PORTLAND (AP) – About 50 refugees in Portland say they have been cut off for months from family members in their homeland of Darfur in western Sudan, the scene of ethnic violence.

The refugees say government-sponsored Arab militias are burning villages, raping women and pushing people off cliffs. Many escape to the desert, where they die of thirst and hunger, according to those living in Portland.

Ise Dahia, the only member of his family in the United States, said he last heard from his parents and younger brother and sister a year ago.

“The tragic part is that I am the eldest, and they are waiting for me to help them, and I can’t,” said Dahida, a board member of the Fur Cultural Revival, a local group. “Fur” is the name of an indigenous tribe. Darfur means “people of the Fur.”

Salahadin Ahmed, who arrived in Maine from Egypt last week, says the government is jailing university professors, college students and teachers as part of an attempt to suppress the flow of information from the region. The government monitors all phone calls, he says, and could punish Sudanese who talk about Darfur during calls to the United States.

“When they talk to someone in the U.S., they are putting their lives in danger,” he said, speaking in Arabic through an interpreter.

To raise awareness about the crisis in Sudan, the Fur Cultural Revival has joined with the Sudan Organization for Greater Portland, Peace Action Maine and the Portland branch of the NAACP.

On Thursday, activists delivered a message to local offices of U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Next Saturday, World Refugee Day, they will present a video of the situation in Darfur at the Space Gallery in Portland.

AP-ES-06-21-04 0921EDT