Martin going to Sudan to urge end to violence

[Lincoln]

Prime Minister Paul Martin is planning to visit the war-torn region of Sudan later this month, where religious and ethnic violence has killed at least 70,000 people and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

Martin will meet with President Omar el-Bashir when he stops in Khartoum.

Martin spokeswoman Amy Butcher told The Canadian Press the prime minister plans to urge the Sudanese government to halt the violence.

"It's an opportunity to urge the (Sudanese) leaders to honour their word. G-8 leaders have a responsibility to engage and face-to-face meetings can be an effective tool to get leadership to act," Butcher told CP.

Martin was urged to travel to Sudan by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the head of the United Nations Kofi Annan.

The prime minister will also travel to Chile, Brazil and Burkina Faso during his trip, from Nov. 18-28.

The Sudanese government is accused of backing armed Arab tribesmen, known as the Janjaweed, to help put down a 19-month rebellion by non-Arab African groups. The government denies the claim.

In Khartoum on Tuesday, the United Nations accused the Sudanese army of surrounding refugee camps in Darfur and refusing access to humanitarian groups.

The UN World Food Program said three camps had been surrounded, apparently in retaliation for the abduction of 18 Arabs by Darfur rebels.

Sudan denied that any camps had been cut off from aid, but did admit angry Arab tribesmen had gathered in the area.

"It is not true that the government was telling organizations to pull out of the area, and the areas are not besieged," Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs minister, Ibrahim Hamid told The Associated Press in Khartoum.

"What happened is that angry Arab tribesmen gathered after the abduction of 18 of their men by the rebels. But the African Union has been alerted and they said they would bring those abducted out of the mountainous areas of Zaleinge," he said.

Janjaweed has been blamed for the rapes, killings and torching of villages. And now aid workers fear that the refugees may be forced from the camps and back home, where they have less protection from government-backed militias.

Aid workers were pulled from Golu, Zaleinge and Nertetie camps, spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said. "Agencies have been denied access to these camps since this morning."

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1099418920157_4?hub=topstories

[Don Rizzle]

sudan governement been doing some shady shit these last couple of days whilst everyone focuses on america. they already forced 10k people out of one refugee camp at gun point and buldozed it to the ground and they have others surrounded.