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| HOMELESS: Ache Ali and her daughter flee after their village in Darfur was bombed. Jan-Joseph Stok |
Sudan bombs Darfur rebels – and civilians – amid calls for a 'no-fly' zone.
A Dutch journalist and photographer traveled with rebel forces in Darfur in February. They were pinned down by government forces for weeks, before escaping across the border into Chad.
from the March 24, 2009 edition
Page 2 of 3
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03.23.09
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Pat Murphy talks with
Monitor correspondent Elwin Verheggen about Sudanese planes bombing militiamen and residents in Darfur.
Following these air strikes, government ground troops tried to recapture the town, but on Jan. 26 they were defeated by the JEM in a battle about 15 miles east of Muhajirya.
"The area is still dotted with some 200 dead bodies of government soldiers," Alhadiy Djoama of the rebel group SLA-Unity (another faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army) told this reporter on Feb, 3. To support his claim, he shows photos of dozens of corpses he took with his mobile phone.
Mr. Djoama recounts the events while sitting on a Persian carpet, 12 miles north of Muhajirya. Some 500 rebels had set up camp, including 40 jeeps, under the trees. They say they move their camp every couple of days. To hide from the government aircraft, the jeeps remain parked under the trees for most of the day.
Dodging Russian bombers
The roar of a Antonov cargo plane, making bombing runs less than a mile a way, could be heard while this reporter visited. "I hope that our movement quickly gets special missiles to take these planes down, because they drop bombs on unarmed civilians," says Djoama angrily.
At night, the Antonov pilot and the approaching government ground troops can be heard talking in Arabic. The conversation is picked up on an FM radio. Djoama and his comrades make a sudden dash to their jeeps. A convoy of a few hundred government vehicles and tanks is on its way. Headlights off so the aircraft cannot spot them, they move to a new campsite about a half-dozen miles away.
But before long, the Antonovs find the sleeping rebels. A bomb lands in a deafening explosion just 50 meters away from Djoama. Djoama looks up for a moment, then rolls over and goes back to sleep.
Early in the morning of Feb. 4, the rebel group moves out, and arrives near the village of Karoya Laban. On the same day, back in Muhajirya, government troops succeed in retaking the town – after the JEM rebels pull out.
Many refugees from the region around Muhajirya are now camped under the trees just outside the village of Karoya Laban, where there is a well. In the village of thatched houses, residents say that there was an Antonov air strike at the end of January just outside the village. "The victims were two elderly men who had just taken their herd of sheep there to drink," says Abdullkerim Abdullah.
Mr. Abdullah, who lives with his wife and seven children in Karoya Laban, says the bombings have occurred with regularity. "But there were two occasions when the area was attacked day and night for weeks without end: in July 2008 and in recent weeks. The Antonovs did not hit this village. They can't aim very well."
The UN Security Council prohibits offensive air operations over Darfur, but according to the UN, Sudan has been ignoring the resolution for years. Bombings of villages took place on a large scale in 2003 and 2004. The number of bombings has since been reduced.
Nearly all air strikes are in conjunction with government attacks on rebels. UN reports claim that between 2007 and 2008 about 100 Darfur villages have been bombed. The air raids have resulted in around 400 known civilian casualties.
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