Government representatives could not be reached for comment.
By most accounts, Kalma is awash in weapons and has become a haven for rebels, and government officials have warned in recent months that they would disarm the camp. In a similar raid of Kalma last month, local Sudanese police said they seized cannons, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
Early this year, Amnesty International said the majority of Kalma residents were armed and warned that gangs of displaced youths were fighting one another. Rebel groups frequently use the camp to recruit fighters.
This militarization of Kalma and other camps highlights a rising risk in Darfur, experts say.
"The camps could become the new front line," said Sudan analyst Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College. If camp dwellers continue to arm themselves because they are losing faith in the ability of the U.N. to resolve the crisis, the Sudanese government could use the presence of weapons as a reason to attack.
"If people start to have the feeling that the war has been taken to the camps, then you're talking about a tinderbox," Reeves said.
Camp leaders deny that they have weapons and accuse the government of fabricating the recent arms seizure.
"The government wants to evacuate the camp by any means, peacefully or by force," said Najmaldin Abdulkarim, a London-based spokesman for a newly created Darfur refugee union. "Kalma is seen as a stronghold and that's why the government targeted this camp."
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 with a rebel attack on government facilities. The government in Khartoum is accused of unleashing counterinsurgency militias that attacked hundreds of villages, displacing more than 2 million people and leading to the deaths of more than 200,000.
Kalma has been a pressure cooker since 2005, when residents burned a police station.
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edmund.sanders@latimes.com
