We are victims too, say Darfur's Arab refugees
By Kim Sengupta in Mossei, Darfur
13 August 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=550819

A few miles from a camp at Opash is another at Mossei.
One is packed with African refugees, the other Arabs,
the dispossessed from the opposing sides of Darfur's
internecine conflict.

The perceived view is that the African civilians have
been the victims of the murderous Janjaweed militia in
a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Sudanese
government.

But the Arabs say they have been so demonised their
own suffering is being ignored. They say they too have
been attacked, driven from their homes, and abandoned
to face pending epidemics of cholera, malaria and
hepatitis. They say their persecutors are African
tribes in league with the rebel Sudan Liberation Army,
with their own campaigns of driving out another
community,

Ten thousand people are in the three camps at Mossei,
near Nyala, the capital of south Darfur. Some are from
Arab tribes who supply recruits to the Janjaweed, and
are viewed with deep suspicion by the African
villagers. The rumour in the souks is that these
people are not refugees, but a fifth column awaiting
orders to act.

The suspicious say a large number of young men are
among the refugees. Some say other men visit the camps
at night. The charities which predominate here are
from Arab countries, often with strong Sunni links.
The same groups have tried to persuade African
refugees to return to their homes, and the waiting
Janjaweed, with money.

Abdullah Hassan Suleiman, the omdar or chief sheikh at
Mossei, vehemently denied links with the Janjaweed,
and said this was the kind of false accusation which
was putting them in danger. "If we were with the
Janjaweed, do you think we'd be sitting here in this
misery? We had to flee our village because the
Zarghawa and the Daju [tribes] attacked us. They
killed 18 of our men and kidnapped three women and two
men.

"We have never had any problems with our African
neighbours. It was outsiders who came and did this to
us. The excuse always is what the Janjaweed are doing,
and that seems to make it all right to do bad things
to us."

The three abducted women had returned. They say they
were captured returning to retrieve belongings from
their village, 22 miles from Nyala, with two male
relatives. Noura Abdullah Usman, 45, said: "We were
almost home when they caught us. Four men started
dragging us from my brother Abdullah and my uncle,
Abdul Hamid, when their leader came and took charge of
us women. We were put in a car and taken to Hijer, a
village where the Africans used to live before they
were driven away by bandits. We feared that we would
be attacked.

"One of the women started to cry and pleaded with the
men not to hurt us. They took us to Lobado [a town to
the south] where we were tied up and accused of being
the women of the Janjaweed. A man came in and beat us
with a belt, and said they'll do to us what the Arabs
did to their women."

Another woman, Ayasha Abdullah Abu, 20, said: "We saw
our men being brought into the building. They looked
scared and one of them shouted they were going to be
killed. That was the last we saw of them. We were
threatened with beatings, but the commander sent three
men to guard us and nothing more happened."

The next morning the three women were driven to Nyala
and freed at the camp. The African commander also gave
them a note for the police explaining why they were
held.

The only Middle East charity at Mossei is the Haiat
Al-Amal, from the United Arab Emirates. Dr Mirgani
Mohammed Isa, who is Sudanese, said: "All we are doing
is providing medical help. I have heard about Sunni
Arabs who are said to be trying to convert Africans
who are Sufis, but we do not do that. We work closely
with Unicef."

Feelings of bitterness run deep among many refugees.
Asif Omar Sayeed, a 23-year-old from the Arab Targim
tribe, said: "The foreigners blame us for everything.
But I realise what is going on. The Americans and the
British want to use this as an excuse to occupy our
country, just as they have done in Iraq. Like Iraq, we
have oil. What has happened made me realise that as a
true Muslim I must fight for my country when the
foreigners come."

* The Independent's Darfur Appeal has now collected
£32,892 from readers, the charity Concern reported
yesterday.






___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo!
Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com