According to non-governmental organizations active in the area, renewed fighting in South Darfur State has driven at least 5,000 people from their homes during the last three days. The displaced were seeking shelter from the sun under trees and waiting without food or water.

Martha Clarke, head of public relations for Action by Churches Together (ACT)/Caritas, said: "We are very concerned about this highly insecure and dangerous situation. We are seeing more and more civilians being driven from their homes by fighting. The international community must continue to try and negotiate peace in the region."

In Khartoum, the Sudanese News Agency reported that the Minister of State at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Muhammad Yusuf Abdallah, had accused rebel groups in Darfur of violating a ceasefire agreement reached earlier with the government. He said that the rebels had carried out an attack on Damba region, 160 km south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, wounding a number of people.

ACT/Caritas in a news release said that its field staff had heard gunshots when fighting erupted in the Taaisha area of South Darfur on 25 September. Thousands of displaced persons had sought refuge nearby. "They are sitting under trees, seeking some protection from the burning sun. Most of them left without any or with very few belongings." It quoted the displaced as saying that the government-allied Janjaweed militia, riding horses and camels, had attacked their villages, followed by soldiers. "They started shooting at us and looted everything in the village," one woman said. The villagers claimed that 300 Sudanese soldiers had participated in the attacks.

"Since ACT/Caritas started working in the area, the number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] has exploded. Field staffs are extremely concerned as the people risk being totally cut off and they are at risk of famine. There are still ongoing attacks directed at innocent civilians and the number of IDPs keeps increasing."

The UN World Food Program (WFP) reported that access to IDPs throughout Darfur had steadily improved, despite logistical and security problems. It said some 75 percent of 153 identified IDP locations were now accessible.

"Since April 2004, WFP has provided food to 102 of those locations," WFP said in an update of its operations in Darfur. "Insecurity however remains a major concern for WFP, adversely affecting our operations throughout the three Darfur states, but particularly in North Darfur."

WFP added that seasonal rains, while less intense than usual, had caused widespread disruption of its activities, particularly in West Darfur. "Rain-swollen wadis and sodden tracks blocked many roads, delaying deployment of WFP's fleet of newly purchased all-terrain trucks and forcing WFP to use airdrops to reach IDP camps and locations cut off by road," it said.

On Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, who is visiting the region, said a complete end to violence was the next crucial step in convincing hundreds of thousands of uprooted Darfurians that they may eventually be able to go home.

Lubbers, who visited three IDP camps in West Darfur, was told of the enormous mistrust between the IDPs and Sudanese authorities. At Seliah camp, 100 km north of the provincial capital Al Jeneina, the IDPs said that militiamen outside the camp had killed three Darfurians over the past few days.

The Darfur conflict between rebels fighting to end Sudan's discrimination against Africans and the Sudanese military or the Janjaweed militia erupted last year. The Janjaweed have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians. Some 1.45 million people have been displaced and another 200,000 fled across the border into Chad.

Note: The Sudanjem.com Internet site belongs to the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which is the main faction of rebels fighting for independence for the black Africans of Darfur. The conflict is entirely racial and stems from the desire of Sudan's Arabs to dominate the population of Darfur.

Sudanjem.com, Sudan, 1 October 2004
Summary of report by Evelyn Leopold from the UN

UN envoys told the Security Council on Thursday that war crimes had probably occurred on "a large and systematic scale" in Sudan's Darfur region and called for foreign police to help stop abuses.

Juan Mendez, the Argentinian special UN advisor for the prevention of genocide, and Canadian Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, briefed the council on a just completed trip to Sudan. Both said the Khartoum government was still failing to protect civilians in Darfur where 50,000 people have died and 1.2 million have been uprooted from their homes.

"The high commissioner and I can conclude, firstly, that crimes against humanity, war crimes and breaches of the laws of war have probably occurred on a large and systematic scale. Secondly, we do not believe that we have turned the corner on preventing further violations," Mendez told the Council. He added that another UN-appointed commission would decide whether genocide had taken place.

Rebels began an uprising in Darfur in February 2003 after years of skirmishes between mainly African farmers and Arab nomads over land and water in an area as large as France. The government turned to an Arab militia known as Janjaweed for help to suppress the rebels. Many African villagers were killed, raped and robbed.

Arbour told reporters that international police were needed to monitor the Sudanese police, some of whom were reported to be Janjaweed. She said the African Union (AU), which may field more than 3,000 observers and troops, should go inside the barren camps where villagers were herded and afraid to leave.

The 15-member Security Council is relying on the AU to intervene in Darfur and has threatened sanctions against the government if it hindered the AU force and did not stop the atrocities. But penalties are unlikely to be imposed.

Sudanjem.com, Sudan, 4 October 2004
Summary of report

Sudan supports federal rule for its western Darfur region where rebels launched a revolt against Khartoum in early 2003, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Sunday. He also said local law would be applied in the region where the rebels accuse the government of supporting Arab militias they accuse of attacking and burning villages, as well as raping, killing and driving people from their land. "There will be support for federal rule," Bashir told reporters at a women's group meeting at government offices in Khartoum. "Dealing with them [tribal leaders] will be through local tribal law," he added.

The revolt broke out following many years of low-level fighting between Arab nomads and African farming communities. The United Nations says the conflict has killed up to 50,000 people.

Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail praised the idea of transforming Africa's biggest country into a federal system providing considerable autonomy to its states.

Another official said Sudan aims to "empower the local population" by allowing the tribal leadership to govern using traditional laws. Najeeb Abdul Wahab, state Minister for Foreign Affairs, said in Khartoum that Sudan was reverting to more local rule, which was abolished by a previous President. Abdul Wahab said the final status of Darfur would be decided at talks in Abuja between the government and Darfur's two main rebel groups which are due to restart this month.

The United States has labeled the violence in Darfur genocide, blaming killings on Khartoum and the Arab militia known as Janjaweed. The UN Security Council has threatened Sudan with possible sanctions if it fails to stop the violence, which has continued despite a ceasefire agreed between the government and the rebels in Chad in April.

Note: The promises of a federal system sound empty in the light of the Sudan's statement at the peace talks "There will be no power-sharing or wealth-sharing... There will never be a self-government for
Darfur,"

Sudanjem.com, Sudan, 5 October 2004
Summary of report by Opheera McDoom

Khartoum has now ruled out any notion of self-rule for Darfur, its spokesmen declaring that the rebels in western Sudan would not secure the concessions received by the rebels in southern Sudan after two decades of war. Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa, head of the government's Darfur peace talks delegation, even questioned whether Khartoum would continue negotiating with one of the rebel groups in the African Union-sponsored talks scheduled to resume this month in Nigeria. "There will be no question about power-sharing or wealth-sharing," he said, referring to demands made by rebels. "There will never be a self-government for Darfur," he said.

The Darfur rebels took up arms against Khartoum in February 2003, saying the government had neglected the impoverished region. They accuse the government of arming mounted Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Arab nomads and mostly non-Arab farmers have fought over resources for years in arid Darfur.

Khalifa said one of the Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), was closely involved in a failed coup attempt last month and questioned whether the government should negotiate with a group trying to topple it by force. "JEM was so closely related to the coup attempt that the question is can the African Union agree to JEM being part and parcel of the negotiations given their involvement in this?" He said, however, that there was no official decision not to continue talks with JEM.

Islamist Hassan al-Turabi's opposition Popular Congress party was blamed for the coup attempt on September 24th and government officials say JEM is the military wing of the party, suspended in April after a similar attempt to sabotage the government. According to the UN, since the rebellion started last year, more than 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes and an up to 50,000 killed by violence, hunger or disease.

Khalifa said the political solution in the Nigerian capital Abuja would be for Darfur rebels to accept peace protocols signed between Khartoum and a southern rebel groups in the Kenyan town of Naivasha earlier this year to solve a separate, 21-year civil war in the south. He said the Darfur rebels could not expect the same kind of agreements but said the Naivasha accord would give Darfur, like all of the northern 16 states of Sudan, an enhanced federal status.

The Naivasha agreement includes power and wealth-sharing for the southern states, and a referendum on secession after an interim period of six years. It also provides for democratic elections throughout Sudan halfway through the interim period.