|
|
|
Darfur Refugees Seek Israeli Home
|
General; Posted on: 2007-03-14 19:46:53 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
|
About 300 Sudanese have sought sanctuary in Israel
By Martin Patience
BBC News, Jerusalem
Three years ago, David, a 26-year-old corn farmer, fled his burning village in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Janjaweed - Arab militiamen loyal to the Khartoum government - rode into the village on horseback armed with machineguns and began killing the inhabitants.
They torched his family home. "The fire ate my father," said David. His brother was also killed in the attack.
David escaped to Egypt but was afraid that the authorities would send him back to Sudan.
He then took the extraordinary step of paying Bedouin smugglers to take him to Israel.
"I knew they [Israelis] would help as they would understand," said David, standing outside Jerusalem's Holocaust Memorial, where a group of 10 Sudanese refugees visited this week.
"I saw all the pictures of these people suffering [Jews in Europe during World War II] and it reminded me of my village."
Detention Centres
David is one of about 300 Sudanese refugees who have made the journey from a country in the grip of what has been called "genocide", to a country that was created after the Jewish Holocaust in Europe.
But because Israel considers Sudan to be an enemy state its "enemy infiltration" law means that it cannot offer asylum to anyone from a country that does not recognise the Jewish state.
Full article
|
|
News Source: bbc.co.uk
|
|
