by James Pearce

22 February 2008

El Geneina, Sudan: The author works in West Darfur as a UNV volunteer rule of law officer.

The helicopter lifts up from El Geneina’s dusty airstrip, hovers momentarily over the Durti and Ardamata Camps for the internally displaced people, before heading east over wadi beds and roaming herds of camels.  It is always with a mix of excitement and anxiety that I travel to Zalingei, a town in the eastern part of West Darfur.  I watch as the helicopter drops down over the mountain ridges onto the arid land that has become Zalingei’s landing pad.

Once a month, one of us from the El Geneina office — usually me — travels to Zalingei.  It is always a hectic trip, as we usually have only three or four days to oversee UNDP’s rule of law activities.  Moreover, tensions in Zalingei often run high.  For instance, in October 2007, three government soldiers were killed after entering the Hamidiyya Camp.  The government shortly swept through the camp, detaining seven people on murder charges.  However, it soon became evident that those people were arrested, not because of the murder, but because they were prominent leaders in the camp.  UNDP worked with the International Rescue Committee to engage local, government and customary authorities to release them.

West Darfur is a long way from my home in North Carolina in the southern part of the United States.  Even though I already spoke Arabic, had worked with Darfurian refugees in Cairo and devoted a considerable amount of time trying to understand what was happening in Darfur, I was not prepared for El Geneina when I arrived here a year ago.

El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state and the last major town on the way to Chad, had no tarmac roads.  Internally displaced people from the camps and settlements around the state capital poured into the bustling market area, mixing with Chadian opposition groups, African Union soldiers and the humanitarian workers, looking for the ripest pile of mangos.  Any travel outside of the main market area — including trips to the camps for the internally displaced people where UNDP was doing most of its work — required a convoy of at least two vehicles.  The spate of car-jacking that happened shortly after my arrival indicated why that was necessary.

I began to get my bearings after a few months.  The overall political and security situation fluctuated, but we scored a number of smaller victories with the paralegals and the small community of lawyers who provided legal aid.  There were cases that stripped the immunity of an abusive policeman or secured the release of a wrongly accused ten-year-old.  There was a rule of law seminar on the relationship between Sharia law and human rights, opening the space for discourse just a bit wider.  And then there was the first meeting of the community leaders from the camps at the UNDP Justice and Confidence Centre to discuss issues at the camps.

More recently, my missions to Zalingei have also inspired various projects.  With support from other UN organisations, UNDP has begun to address the issues of labour exploitation, which often involves sexual assault on women and children.  Another initiative engages governmental authorities to explain the mandates and programmatic activities of four UN agencies working in the area.  (This is particularly important as the much anticipated deployment of the UN African Mission in Darfur becomes a reality and high expectations and misperceptions abound.)

This morning I travelled to one of the eight camps around El Geneina to meet with a group of paralegals.  They were a mix of local villagers and the internally displaced people who have received UNDP-facilitated training in human rights and Sudanese law.  In the afternoon, a colleague of mine and I sat with a group of Darfurian lawyers to discuss how we can collaborate to provide more effective legal aid to vulnerable and marginalised groups in El Geneina.  The two meetings, conducted in Arabic, were representative of UNDP’s enlisting of local actors to enhance access to justice in the midst of an ongoing conflict.

Every day in El Geneina brings something new.  In late December, while running out in the desert, I had a Kalashnikov pointed at me for the first time — and I hope it was the last time — in my life.  The experience was a stark reminder of the conflict-torn environment I currently inhabit.  At the same time, I’d like to think that the efforts we have expended to strengthen the rule of law in Darfur more than offset such personal hardships.  Ultimately it is such a thought that sustains me in my work.