Peace talks for Darfur begin in Nigeria

The genocide in Darfur in the west of the Sudan is taking on dimensions which are becoming more horrifying all the time. The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has pointed this out in the light of the peace talks for Darfur which are beginning on Monday in the Nigerian capital Abuja. "Inside one year the number of people dying has increased six times from 50,000 to 300,000” said the GfbV expert Ulrich Delius in Göttingen. According to some estimates the number of victims may be as high as 400,000. The number of refugees has risen from 1.4 million in September 2004 to 2.4 million in September of this year.

"In spite of these figures, behind which lie dreadful individual tragedies, the international community does nothing more than give humanitarian aid and express its concern” criticised Delius. "It is a scandal that the international community is not prepared to send more peace-keeping troops in order to provide more effective protection for the civilian population. It is absurd to wait for the Sudanese government to keep its promise, given three years ago, to unarm at long last the Janaweed mounted militia.

It is now 18 months since the decision was taken to send peacekeeping troops from the African Union (AU). However these troops did not succeed in preventing attacks on defenceless civilians or international aid-workers. Thus in September 2005 alone ten serious attacks on humanitarian helpers have been registered. The position of the civilian population is even worse. Above all in the refugee camps women are still being constantly raped by militia close to the government. When the aid organisation "Doctors without Borders” reported on this in May 2005, the authors were charged with spying and imprisoned for a time. Now their reproaches are confirmed by a United Nations report, in which it is stated that the rapes have dreadful psychological and social consequences. Many victims of sexual assault said that the only reason for their not committing suicide is that this is forbidden by the Koran. About 60 percent of the civilians who have been driven out are women and children.