March
17:
Shit is getting pretty near hitting the fan here. Spent the evening
hearing reports of police violence against Darfur displaced persons
at a camp near Khartoum. We made plans to be part of a dip convoy to
the camp first thing tomorrow morning. Then we hear that eight have
been killed and the violence is continuing. Tried to reach someone
in GOS to ask them to intercede. Nothing accomplished. Tomorrow, at
nine, off we go. The thugs are out of the closet and daring us not
to dance with them.
March
19:
Been an interesting 24 hours. Began yesterday with meeting a group
of Western diplomatic colleagues at the Dutch embassy. We
rendezvoused and set off for Mayo Camp to see if there was anything
we could do to help the Darfur refugees there. We heard that some
were being taken elsewhere and that the violence had continued
through the night. The government now admitted to three killed, two
women and a man. But we had reports that 15 had been killed and more
wounded. The government was clearly trying to get rid of the camp
before it attracted any more attention to the war in Darfur. We –
US, French, British, Dutch and others – wanted to get there before
they could do any more harm or erase the evidence. We failed. A
couple of miles or so from the camp, near a market on a road full of
traffic, we ran into a police roadblock, laid just for us. Not
waiting for the usual bullshit explanations, I jumped from the car
and started walking down the road. The police caught up to me. They
tried to tell me that I could not go on, that I did not have
permission. As the others caught up to me – I also had my
bodyguards – I explained that we did not need permission. I said I
would continue walking down the road. They said they could not allow
that. I said they would have to detain me to stop me and continued
walking. The police began to threaten and I paused to allow my
security to explain to them that they could not impede or touch a
diplomat. Things got heated. I made some calls to government people
who eventually told me that I had permission. I also took a picture
of the police block. This led to the police seeking to take my
camera away from me. I eventually agreed to erase the picture and
before being physically assaulted by a plainclothes policeman who was
threatening me – he was a thug – I gave the police a memory chip
that I had switched for the real one. A police general arrived with
a pickup full of plainclothes thugs. He explained that the police
were carrying out an “operation” at the camp and needed more time
to “clean up.” They could not allow us to go any further for our
own security. He assured me everything would be okay in a few hours
and we could return then. We then agreed to turn back. As we were
doing this, a UN team got a bit closer to the camp via another route
and smelled tear gas and saw people fleeing. Later, a team did reach
the camp but found it by that time deserted. Also latter, the
foreign minister passed a message saying he was angry with me for
trying to force the police to let us through. I rejected his
position and instead said that we were protesting our treatment by
the police.
