'I can't go back'

Darfur refugee tells Post of a journey from a Muslim village in Darfur in western Sudan to Israel.

By ASAF DROR
sudan darfur market 88.2 (photo credit: AP)
sudan darfur market 88.2
(photo credit: AP)
Jazy, a refugee from Darfur who has languished in the Ma'asiyahu Prison for nine months, told the The Jerusalem Post about his journey from a black Muslim village in Darfur in the western Sudan to Israel. "The [Sudanese] army caught me in my village in Darfur and arrested me, and took me to a place. I don't know where it was. They asked me questions, then they beat me. They said I was opposed to the government. "I stayed in that place for three weeks. Then they gave me a paper to sign, with conditions, so I wouldn't be able to travel from Darfur. "If I wanted to do anything, I had to tell them. They said if they caught me again or I left Darfur, they would kill me. So I went to my village. "The janjaweed [Arab militias] are working with the government army against the black people. They started to chase us. "After I returned to my village, for two weeks they attacked the village and killed around 100 of us. Most of the survivors fled toward Chad. I went looking for my family, but I never found them. I don't know if they're alive or dead. "I met a friend, told him my story, and he helped me. He gave me some money, clothes and food. "If I was caught I'd be killed, so I went to Janina [a large town in Darfur], got a car ride to Khartoum, met some friends of my father and told them the problem. They got me a passport and I went to Cairo. "I went to the UN office, and was given a yellow card [asylum-seeker registration with the UNHCR] and told to come for an interview after six months. I came and they said there's a problem, so I must return after six more months. "Then I came to the UN office, and they said they stopped working with the Sudanese. I asked him why and told him a lot of people would suffer from this decision. I don't know why they did this, but we held a [sit-in] demonstration in front of the UN office. "Then Egyptian security caught me and put me in jail for a week. They said we'd be sent back to the Sudan. "If I go back I know the government will kill me; a friend in Cairo and I had the idea to come to Israel. It's a quiet place. "Now, everything in the prison is hard. We came looking for freedom. So I called the UN [from prison] and told them I need papers so I can be freed. I'm suffering here, and I don't know what I have to say to get help. But I have no choice. I can't go back."