Annan Hears Pleas in Darfur

LABADO, Sudan — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan toured a refugee camp and a burned town in Sudan’s Darfur region Saturday, hearing calls for African troops to play a bigger role in protecting those living in the troubled area.

Thousands of people welcomed the United Nations chief in Kalma Camp, the biggest refugee camp in Darfur. He then traveled to Labado, also in South Darfur state, to view burned huts and speak to worried residents who have started returning home.

“Now we are back, but still we don’t have security and we feel unsafe,” Murra Ahmed told Annan after she described how five government planes had bombed Labado and driven her out.

South Darfur state has seen some of the worst recent violence in a two-year conflict between rebels and the government and pro-government militias. The U.N. says tens of thousands have died and 2 million have been displaced.

The African Union commander in Labado, Col. Mohammed, briefed Annan and his delegation on the Dec. 17 attack that set Labado ablaze and killed 105 people. AU monitors verified that there had been a government bombardment of Labado. The government has not disputed the finding.

Mohammed, who did not give his full name, said he wanted an expanded mandate for the AU to full peacekeeping status from its present monitoring force with limited powers to protect civilians.

For now, the more than 2,300 AU troops are to protect the military observers in the troubled region. Hundreds of civilian police are also being deployed to the refugee camps.

Rwanda said Saturday that it would send 1,500 troops to Darfur to join about 390 it already has there. The troops will be part of an expansion of the AU force to about 12,000 by next spring.

About half the 60,000 people who lived in Labado have returned to their ruined homes since the AU set up bases there. But the residents want a bigger AU role to secure their future.

“Just a week ago, they burned a village not two miles from here. The AU could see them coming,” said Jumaa Eissa, one of the residents. “But they didn’t stop it; they just made a report.”

In Kalma camp, men waved signs saying, “We are looking for freedom and justice.”

Refugees complained about police and militias who they said had attacked, killed and raped their family members in the camp. Annan also talked to rape victims in a reed hut guarded by AU troops.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders reported in March that about 500 women had been raped in recent months and said their attackers were militiamen or soldiers. Sudan’s government denies widespread rape in Darfur.

Aid workers told Annan that their organizations continued to have problems getting aid to the displaced in Kalma but that the presence of AU police helped.