Saturday 2 June 2007.
June 1, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday highly praised China’s role in improving situation in Darfur, and rebuffed threats of linking Beijing’s Olympics to the Darfur crisis.
Ban Ki-moon
Ban told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York that "this is separate issue" regarding to attempts of politicizing Beijing Olympic Games by some Western politicians.
The UN chief also expressed his appreciation towards the Chinese government for its continuous efforts to improve the situation in the African country.
"The Chinese government has been always exerting their utmost efforts," he said. "As I understand, I appreciate it."
Meanwhile, Ban noted that he has been discussing this matter with the Chinese government.
China recently appointed a special envoy to work on Darfur situation, and President Hu Jintao paid a visit last February, he said, adding that China has also sent high-level officials to discuss this matter with the Sudanese government.
He finally clearly confirmed China’s positive and helpful role in Darfur, saying he appreciates such a role played by the Chinese government.
Ban expressed his optimism towards the future of Darfur issue, stressing he has made some progress even though slow.
"There was an agreement to the second phase, heavy support package," he said, adding that "now we are almost at the final stage of presenting our common and joint proposal to the Sudanese government."
The secretary-general said he had a telephone talk with Sudanese President Bashir, and the president was committed to see early resolution of this issue.
He pointed out that the international community’s effort should be made in a reinforcing manner, and the whole international community should cooperate fully in addressing these issues so as to find early resolution on this matter.
(Xinhua)
Friday, June 1, 2007
China urges patience on Sudan, opposes sanctions
Friday 1 June 2007.
May 31, 2007 (BEIJING) — China urged the international community on Thursday to show patience with Sudan and said new sanctions would only complicate efforts to implement a U.N. peace plan for strife-torn Darfur.
The United States imposed unilateral sanctions on Sudan earlier this week and sought support for an international arms embargo out of frustration at Sudan’s refusal to end what President George W. Bush called genocide in Darfur.
"New sanctions against Sudan would only complicate the issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. "China appeals to all parties to maintain restraint and patience."
Beijing, which holds veto power on the U.N. Security Council, is a major investor in Sudan’s oil industry, sells Khartoum weapons and has invested heavily in its infrastructure.
It also opposes sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, where the United Nations estimates that fighting by government-linked militias and rebel groups has killed 200,000 people and forced 2 million more to flee their homes, without Khartoum’s consent.
But Chinese officials reject criticism from human rights groups that its ties with Sudan are abetting the bloodshed. Beijing says it has been engaging the government on Darfur and encouraging it to be more flexible about accepting a U.N. force.
"Relevant parties are making joint efforts to win positive achievements on the Darfur issue," Jiang said.
Sudan has agreed in principle to the "Annan peace plan", which proposes sending in U.N. troops to bolster an African Union peacekeeping force, but has delayed implementing the package.
(Reuters)
May 31, 2007 (BEIJING) — China urged the international community on Thursday to show patience with Sudan and said new sanctions would only complicate efforts to implement a U.N. peace plan for strife-torn Darfur.
The United States imposed unilateral sanctions on Sudan earlier this week and sought support for an international arms embargo out of frustration at Sudan’s refusal to end what President George W. Bush called genocide in Darfur.
"New sanctions against Sudan would only complicate the issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. "China appeals to all parties to maintain restraint and patience."
Beijing, which holds veto power on the U.N. Security Council, is a major investor in Sudan’s oil industry, sells Khartoum weapons and has invested heavily in its infrastructure.
It also opposes sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, where the United Nations estimates that fighting by government-linked militias and rebel groups has killed 200,000 people and forced 2 million more to flee their homes, without Khartoum’s consent.
But Chinese officials reject criticism from human rights groups that its ties with Sudan are abetting the bloodshed. Beijing says it has been engaging the government on Darfur and encouraging it to be more flexible about accepting a U.N. force.
"Relevant parties are making joint efforts to win positive achievements on the Darfur issue," Jiang said.
Sudan has agreed in principle to the "Annan peace plan", which proposes sending in U.N. troops to bolster an African Union peacekeeping force, but has delayed implementing the package.
(Reuters)
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Sudan: U.S. sanctions to have little fiscal impact
Thursday 31 May 2007.
May 30, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Fresh U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan will have minimal impact in Khartoum because it has no direct trade ties with the United States, a senior Sudanese Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday.
U.S. President George W. Bush imposed new unilateral sanctions on Sudan on Tuesday and sought support for an international arms embargo out of frustration at Sudan’s refusal to end what he called a genocide in war-ravaged Darfur.
"It doesn’t have that much effect on the economy. We don’t have direct economic or trade relations with the United States," the Finance Ministry official told Reuters, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
"Our economy is shifting from the USA and Europe to the East. We have almost 70 percent of our foreign trade with the East," he said, adding that the government conducts most of its financial transactions in euros.
Despite sanctions that have blocked much Western investment, Sudan’s economy has benefited from Chinese and Asian funds with an expected growth rate of up to 13 percent this year. China buys much of Sudan’s 330,000 barrels per day of crude, sells Khartoum weapons and invests heavily in construction projects.
Accusing the Sudanese government of obstructing U.N. efforts to bring peace to Darfur, Bush announced new sanctions that would bar 31 companies controlled by Sudan from doing business in the U.S. financial system.
The companies targeted include firms in Sudan’s booming oil business and one accused of transporting weapons to government and militia forces in Darfur. Bush also imposed fiscal sanctions on four Sudanese individuals, including two senior officials and a rebel leader suspected of involvement in Darfur violence.
MORE A POLITICAL STATEMENT
Analysts said they saw the sanctions as more a political statement than a measure likely to push Khartoum to act against perpetrators of violence in Darfur, where the United Nations says 200,000 people have died since conflict flared in 2003.
Sudan is already an almost entirely cash economy, even for very large transactions. Credit cards are not accepted even at the country’s most expensive hotels and shops.
"The sanctions are more a political statement of U.S. displeasure. ... It is a tool the U.S. has used in many places in the world," said Alex Vines, Africa analyst at Chatham House in London.
"In the short-term, the Sudanese are going to be very frustrated. They may dig their heels in," he said, adding that might translate into a slowdown in talks for a "hybrid" Darfur peacekeeping force, although Sudan may ultimately still agree.
Sudan says it hopes to reach a compromise with the United Nations over the proposed hybrid force, which envisions more than 23,000 African Union and U.N. troops and police to protect civilians in Darfur and use force to deter violence.
The United States and Britain are considering also expanding U.N. Security Council sanctions on Sudan, but China, Russia and South Africa are wary such action would stop violence in Darfur.
Although penalties, such as an international arms embargo, would have more impact than the expanded U.S. sanctions, U.N. bans against Sudan have been hard to enforce.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been talking to Sudanese leaders, refused to comment directly on U.S. or U.N. sanctions but indicated they may interfere with his consultations.
(Reuters)
May 30, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Fresh U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan will have minimal impact in Khartoum because it has no direct trade ties with the United States, a senior Sudanese Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday.
U.S. President George W. Bush imposed new unilateral sanctions on Sudan on Tuesday and sought support for an international arms embargo out of frustration at Sudan’s refusal to end what he called a genocide in war-ravaged Darfur.
"It doesn’t have that much effect on the economy. We don’t have direct economic or trade relations with the United States," the Finance Ministry official told Reuters, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
"Our economy is shifting from the USA and Europe to the East. We have almost 70 percent of our foreign trade with the East," he said, adding that the government conducts most of its financial transactions in euros.
Despite sanctions that have blocked much Western investment, Sudan’s economy has benefited from Chinese and Asian funds with an expected growth rate of up to 13 percent this year. China buys much of Sudan’s 330,000 barrels per day of crude, sells Khartoum weapons and invests heavily in construction projects.
Accusing the Sudanese government of obstructing U.N. efforts to bring peace to Darfur, Bush announced new sanctions that would bar 31 companies controlled by Sudan from doing business in the U.S. financial system.
The companies targeted include firms in Sudan’s booming oil business and one accused of transporting weapons to government and militia forces in Darfur. Bush also imposed fiscal sanctions on four Sudanese individuals, including two senior officials and a rebel leader suspected of involvement in Darfur violence.
MORE A POLITICAL STATEMENT
Analysts said they saw the sanctions as more a political statement than a measure likely to push Khartoum to act against perpetrators of violence in Darfur, where the United Nations says 200,000 people have died since conflict flared in 2003.
Sudan is already an almost entirely cash economy, even for very large transactions. Credit cards are not accepted even at the country’s most expensive hotels and shops.
"The sanctions are more a political statement of U.S. displeasure. ... It is a tool the U.S. has used in many places in the world," said Alex Vines, Africa analyst at Chatham House in London.
"In the short-term, the Sudanese are going to be very frustrated. They may dig their heels in," he said, adding that might translate into a slowdown in talks for a "hybrid" Darfur peacekeeping force, although Sudan may ultimately still agree.
Sudan says it hopes to reach a compromise with the United Nations over the proposed hybrid force, which envisions more than 23,000 African Union and U.N. troops and police to protect civilians in Darfur and use force to deter violence.
The United States and Britain are considering also expanding U.N. Security Council sanctions on Sudan, but China, Russia and South Africa are wary such action would stop violence in Darfur.
Although penalties, such as an international arms embargo, would have more impact than the expanded U.S. sanctions, U.N. bans against Sudan have been hard to enforce.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been talking to Sudanese leaders, refused to comment directly on U.S. or U.N. sanctions but indicated they may interfere with his consultations.
(Reuters)
Monday, May 28, 2007
Darfur women describe gang-rape horror
Monday 28 May 2007.
May 27, 2007 (KALMA, South Darfur) — The seven women pooled money to rent a donkey and cart, then ventured out of the refugee camp to gather firewood, hoping to sell it for cash to feed their families. Instead, they say, in a wooded area just a few hours walk away, they were gang-raped, beaten and robbed.
Five of seven women gang-raped while collecting firewood outside their refugee camp in July 2006, Aisha Hamid, center holding her son Osman, Zahya Yahyah, 30, right, holding her daughter Fatmya, 18 months, are seen in south Darfur refugee camp of Kalma Wednesday April 11, 2007. (AP)
Naked and devastated, they fled back to Kalma.
"All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They’re killing my baby, they’re killing my baby," wailed Aisha, who was seven months pregnant at the time.
The women have no doubt who attacked them. They say the men’s camels and their uniforms marked them as janjaweed — the Arab militiamen accused of terrorizing the mostly black African villagers of Sudan’s Darfur region.
Their story, told to an Associated Press reporter and confirmed by other women and aid workers in the camp, provides a glimpse into the hell that Darfur has become as the Arab-dominated government battles a rebellion stoked by a history of discrimination and neglect.
Now in its fourth year, the conflict has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and rape is its regular byproduct, U.N. and other human rights activists say.
Sudan’s government denies arming and unleashing the janjaweed, and bristles at the charges of rape, saying its conservative Islamic society would never tolerate it.
It has agreed to let in 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers, but not the 22,000 mandated by the U.N. Security Council. It claims the force would be a spearhead for anti-Arab powers bent on plundering Sudan’s oil.
Meanwhile, more than 200,000 civilians have died and 2.5 million are homeless out of Darfur’s population of 6 million, the U.N. says, and a February report by the International Criminal Court alleges "mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed conflict."
Kalma is a microcosm of the misery — a sprawling camp of mud huts and scrap-plastic tents where 100,000 people have taken refuge. It is so full of guns that overwhelmed African Union peacekeepers long ago fled, unable to protect it. It is so crowded that the government has tried to limit newcomers — forbidding the building of new latrines, so a stench pervades the air.
Anyone venturing outside must reckon with the janjaweed, as Aisha and her friends found out.
In Sudan, as in many Islamic countries, society views a sexual assault as a dishonor upon the woman’s entire family. "Victims can face terrible ostracism," says Maha Muna, the U.N. coordinator on this issue in Sudan.
Some aid workers believe the janjaweed use rape to intimidate the rebels, and their supporters and families. "It’s a strategy of war," Muna said in an interview earlier this year in Khartoum, the capital.
Sudan’s government is especially sensitive about such accusations and denies rape is widespread.
Sudanese public opinion would view mass rape much more severely than other crimes alleged in Darfur, said a senior Sudanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from his superiors.
He acknowledged the janjaweed had initially received weapons from the government — something the government officially denies — and said authorities now are struggling to rein in the militias.
Nasser Kambal, a prominent human rights activist and co-founder of the Amel center, a Sudanese group helping victims of rape and other abuse, offers a similar view.
"I don’t think raping was planned by the government. Killing and looting and torture, yes, but not rape," he said.
Kalma isn’t the only place where multiple accounts of rape have surfaced. Some 120 miles away, in the town of Mukjar, two men separately described women being brought into a prison where they were being held and raped for hours by janjaweed.
They said the assailants shouted that they were "planting tomatoes" — a reference to skin color: Darfur Arabs describe themselves as "red" because they are slightly lighter-skinned than ethnic Africans.
According to Muna, U.N. agencies are working closely with Sudanese authorities to improve the government’s response to rape allegations. In 2005, the government created a task force on rape in Darfur, headed by Attayet Mustapha, a pediatrician, government official and women’s rights activist.
In an interview this year, Mustapha said social workers were being deployed to address the problem and a special female police unit was being assembled in Darfur.
"We tell officials that the government has decided to enforce a zero tolerance policy toward rape in Darfur," she said.
U.N. workers say they registered 2,500 rapes in Darfur in 2006, but believe far more went unreported. The real figure is probably thousands a month, said a U.N. official. Like other U.N. personnel and aid workers interviewed, the official insisted on speaking anonymously for fear of being expelled by the government.
Victims usually can’t identify their aggressors, which makes prosecutions impossible. Only eight offenders were tried and sentenced for rape crimes in Darfur by Sudanese courts in 2006, said Mustapha, the task force leader. "They received three to five years prison, and 100 lashes" in accordance with Islamic law, she said.
In May, after the top U.N. human rights official charged that Sudanese soldiers had raped at least 15 Darfur women during one recent incident, Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi asked where the evidence was.
"We always seem to get sweeping generalizations, without naming the injured, without naming the offenders," he told reporters.
In Kalma, collecting firewood needed to cook meals is becoming more perilous as the trees around the camp dwindle and women are forced to scavenge ever farther afield. It is strictly a woman’s task, dictated both by tradition and the fear that any male escorts would be killed if the janjaweed found them.
Agreeing to tell the AP their story earlier this month through a translator, the seven women’s voices wavered and hesitated, broken by embarrassed silences. All gave their names and agreed to be identified in full, but the AP is withholding their surnames because they are rape victims and vulnerable to retaliation.
The women said they set out on a Monday morning last July and had barely begun collecting the wood when 10 Arabs on camels surrounded them, shouting insults and shooting their rifles in the air.
The women first attempted to flee. "But I didn’t even try, because I couldn’t run," being seven months pregnant, said Aisha, a petite 18-year-old whose raspy voice sounds more like that of an old woman.
She said four men stayed behind to flay her with sticks, while the other janjaweed chased down the rest of her group.
"We didn’t get very far," said Maryam, displaying the scar of a bullet that hit her on the right knee.
Once rounded up, the women said, they were beaten and their rented donkey killed. Zahya, 30, had brought her 18-year-old daughter, Fatmya, and her baby. The baby was thrown to the ground and both women were raped. The baby survived.
Zahya said the women were lined up and assaulted side by side, and she saw four men taking turns raping Aisha.
The women said the attackers then stripped them naked and jeered at them as they fled. On their way back, men from the refugee camp unraveled their cotton turbans for the women to partly cover up, but the victims said they were laughed at when they entered the refugee camp.
"Ever since, I’ve made sure that women living on the outskirts of the camp have spare sets of clothes to give out," said Khadidja Abdallah, a sheika, an informal camp leader, who took the women to the international aid compound at the camp to be treated.
They were given anti-pregnancy and anti-HIV pills, thanks to which their families haven’t entirely ostracized them, the women said. The baby Aisha was expecting at the time is doing well. His name is Osman.
Sheikas in Kalma said they report over a dozen rapes each week. Human rights activists in South Darfur who monitor violence in the refugee camps estimate more than 100 women are raped each month in and around Kalma alone.
The workers warn of an alarming new trend of rapes within the refugee population amid the boredom and slow social decay of the camps. But for the most part, they added, it all depends on whether janjaweed are present in the area.
The sheikas say they are making some headway toward persuading families to accept raped women back into their embrace and let them report attacks to aid workers. One advantage is that they get a certificate confirming they were raped.
"We tell husbands they might be compensated one day," said Ajaba Zubeir, a sheika. "But I don’t think that’s going to happen."
The seven women say they haven’t left the camp since they were attacked. They have started their own small workshop and make water jugs out of clay and donkey dung to sell to other refugees.
As they worked on their large pile of jugs and bowls, they said they are even poorer than before, because they now have to buy their firewood from other women.
"But at least we never have to go out again," said Aisha.
None of the women has any faith that Sudanese or international courts will ever give them justice. All Zahya asks is that one day she can return to her village.
"If people could at least help end the fighting, that would be enough," she said.
(AP)
May 27, 2007 (KALMA, South Darfur) — The seven women pooled money to rent a donkey and cart, then ventured out of the refugee camp to gather firewood, hoping to sell it for cash to feed their families. Instead, they say, in a wooded area just a few hours walk away, they were gang-raped, beaten and robbed.
Five of seven women gang-raped while collecting firewood outside their refugee camp in July 2006, Aisha Hamid, center holding her son Osman, Zahya Yahyah, 30, right, holding her daughter Fatmya, 18 months, are seen in south Darfur refugee camp of Kalma Wednesday April 11, 2007. (AP)
Naked and devastated, they fled back to Kalma.
"All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They’re killing my baby, they’re killing my baby," wailed Aisha, who was seven months pregnant at the time.
The women have no doubt who attacked them. They say the men’s camels and their uniforms marked them as janjaweed — the Arab militiamen accused of terrorizing the mostly black African villagers of Sudan’s Darfur region.
Their story, told to an Associated Press reporter and confirmed by other women and aid workers in the camp, provides a glimpse into the hell that Darfur has become as the Arab-dominated government battles a rebellion stoked by a history of discrimination and neglect.
Now in its fourth year, the conflict has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and rape is its regular byproduct, U.N. and other human rights activists say.
Sudan’s government denies arming and unleashing the janjaweed, and bristles at the charges of rape, saying its conservative Islamic society would never tolerate it.
It has agreed to let in 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers, but not the 22,000 mandated by the U.N. Security Council. It claims the force would be a spearhead for anti-Arab powers bent on plundering Sudan’s oil.
Meanwhile, more than 200,000 civilians have died and 2.5 million are homeless out of Darfur’s population of 6 million, the U.N. says, and a February report by the International Criminal Court alleges "mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed conflict."
Kalma is a microcosm of the misery — a sprawling camp of mud huts and scrap-plastic tents where 100,000 people have taken refuge. It is so full of guns that overwhelmed African Union peacekeepers long ago fled, unable to protect it. It is so crowded that the government has tried to limit newcomers — forbidding the building of new latrines, so a stench pervades the air.
Anyone venturing outside must reckon with the janjaweed, as Aisha and her friends found out.
In Sudan, as in many Islamic countries, society views a sexual assault as a dishonor upon the woman’s entire family. "Victims can face terrible ostracism," says Maha Muna, the U.N. coordinator on this issue in Sudan.
Some aid workers believe the janjaweed use rape to intimidate the rebels, and their supporters and families. "It’s a strategy of war," Muna said in an interview earlier this year in Khartoum, the capital.
Sudan’s government is especially sensitive about such accusations and denies rape is widespread.
Sudanese public opinion would view mass rape much more severely than other crimes alleged in Darfur, said a senior Sudanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from his superiors.
He acknowledged the janjaweed had initially received weapons from the government — something the government officially denies — and said authorities now are struggling to rein in the militias.
Nasser Kambal, a prominent human rights activist and co-founder of the Amel center, a Sudanese group helping victims of rape and other abuse, offers a similar view.
"I don’t think raping was planned by the government. Killing and looting and torture, yes, but not rape," he said.
Kalma isn’t the only place where multiple accounts of rape have surfaced. Some 120 miles away, in the town of Mukjar, two men separately described women being brought into a prison where they were being held and raped for hours by janjaweed.
They said the assailants shouted that they were "planting tomatoes" — a reference to skin color: Darfur Arabs describe themselves as "red" because they are slightly lighter-skinned than ethnic Africans.
According to Muna, U.N. agencies are working closely with Sudanese authorities to improve the government’s response to rape allegations. In 2005, the government created a task force on rape in Darfur, headed by Attayet Mustapha, a pediatrician, government official and women’s rights activist.
In an interview this year, Mustapha said social workers were being deployed to address the problem and a special female police unit was being assembled in Darfur.
"We tell officials that the government has decided to enforce a zero tolerance policy toward rape in Darfur," she said.
U.N. workers say they registered 2,500 rapes in Darfur in 2006, but believe far more went unreported. The real figure is probably thousands a month, said a U.N. official. Like other U.N. personnel and aid workers interviewed, the official insisted on speaking anonymously for fear of being expelled by the government.
Victims usually can’t identify their aggressors, which makes prosecutions impossible. Only eight offenders were tried and sentenced for rape crimes in Darfur by Sudanese courts in 2006, said Mustapha, the task force leader. "They received three to five years prison, and 100 lashes" in accordance with Islamic law, she said.
In May, after the top U.N. human rights official charged that Sudanese soldiers had raped at least 15 Darfur women during one recent incident, Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi asked where the evidence was.
"We always seem to get sweeping generalizations, without naming the injured, without naming the offenders," he told reporters.
In Kalma, collecting firewood needed to cook meals is becoming more perilous as the trees around the camp dwindle and women are forced to scavenge ever farther afield. It is strictly a woman’s task, dictated both by tradition and the fear that any male escorts would be killed if the janjaweed found them.
Agreeing to tell the AP their story earlier this month through a translator, the seven women’s voices wavered and hesitated, broken by embarrassed silences. All gave their names and agreed to be identified in full, but the AP is withholding their surnames because they are rape victims and vulnerable to retaliation.
The women said they set out on a Monday morning last July and had barely begun collecting the wood when 10 Arabs on camels surrounded them, shouting insults and shooting their rifles in the air.
The women first attempted to flee. "But I didn’t even try, because I couldn’t run," being seven months pregnant, said Aisha, a petite 18-year-old whose raspy voice sounds more like that of an old woman.
She said four men stayed behind to flay her with sticks, while the other janjaweed chased down the rest of her group.
"We didn’t get very far," said Maryam, displaying the scar of a bullet that hit her on the right knee.
Once rounded up, the women said, they were beaten and their rented donkey killed. Zahya, 30, had brought her 18-year-old daughter, Fatmya, and her baby. The baby was thrown to the ground and both women were raped. The baby survived.
Zahya said the women were lined up and assaulted side by side, and she saw four men taking turns raping Aisha.
The women said the attackers then stripped them naked and jeered at them as they fled. On their way back, men from the refugee camp unraveled their cotton turbans for the women to partly cover up, but the victims said they were laughed at when they entered the refugee camp.
"Ever since, I’ve made sure that women living on the outskirts of the camp have spare sets of clothes to give out," said Khadidja Abdallah, a sheika, an informal camp leader, who took the women to the international aid compound at the camp to be treated.
They were given anti-pregnancy and anti-HIV pills, thanks to which their families haven’t entirely ostracized them, the women said. The baby Aisha was expecting at the time is doing well. His name is Osman.
Sheikas in Kalma said they report over a dozen rapes each week. Human rights activists in South Darfur who monitor violence in the refugee camps estimate more than 100 women are raped each month in and around Kalma alone.
The workers warn of an alarming new trend of rapes within the refugee population amid the boredom and slow social decay of the camps. But for the most part, they added, it all depends on whether janjaweed are present in the area.
The sheikas say they are making some headway toward persuading families to accept raped women back into their embrace and let them report attacks to aid workers. One advantage is that they get a certificate confirming they were raped.
"We tell husbands they might be compensated one day," said Ajaba Zubeir, a sheika. "But I don’t think that’s going to happen."
The seven women say they haven’t left the camp since they were attacked. They have started their own small workshop and make water jugs out of clay and donkey dung to sell to other refugees.
As they worked on their large pile of jugs and bowls, they said they are even poorer than before, because they now have to buy their firewood from other women.
"But at least we never have to go out again," said Aisha.
None of the women has any faith that Sudanese or international courts will ever give them justice. All Zahya asks is that one day she can return to her village.
"If people could at least help end the fighting, that would be enough," she said.
(AP)
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