Sudan violence escalates as Darfur deadline nears

While the Sudanese governmentfaced criticism Wednesday for a decision to reject UN peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur, it was also confronted by protesters inthe capital.

Protesters descended on Khartoum in response to a spike in prices for basic goods including sugar. Government security forces responded with force, firing tear gas at the demonstrators.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government on Tuesday refused a plan for a UN peacekeeping force of about 20,000 troops in Darfur, calling any Western action in the area "a colonialist conspiracy."

An African Union force of about 7,000 strong is scheduled to withdraw from the region by Sept. 30.

UN humanitarian envoy Jan Egeland has said a "man-made catastrophe of an unprecedented scale" looms in Darfur without a security presence.

An estimated 200,000 people — mostly black Sudanese — have been killed in Darfur in the last three years, and another 2.5 million displaced to squalid refugee camps due to the conflict between government-backed Janjaweed forces and militant Muslim groups.

Accusations of genocide

Mark Hanis of the Genocide Intervention Network said there were good reasons from the government's point of view to spurn the international community.

"They're worried that the peacekeeping force is going to protect the Darfurian people that they're trying to eliminate in this genocide; and the second reason is they're afraid they're going to be held accountable and possibly sentenced in the international criminal courts," Hanis said.

Fighting in Darfur has spilled over to neighbouring Chad, according to CBC reporter David McGuffin, who is on assignment in Khartoum. The instability is of critical importance in northeastern Africa, where nine countries share a border with Sudan, he added.

Cameraman bloodied in attack

McGuffin and his crew have experienced the violence firsthand during their assignment in the country.

The reporter and his cameraman were attacked Wednesday when they returned to their Khartoum hotel.

McGuffinsaid two truckloads of plainclothes policeman descended on the hotel and demanded the camera equipment, even after they produced their government-issued filming permits.

Some of the officers restrained McGuffin whileothers punched the cameraman and threw himinto one of the police vehicles.

The two men were releasedafter hotel security staff became involved. The cameraman was bloodied and required medical attention at a local hospital.

"It's a good indication of just the level of violence and insecurity in this city," McGuffin said.

Sudanese journalist found dead

The incident came on the same day that the decapitated body of kidnapped journalist Mohammed Taha was found on the outskirts of Khartoum.

Taha, kidnapped on Tuesday,had worked for Sudan's al-Wesaq newspaper and had been condemned by Islamic radicals, despite being acquitted of charges of insulting the Prophet Mohammad.

The killing of Taha is just one of a number of recent attacks on civilians. A local nurse was slain last week, while at least a dozen aid workers have been killed since May.