KALMA CAMP, SUDAN // Khadija Khamis has the bullet that the doctors removed from her shoulder. She keeps the malformed piece of metal to remind her of what her government did to her. On Aug 25, lorries full of Sudanese army soldiers arrived at Kalma, a sprawling camp where about 100,000 displaced Darfuris live in squalid mud and stick dwellings.
The government soldiers came at 4am under the cover of darkness. They claimed rebel groups were using the camps as a base, stockpiling weapons and recruiting fresh fighters. When the shooting began, mostly women and children were caught in the soldiers' crossfire. "My children started running and I ran after them. That is when the soldiers shot us," said Mrs Khamis, who has eight children. "I am afraid. I am not feeling comfortable."
More than 30 people were killed in the attack on Kalma. They are buried in an unmarked mass grave near the entrance to the camp. Mrs Khamis, 35, has lived in Kalma since the beginning of the war five years ago. The conflict in Sudan's vast Darfur region began in 2003 when Arab nomads clashed with African villagers over land and water. The Sudanese government is accused of backing the Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, and supporting the mass slaughter of African tribes. Some have called it genocide.
More than 2.5 million Darfuris like Mrs Khamis have fled to the relative safety of the displacement camps. But now even the camps cannot protect these refugees from the violence. The Kalma attack demonstrated a shift in the government's scorched earth policy in the Darfur conflict. With many Darfuri villages already razed, the government has started attacking the camps. "The government attacked us and chased us from our village," Mrs Khamis said. "Now they are attacking us here. It is the same."
Peacekeepers from the joint United Nations-African Union mission, known as Unamid, could do little to stop the attack. Unamid police forces, which patrol the camp, are mandated only to observe. At the time, the closest base to Kalma was in the town of Nyala, about 30 minutes from the camp. "Unamid is doing the best they can, but their mandate is not enough," said Sheik Salah Hassan, a community leader in the camp. "They are not mandated to shoot; they are only mandated to write reports. We are looking for more."
Chinese engineers attached to the peacekeeping mission are building a Unamid base at Kalma camp so that the peacekeepers can have an around-the-clock presence at the tense camp. "A lot of things will happen because of this incident," said a UN police officer. "But it's a pity that it took this attack to make things happen." Kalma camp is still a flashpoint since the attack a month ago. Last week, a UN helicopter crashed just outside the camp killing all four people on board. The UN is investigating the cause of the crash.
The Sudanese government said rebels inside Kalma shot down the helicopter, but the rebels denied the charge. Many UN officials have speculated that the Sudanese government is responsible for the crash. Either way, the government now has an excuse to launch fresh attacks on Kalma. Sudanese officials said the government is protecting Darfuris and trying to rid the region of rebels. During the raid on Kalma last month, the rebels used women and children as human shields, the officials said.
"If the government forces pull out of Darfur, the nomads will kill everyone," said Ghazi Suleiman, a lawyer and politician in the Khartoum government. "If there are rebels in an area, the government will come and finish them. But we don't know who is rebels and who is civilians." Investigators from the International Criminal Court are looking into the Kalma attack. The court's prosecutor has asked a judge to indict Omar al Bashir, Sudan's president, on charges of war crimes in Darfur. The Kalma incident could be another piece of evidence.
"The Kalma camp attack has to be highlighted because it's a case in which allegations are that al Bashir forces killed civilians in the camp," Luis Moreno-Ocampo, ICC prosecutor, told the Associated Press. The residents of Kalma would love to see the president stand trial. They are afraid to go back and rebuild their villages as long as the current government is in power. "I don't want to leave the camp because al Bashir is still fighting us," Mrs Khamis said.
mbrown@thenational.ae