Three years after it was burned to the ground, the village of Tulus in Darfur is springing back to life.
Corn and sesame sprout from fertile fields. Children play around newly built huts. Smoke from cooking fires again rises from the land.
Problem is, those rebuilding Tulus are not the original inhabitants, who were chased away by pro-government Sudanese militias in 2004 and are afraid to return. Instead, their place has been taken by Arabs from Chad, who recently crossed the border to flee violence in their country.
"It's comfortable here," said Sheik Algooni Mohammed Zeean, 42, leader of 150 Chadian Arabs who in March settled on a grassy plain near the ruins of the village's abandoned homes and school. Gesturing toward the fields bearing their first harvest in Sudan, he smiled. "I feel like this is my home now."
Over the past six months, nearly 30,000 Chadian Arabs have crossed into Sudan, many of them settling on land owned by Darfur's pastoral tribes that were driven into displacement camps, aid groups say.
This migration has become the latest obstacle to peace in western Sudan, drawing the attention of international observers and protests from those displaced from Darfur, who accuse the Sudanese government of orchestrating "Arabization" by repopulating burned-out villages with foreigners.
'A government plot'
"This is a government plot to give our land to Chadian Arabs," said Mohammed Abakar Mohammed Adam, 27, a farmer from the village of Bechabecha, which was abandoned after armed nomadic tribes known as janjaweed, believed to be backed by the government, attacked in 2003.
The Darfur conflict began in early 2003 when rebels attacked government forces to protest the poor resources and services in the neglected area. The regime in Khartoum, dominated by Sudanese Arabs, is accused of stirring up ethnic hatred by arming militias to attack villages that supported the rebels.
U.S. officials have labeled the government's campaign genocide. An estimated 200,000 people have died, mostly from disease and hunger in the early days of the crisis.
The influx of Chadian Arabs reflects the conflict's spread over the border, where similar ethnic clashes are destabilizing eastern Chad. In the past year, nearly 50,000 Chadian refugees have sought shelter in Darfur, though many of the earlier arrivals were not Arab and settled in refugee camps.
Helping the Arabs
Government officials have said little about the recent influx. Sudanese Arab leaders in West Darfur are welcoming the Chadian Arabs, directing them to the vacated land and assisting them with supplies. They insist they are simply helping their Arab kin at a time of crisis and that the newcomers will return to Chad as soon as it's safe.
But for some displaced Tulus villagers, now living less than 20 miles away, news that strangers are farming their land has brought suspicion and anguish.
"That is our land," said Miriam Yahya Ahmed, 60. "Those people should go."
In Tulus, she lived on a small farm with fields of corn and peanuts. Now she struggles to nurture a few dozen corn stalks on a dirt patch behind her straw hut.
International humanitarian groups worry that disputes over the land might reignite violence in western Darfur and lead to further delays in resolving the region's massive displacement crisis, with more than 2 million people driven from their homes.
"The mere presence of people on this land will make it more difficult for [displaced persons] to return home," said Ita Schuette, head of the Habillah branch of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
West Darfur's Gov. Abu Gasim Imam, a former rebel commander whose group signed last year's controversial peace deal with the government, said he plans to dispatch about 1,000 troops to keep the peace. He expressed solidarity with displaced Darfur residents and said the Chadians should be relocated to refugee camps.
Some Chadians might be legitimate refugees, he said, but suggested others had ulterior motives and might be working with Sudanese Arabs.
"This is not simply a refugee crisis," he said. "It's a strategic attempt to occupy land."
Some Chadian Arabs appear to be digging in. A group of about 300 who arrived in Tulus before the most recent wave initially identified themselves to UN interviewers as Chadian. Earlier in August, their sheik changed his story, claiming the group was from Darfur.
"We're Sudanese," said Sheik Ismail Mohammed Shein, 57. "This is our land. We are not leaving."
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-08-26-0708250258-story.html
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