KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has refused to allow a U.N. human rights envoy to visit an area north of the capital where police shot protesters last year, citing security concerns, the world body said on Saturday.
Sudanese police killed four people in June during a protestagainst plans to build a new dam in Kajbar in the NorthernState, around 200 km (125 miles) north of Khartoum.
Sima Samar, the U.N. human rights special rapporteur forSudan, was scheduled to travel to the area over the weekend aspart of an official visit to the country.
"The visit was not approved by the government which citedsecurity concerns by the state authorities," Khaled Mansour,director of public information for the U.N. mission in Sudan,told Reuters.
Sudanese Justice Minister Abdel Basit Sabderat declined tocomment.
Sima, a former Afghan deputy prime minister, has served asthe U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan since2005. She has reported war crimes by Sudanese forces and theirallied militia in the troubled Darfur region.
Mansour said Samar was also set to visit Port Sudan on theRed Sea and the war-ravaged region of Darfur in the west.
International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes since theconflict flared in 2003 when rebels took up arms against thecentral government, accusing it of neglecting the region.
The United States calls the violence a genocide. Sudanrejects this and says only 9,000 people have lost their lives.
(Reporting by Alaa Shahine; Editing by Jon Boyle)
