Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05NDJAMENA542
2005-04-05 10:33:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Ndjamena
Cable title:  

SUDANESE REFUGEES IN CHAD REPORT ONGOING VIOLENCE

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREF KAWC CD SU 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

051033Z Apr 05

ACTION AF-00 

INFO LOG-00 NP-00 AID-00 AMAD-00 CA-00 CIAE-00 INL-00 
 DODE-00 DOEE-00 DOTE-00 DS-00 EB-00 EUR-00 FAAE-00 
 FBIE-00 UTED-00 VC-00 H-00 TEDE-00 INR-00 IO-00 
 LAB-01 L-00 VCE-00 M-00 NEA-00 NSAE-00 NSCE-00 
 OIC-00 PA-00 GIWI-00 PRS-00 P-00 SCT-00 SP-00 
 SSO-00 SS-00 STR-00 TRSE-00 FMP-00 SCRS-00 DSCC-00 
 PRM-00 DRL-00 G-00 SAS-00 SWCI-00 /001W
 ------------------D817BF 051041Z /38 
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1302
INFO AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
DARFUR COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY LONDON 
AMEMBASSY PARIS 
AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE 
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 
USLO TRIPOLI 
USMISSION GENEVA
UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000542 

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR AF, AF/C, AF/SPG, DRL, INR, INR/GGI, PRM,
USAID/OTI; LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICAWATCHERS; GENEVA FOR
CAMPBELL, ADDIS/NAIROBI/KAMPALA FOR REFCOORDS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF KAWC CD SU
SUBJECT: SUDANESE REFUGEES IN CHAD REPORT ONGOING VIOLENCE
IN DARFUR


UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000542

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR AF, AF/C, AF/SPG, DRL, INR, INR/GGI, PRM,
USAID/OTI; LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICAWATCHERS; GENEVA FOR
CAMPBELL, ADDIS/NAIROBI/KAMPALA FOR REFCOORDS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF KAWC CD SU
SUBJECT: SUDANESE REFUGEES IN CHAD REPORT ONGOING VIOLENCE
IN DARFUR



1. (SBU) Summary: Sudanese refugees crossing the border into
eastern Chad say violence continues to rage in Darfur, a
claim backed by workers from international and
non-governmental organizations and African Union monitors
based in Chad and Sudan. Refugees described combined attacks
involving Sudanese military and jandjaweed militias,
occasionally supported by Antonov aircraft and helicopters to
visiting officers from the Bureau for Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor (DRL). Refugees who recently fled Sudan
believe the violence is part of a Sudanese Government
strategy to drive away African Sudanese in order to turn
their lands, livestock, and other goods over to Arab
Sudanese. The fighting and looting reportedly led to severe
shortages of food in Darfur. In what appears to be a new and
growing trend, men are often not accompanying their families
to refugee camps in Chad, preferring instead to remain in
Sudan in order to seek out and join rebel groups fighting the
Sudanese Government. Among the refugees and other key
players, there is an increasing sense of frustration that the
international community has not been able to end the violence
in Darfur. End Summary.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
DRL INTERVIEWS NEWLY-ARRIVED SUDANESE REFUGEES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


2. (U) During a visit to eastern Chad from March 23 to March
31, DRL officers interviewed recently arrived refugees along
a 250 kilometers stretch of territory covering the Chadian
side of the border with Sudan. The refugees provided dozens
of accounts of combined Government of Sudan (GOS)-jandjaweed
military operations directed against non-Arab populations of
Darfur. From the Breidjing refugees camp in the south to the
northern-most refugee camp near Bahai, refugees gave starkly
similar reports of joint GOS-jandjaweed attacks often
supported by Antonov aircraft or helicopters. These attacks
involved the raping of women, the execution-style killing of
men and boys, the looting of homes and theft of livestock.


3. (U) Refugees interviewed needed little prompting to

describe their ordeal or display the physical wounds of war.
Near Bahai, a village chief from Sudan showed DRL officers a
ten- year old boy who had reportedly lost part of his hand in
an aerial attack 42 kilometers southeast of Karnoi on March

26. The same chief also brought in a woman with shrapnel
wounds on her leg from the same attack.


4. (U) Strong parallels run through nearly all accounts
collected along the border. The refugees all described
events that had occurred within the last month.

--Near the town of Birak, a 32-year old man from the village
of Labite told DRL officers of an attack that had just taken
place a few days earlier on three villages in which fifteen
children, ten women, and five men were killed. The three
villages include Labite, Hormot, and Alona. "We counted 32
government vehicles and about 400 men on horses and camels.
There were also airplanes in the sky, but they did not bomb
because of the nearby mountains. They took 25 women away and
raped them. Fifteen children were burned alive in huts".
The villager, and seven other men who nodded in agreement,
said that the GOS military and jandjaweed also stole 570 cows
and over 2,000 sheep. The attack reportedly took place March

16.

--A 39-year old refugee interviewed in Bahai said "we were
hiding in the mountains with our livestock when government
soldiers and jandjaweed came and stole our animals. They
killed fourteen people in the attack and raped women. We had
to leave the women who were gang-raped behind because they
are now very sick."

--A little less than 180 kilometers away in the Kounoungo
refugee camp, a 40-year old woman described a similar attack
which took place several weeks ago. "First came the airplane
attack, then people came in vehicles, then came people on
horses. A lot of men were killed. They were captured and
then shot."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


AU AND NGOS COOROBORATE REFUGEE ACCOUNTS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


5. (SBU) Workers from international and non-governmental
organizations as well as the sector commander of African
Union Cease-fire Commission in Abeche agree the fighting has
intensified in Darfur. At the same time, they note that
there has not been a massive influx of refugees into Chad.
According to Taban Kokonga, the World Food Program
Coordinator in Abeche, Chad, internally displaced persons
camps in Sudan are likely taking in more victims who would
have otherwise come to Chad. AU Sector Commander in Abeche,
Col. Jallo, noted that the AU is considering a force of
10,000 soldiers in Sudan "which is a good indicator that
things are not going well". Major Emmanuel Etuka, formerly
posted to the Abeche sector and now in Nyala, Sudan, reported
to P/E officer on April 1 that "the situation in the general
area near Nyala remains grave and something needs to be done
immediately." He said that the GOS continues to distribute
uniforms, arms, and ammunition to the jandjaweed and People's
Defense Force. Meanwhile, the AU Mission in Sudan reportedly
intends to deploy more troops to occupy several areas near
Nyala.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CONTINUING GOS ATTACKS SPURS REBEL RECRUITMENT
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


6. (U) DRL officers received reports from refugees living in
several camps that young men who survived attacks in Darfur
were remaining in Sudan to join the Sudan Liberation Movement
(SLM) or Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). This is a
significant shift from seven months ago when DRL first
conducted interviews with refugees along the border between
Chad and Sudan in July and August 2004. At that time, males
who survived attacks were hopeful that the international
community would quickly put an end to the violence and they
would return to Darfur. During the same period, a majority
of the refugees were skeptical of the rebel movements. This
no longer appears to be the case. In a recent interview in
Kounougou, one female refugee stated that "the men are losing
hope and believe they must now joint the rebels."


7. (U) Refugees interviewed said that the rebels were never
in or near their villages prior to the GOS-jandjaweed
attacks. The refugees believe that the GOS continues to
carry out attacks against civilians as part of a plan to rid
Darfur of African Sudanese. A refugee camp in Breidjing, a
refugee told DRL officers that "in south western Sudan, you
will not find any more blacks, only Arabs. They are tired of
seeing their family members killed and women raped."
Meetings between DRL officers and members of the SLM and JEM
also indicated that the number of new recruits has reportedly
increased.


8. (U) Refugees also claim that the AU is not doing enough
to end the violence. During several interviews with recent
arrivals in Oure Cassoni refugee camp, refugees claimed that
AU forces only watched as their villages were ransacked.

- - - -
COMMENT
- - - -


9. (SBU) The newly-arrived refugees' eye-witness accounts
GOS and jandjaweed attacks and use of Antonovs and
helicopters during the month of March indicate that President
Bashir has not kept the promises made to President Deby and
other African heads of state in N'Djamena in February.
Chadian Government officials, Darfur rebel movements, and AU
military commanders provide similar accounts of violence
carried out by Sudanese forces. There is an increasing sense
of frustration among our interlocutors that the African Union
and the international community lack the will and leverage
necessary to put an end to the GOS's attacks against
civilians in Darfur.


10. (U) Khartoum and Tripoli Minimize Considered.
WALL


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