07/20/2004

Certain officials of the Government of Sudan in West Darfur are prematurely encouraging internally displaced persons to return to their homes in time for the planting season. Those who have chosen to return to their communities have suffered frequent attacks and have been subject to intimidation by the Janjaweed militia. Displaced persons interviewed by Refugees International maintain that the Janjaweed have not been disarmed and are still active. The lack of security and protection in West Darfur suggests that any attempt to implement large-scale returns would threaten the lives of the survivors of the Janjaweed’s assault on African communities in the region.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have returned to the villages of Shoeddaltin and Babanoussa in West Darfur have suffered frequent Janjaweed attacks in which men have been beaten, women raped, and livestock and personal goods looted.  In another incident that took place just last week, one IDP was shot dead by an armed bandit on horseback and two others were wounded when they went back to their home village of Sandicoro to plant crops.  Likewise, in early July, an IDP from the village of Hardawit in West Darfur returned home to gather some personal things only to encounter a group of Janjaweed, who beat him with a whip and told him: "This is not your land. Do not come back.  If you return, you will be killed."

Despite such incidents, in recent weeks Sudanese officials have been actively engaged in efforts to persuade the population within Darfur to return to their home villages voluntarily.  The Government’s main rationale is to get people back on the land before the planting season is over at the end of July in order to avoid a serious food shortage next year. In addition, these officials have expressed concern that if IDPs remain in the camps for an extended period, that will create an aid dependent population, a development which would, in turn, prolong the crisis.

The Sudanese Government insists that it has no intention of forcing any IDPs to go home. RI believes that to date officials in West Darfur have employed voluntary methods to convince IDPs to return. RI is concerned, however, that if large numbers of IDPs do not return soon the Government may employ more coercive methods. If IDPs are forced to return home without substantial improvements in the security situation, they will be vulnerable to the same kind of attacks that led them to flee in the first place.  Unwilling to subject themselves to that risk, many IDPs have stated that if the Government forces them out of the camps, they will flee to Chad rather than return home.          

The Sudanese Government has recently deployed approximately 2,000 additional police to West Darfur and has informed the IDPs that this police force will provide them with the protection they need to return to their villages. To date the number of IDPs in West Darfur is estimated at close to 500,000; the total population of West Darfur is about 1,627,000 persons.  In interview after interview, IDPs informed RI that the deployment of police to their villages would do nothing to allay their fears, either because they do not trust the police or because the police who were stationed in their villages at the time they were attacked either ran away or were outgunned by the Janjaweed.  Other IDPs related that they are unwilling to return home because they have nothing to go back to, as their villages have been burned to the ground and all materials goods stolen or destroyed, and they would have no means of supporting themselves.  

Sudanese Government officials assert that their efforts to convince IDPs to repatriate are bearing fruit and that tens of thousands have returned home in the past several weeks.  While IDPs from some villages have, in fact, returned to their homes, the numbers cited by the Government appear to be exaggerated.  In one case, for instance, the Government reported that some 6,000 IDPs from the village of Sulu in West Darfur had returned home, but when international relief workers visited the area, they found that only ten families had returned.  Given the reality on the ground and the violent campaign of terror that led IDPs to flee in the first place, it should surprise no one that so few have taken up the invitation to return home. Indeed, former IDPs that have returned to their village of Shoeddaltin informed RI that if the security situation does not improve in the next couple of weeks, they will take flight again.

Even if the security situation were to improve, interviews with many IDPs make it clear that they have little trust in the Government or any assurances it might make concerning their safety.  Rather, the IDPs consistently state that they will not go home until agencies of the United Nations and/or international Non-Governmental Organizations affirm that it is safe.  In addition, the IDPs have clearly expressed their desire that the Janjaweed be disarmed. Neither UN agencies nor international NGOs will promote voluntary repatriation unless there is a dramatic change in the security situation.

Refugees International, therefore, recommends that:

• The international agencies operating in West Darfur diligently scrutinize any organized return of IDPs from the camps to their villages to assure that such returns are truly voluntary.
• The Sudanese Government employ a cooperative and consensual approach to voluntary repatriation in which input is taken into account from all concerned parties, especially the IDPs themselves.
• Members of the United Nations Security Council and member states of the African Union put pressure on the Sudanese Government to disarm the Janjaweed, wherever possible, including through appropriate incentives, and to prosecute those who have committed acts of violence against the civilian population of Darfur.
• Donors support assistance programs for the few families that have returned voluntarily and for those who may return voluntarily. The returnees suffer from the same loss of materials and lack of food as the internally displaced in camps.
• Since there is a real risk that the Government of Sudan will turn to forcible repatriation and that the violence will intensify, donor governments and aid agencies start making contingency plans for a large-scale influx of refugees to Chad.