UN Springs Into Action (Too Late Again)
UN officials are stunned to discover that the genocidal Islamic government of Sudan cannot be trusted.
Sudanese government officials emptied a camp of thousands of refugees hours before UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was to arrive here Thursday, preventing him from meeting some of the hardest-hit victims of the humanitarian crisis in the province of Darfur.
“There may have been 3,000 to 4,000 people here as of 5 p.m. yesterday,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said as he gazed upon the empty camp at Mashtel. “Now, as you can see, no one is here. I can’t imagine they spontaneously moved.”
The forced removal came a day after Sudanese officials promised Secretary of State Colin Powell that humanitarian aid workers would have unrestricted access to Darfur and agreed to other U.S. demands to avoid possible UN sanctions.
Sudanese officials acknowledged they had moved the refugees, but said it was for their own good.
“We didn’t move them because of the secretary general’s visit,” said Anwar Ibrahim, the state minister for Darfur. “It is because we were trying our best to help them.”