areas on the ground and made it impossible to deliver relief to tens of thousands of Sudanese, aid groups said. The latest trouble came early Tuesday when, officials with the &to= english.pravda.ru/war/2002/10/31/38920.html' target=_blank >World Food Program said, the Sudanese military and police surrounded two camps in the state of Southern Darfur, used tear gas to disperse crowds and began forcibly moving some people from the camps. Barry Came, a World Food Program spokesman in Khartoum, said in a telephone interview that government officials had told the &to= english.pravda.ru/world/2002/11/25/39937.html ' target=_blank>United Nations agency that the crackdown was aimed at local people who infiltrated the camps to collect food rations meant for those who were displaced from their homes. Mr. Came said his agency had not been able to verify the government's claim. Roughly 60,000 people in the camps are out of reach for aid workers, he said. In New York, the United Nations envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the forced relocation was "in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and of agreements he had reached with the leaders of the Sudanese government. He said it was clear from his reports that the relocation was being directed by the Sudanese Army and the police, informs the NYTimes. According to the Guardian Unlimited, the UN food relief agency claimed yesterday that Sudanese security forces were surrounding refugee camps in Darfur and blocking access to humanitarian groups. The Sudanese humanitarian affairs minister, Ibrahim Hamid Mahmoud, denied the claims. However, he said that Arab tribespeople angry at last week's abduction of 18 Arabs from a bus by Darfur rebels had gathered in areas where refugees were living. Christiane Berthiaume, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme (WFP), said in Geneva that her agency had received reports that Sudanese police and soldiers had surrounded several western &to= english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/367/12354_crisis.html ' target=_blank>Darfur camps and "insecurity" had cut off road access to at least 160,000 refugees. The Sudanese government raided two refugee camps in war-torn Darfur yesterday, raising fears that the ceasefire between the government and rebel groups had ended. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said government forces moved into the Abu Sharif and Otash camps near Nyala in southern Darfur and took some people out of the camp. They also prevented aid agencies gaining access to the refugees to assess the situation. The government said it had been asked to enter the camps by local leaders who said townspeople were pretending to be refugees to get food rations. But Barry Caine of the World Food Programme told the BBC: "This is part of an increasing pattern of deteriorating security conditions right across Darfur", publishes the NEWS.

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