Darfur displaced: No delegation sent to meet Al Bashir

The Darfur Displaced General Coordination has strongly denied sending any delegation or group on behalf of the displaced to meet with President Al Bashir at the Republican Palace in Khartoum. Displaced community leader Ali Abdelrahman Tahir denied knowledge of any delegation to meet Al Bashir except through ‘allegations the media’.

Yagoub Furi, chairman of the Darfur Displaced General Coordination said that the General Directorate for the Displaced in Darfur group that met with Al Bashir last week has absolutely nothing to do with the displaced nor does it represent them.

He condemned the government’s “attempts to create and market media bodies for bargaining and trading in displaced and refugee’s issues,” and described the group as “brokers seeking money”.

He explained that “the group that met with Al Bashir is composed of participants in the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur in the National Dialogue and that most of its members are members of the security services residing in cities with no relationship to the camps”.

He said it is illogical for the displaced people to send a delegation while the government is continuing to burn villages in Jebel Marra. “The government has not yet apologised for the killing of six displaced people at Kalma camp during Al Bashir’s visit to the area in September.”

Legitimacy

He explained that the displaced have a representative administration consisting of six main structures agreed upon by all the displaced in the 174 camps in Darfur.

He ridiculed the group billing itself as ‘the sole representative of the displaced’ and considered it an attempt to gain legitimacy. “The group that met with Al Bashir was formed by the Governor of South Darfur state and had previously been ordered to arrest a number of displaced leaders”.

He renewed his refusal of voluntarily return only after disarming the militias, expelling the new settlers and bringing the perpetrators of the genocide to justice, headed by Bashir.

Challenge

Osman Abdelrahman Abulgasim, social affairs official of the displaced camps in Darfur, challenged the group that met Al Bashir on behalf of the displaced to identify themselves and the camps in which they reside.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Abulgasim described the move as “a trade in the Darfur cause”. He told Radio Dabanga that the displaced have not sent any delegation to meet Al Bashir.

He accused the group of involvement in killing the displaced and promoting what he called the lies of voluntary return.