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Darfur refugees hack up AU translator, force UN aid chief to flee
Followup from yesterday.
Residents of a Darfur refugee camp hacked an African Union translator to death Monday shortly after the U.N. humanitarian chief rushed out of the same camp when demonstrators attacked another translator who was part of his entourage, U.N. spokesmen said. Both attacks were in Kalma camp near the city of Nyala in south Darfur, visited by Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York said he was told there were two attacks.

The first attack was against a non-governmental organization staffer, which prompted the departure of Egeland and his staff, Dujarric said. The second occurred after Egeland left, when the African Union compound in the camp was destroyed by its residents, he added. "It is our understanding that an African Union translator was hacked to death," Dujarric said.

Earlier, U.N. spokeswoman Dawn Blalock said Egeland and his entourage had rushed out of the camp when demonstrators demanding the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers attacked a translator. They accused the translator of supporting the feared Janjaweed, the pro-government militia blamed for widespread atrocities in Darfur, she said.

An Associated Press reporter in the camp said Egeland was met by a huge crowd chanting pro-U.N., pro-U.S. and anti-government slogans. The demonstrators, mostly women, shouted: "Yes to international troops!" - a reference to the Western proposal for U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed in Darfur.

As the entourage was leaving, they attacked a U.N. vehicle with sticks and knives because they thought the translator had said something that did not reflect what they had said in Arabic against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The translator was not injured, but colleagues put him into a van for his own safety, Blalock said in a phone call to The Associated Press. The translator with Egeland is employed by Oxfam, but was not further identified. The British-based NGO promptly withdrew its six staffers from Kalma camp.

"We did not evacuate," Blalock emphasized. "The program was cut short because tensions were too much."
"We just ran away, that's all."
Egeland had gone to Kalma to meet leaders of at least 90,000 residents of the camp, as well as representatives of the NGOs. His visit came days after Sudan's government and the main rebel group in the country's western Darfur region signed a peace agreement to end fighting that has killed nearly 200,000 people since 2003.

Blalock said there had been tension in the Kalma camp because of the absence of a camp co-ordinator. The government expelled the last coordinator, an official of the Norwegian Refugee Committee, in early April, she said.
See, just what they need, a bunch of Euros in charge ...
Egeland is scheduled hold meetings with U.N. and NGO officials in Khartoum, and in two days, he will head to Chad, Dujarric said.

After his arrival in Darfur on Sunday, Egeland warned that the peace treaty would not be easy to implement. "We are now in the center of the war which is still going on," Egeland told AP Television News. "The world should have no illusions that peace will break out easily here in Darfur. We have to have an enormous effort from the international community and the parties themselves to enforce this peace agreement."
Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-05-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=151279