It was the leather shoes that caught the eye of U.S. officials with Secretary of State Colin Powell in a camp for Sudanese uprooted by ethnic violence.

Sudanese forced from their homes by war or famine normally have the most primitive footwear or none at all. Many had leather shoes at the camp and obviously didn’t belong there. As U.S. officials saw it, they were assigned to intimidate actual residents who might be inclined to tell their harrowing stories to Powell and his party, including reporters.

In the days before Powell’s visit to Darfur region in western Sudan last week, he and his colleagues had been aware that the Sudanese government might try to put the best face on a dire situation.

Powell has said repeatedly that the visit to the al-Shouk camp was not to investigate but rather to call international attention to the Darfur crisis, for which he believes Sudan’s Islamic government bears heavy responsibility. The number of Darfur’s displaced by raiders exceeds 1 million, many of whom are expected to die.

Powell also was relying on other sources to keep tabs on the situation. He got an earful from private U.S. relief groups and U.N. officials during an hourlong meeting before visiting al-Shouk, where 40,000 people are sheltering. He was told of the murders, rapes and the razing of villages, all said to have been committed by government-backed ethnic Arab militias against Darfur’s black African population.

The government denies any role in supporting the so-called Janjaweed militias. It attributes the unrest to competition over land and resources.

After meeting with the relief experts, Powell boarded his van, which had been flown from Washington for the occasion. His aides worried that the van, its weight substantially increased by armor plating, could sink in Darfur’s mud.

It made the trip to al-Shouk without incident. In terms of relief supplies, the camp is better off than perhaps any other in Darfur. Some camp residents told reporters about the murder of close family members. Others balked, citing the presence of government agents.

Powell made a 25-minute walk through the camp, accompanied by relief experts. He moved hurriedly because he did not want to get caught in a sandstorm brewing nearby.

When he finally reached a shelter at the end of his tour, a group of women presented him with a petition suggesting that all was well in Darfur.

His delegation realized that the women were government agents. Not only were they well-dressed, they were overweight.

For weeks, Powell had been in almost daily contact with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on ways to pressure Sudan to lift curbs on delivery of humanitarian supplies to Darfur and to permit the safe return of the displaced to their homes. Another goal was a peace settlement between Darfur’s Arab and black populations.

When Powell learned that Annan was planning to visit Sudan last week, he decided go there at the same time, adding Khartoum at the end of a two-city trip in Europe.

The plan called for Powell and Annan to deliver back-to-back messages to President Omar el-Bashir that he must act to end the suffering. The one-two punch by the world’s two best-known diplomats would be difficult for el-Bashir to ignore, or so officials hoped.

By week’s end, el-Bashir had pledged to send troops to Darfur to end militia violence and to remove all obstacles to delivery of relief supplies. There also were promises to start a peace dialogue among the rival factions. It remains unclear whether these assurances will be fulfilled.

Sudan’s effort to orchestrate perceptions about camp life in Darfur did not stop with Powell. The day after he visited al-Shouk, Annan made a stop at the Meshtel settlement, where he expected to find 1,000 displaced people. To Annan’s astonishment, all had been loaded on trucks and carted away.

“Where are the people?” Annan asked incredulously. A Sudanese official explained that the people were removed because conditions were too grim.

Annan turned down an offer to tour the same camp visited by Powell the day before.