"Severe Intimidation" of NGOs in Darfur

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published November 30, 2008 @ 06:06PM PT

Many thanks to my co-blogger Michelle for highlighting this recent Reuters article, about increasing Sudanese Government harassment of humanitarian organizations in South Darfur:

"'There has been really severe intimidation...NGOs are in a state of shock in South Darfur,' said a senior U.N. officer.

'They have been able to intimidate international and national staff into going into computers, open their private emails -- Gmail, Hotmail. (The officials are saying) if you don't give me your password, you won't get out of this country.'

Most aid workers have to apply for exit visas every time they want to leave Sudan."

The UN's most recent Darfur Humanitarian Profile, released in October, paints a similar picture:

"Of serious concern was the forceful interference by local and Khartoum-based HAC [Humanitarian Aid Commission] officials who visited several NGO premises in Nyala and Kass (South Darfur) at the end of August, and interrogated, harassed and bullied staff. NGOs were forced to disclose their computer passwords, and sensitive files especially in the fields of protection and GBV [gender-based violence] were searched, copied and taken away."

The recent harassment seems to be in response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment proceedings against Sudanese President Omar Bashir.

According to one UN official: "The government feels that the information released by the (ICC) prosecutor to document his case against the president was most likely coming from the NGOs."

The official added that such suspicions were unfounded, as most of the ICC's information has come from human rights organizations based outside Sudan.

(For an earlier post about how the ICC's proceedings might impact humanitarian operations in Darfur, see here.)

Such claims are not new - it's possible to map the Sudanese Government's ever-evolving paranoia by the claims they make against humanitarian organizations.  For instance, in September, Presidential Advisor Abdallah Masar accused humanitarian organizations of being "intelligence arms for international forces taking the humanitarian aspect as cover for its [sic] activities."

These threats - as well as various bureaucratic impediments - make it increasingly difficult for aid agencies to deliver assistance.

According to an earlier UN Darfur Humanitarian Profile, there are three factors that determine humanitarian access: the degree of general insecurity, the continued harassment of humanitarian organizations and workers, and targeted attacks on humanitarian staff.

The Reuters article outlines some of the ways in which the Sudanese Government has blocked humanitarian operations:

"In the following months, internal documents from aid groups have been leaked to state media, aid workers have been denied travel permits and stopped for questioning, deliveries of fuel into displacement camps have been restricted and programmes relating to rape and sexual health shut down, they said.

The U.N. officials said there were particular worries about the copying of files containing personal information about women who had made allegations of rape or received treatment and counselling after sexual attacks."

For more information about overall humanitarian access in Darfur - including attacks against aid workers - see here.   For more information about how the Sudanese Government pressures humanitarian organizations, see this recent article by Eric Reeve.

Random quote: "And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns / And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves / Trail with daisis and barley / Down the rivers of the windfall light." (Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill)

[Photo of displaced persons in Darfur from www.textually.org]