Darfur displaced reject Sese’s return plans

The displaced of camps across Darfur have announced complete rejection of planning or conducting surveys in the camps, creating model villages or voluntary return. Their statements come in the wake of the address by the Chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), Dr Tijani Sese, at the opening of the Fourth Session of the Council of the Darfur Regional Authority in El Fasher on Monday. As reported earlier this week by Radio Dabanga, Dr Sese announced that efforts are ongoing currently, in coordination with Qatari organisations, to inaugurate five voluntary return villages in North, West, Central, East, and South Darfur. He also highlighted ongoing efforts to establish a Voluntary Return Camp to accommodate 30,000 displaced along the Western Salvation Highway in the Zalingei sector. Central Darfur The coordinator of the Central Darfur camps described Sese’s announcement as “an attempt to erase the evidence of displacement and the crimes the regime has committed in Darfur”. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, he said that “most of the victims of this war are present in the camps without protection. The government have not succeeded in dismantling these camps; so it wants to do so through the DRA by voluntary return, model villages and community policing. The coordinator accused Sese of “carrying out the agenda of National Congress Party as a Darfuri to convince the international community that there are no camps for the displaced in Darfur. The integration of displaced people in the cities, their protection in the villages, and camps for voluntary return are a lie,” the coordinator asserts, “because the DRA has no power or weapons to protect the displaced.” He also referred to “the Unamid forces’ failure to protect the displaced or themselves.” Partial agreements The displaced persons of Deleig camp in Wadi Salih locality, Central Darfur, have refused any partial agreements on resolving the Darfur issue, calling them “superficial and the interests of certain people”. One of the sheikhs of the camp told Radio Dabanga: “The displaced are against partial agreements. They have been the victims of the partial agreements since 2003, which have thus far implemented nothing on the ground.” The sheikh underlined that “killings, rapes, aerial bombardments and displacement continue, despite the signing of about 17 partial agreements”. He demanded that the agreements should bring to the citizens of Darfur individual and collective rights on the ground, extend security, disarm the militias and expel the new settlers. He also demanded that the movements under the banner of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) act to reach a comprehensive peace. West Darfur The spokesman of Sirba camps in West Darfur also voiced rejection of dismantling the camps, either through voluntary return, model villages or community policing. He said that the displaced people and refugees have decided they will not return to their villages if the new settlers are not expelled. They also appealed to the DRA to disarm the militias. North Darfur The coordinator of North Darfur camps, Omda Ahmed Ateem told Radio Dabanga that “Sese is not concerned about the people of Darfur or the Darfur cause. His interest is in power.” Omda Ateem: “The Sudanese government and Sese will not be able to reconstruct a one village in respect of voluntary return or model camps, because they are only reconstructing the villages of the militia and new settlers whom they have brought from the neighbouring countries.” He highlighted that the camps in Darfur were established by agreement between the Sudanese government and the International Organisation for Migration, which is responsible for the return of displaced persons and refugees after the crisis in Darfur is resolved. “Considering that what Sese and the Sudanese government are doing violate humanitarian law, the rights of the people, and the cause of Darfur, nothing new will happen in Darfur unless the wanted are turned over to the ICC.’ He criticised the international community on “their inaction towards the perpetrators who have committed killing and burning of the people of Darfur; and now they want to play with the cause of Darfur through the establishment of so-called model villages”. File photo: A camp for the displaced in Darfur (Olivier Chassot / Unamid) Related: DRA head announces 2014 development and rehabilitation budgets for Darfur (11 February 2014)