---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 10:21 AM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: South Kordofan articles To: Group <[email protected]>
“The international community must understand this is not a north-south conflict and does not have a north-south solution. This is Nuba fighting as Nuba, for Nuba, within the borders of what will soon be a separate state.” 1. Sudanese belligerents in South Kordofan agree to cease hostilities, initiate talks June 16, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The warring sides in Sudan’s South Kordofan State have agreed to cease hostilities and enter into negotiations, AU mediators announced on Thursday, after nearly two weeks of ongoing fighting has killed an unknown number of people and displaced thousands. “Both parties to the conflict have agreed to cease hostilities and enter immediately into negotiations whose details will be agreed after commencement,” former South African president who heads the AU High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP), Thabo Mbeki, said from the Ethiopia capital Addis Ababa on Thursday. Fighting in Sudan’s north-south border state of South Kordofan erupted on 6 June between north Sudan army, Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and elements aligned with South Sudan army, Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), after SAF attempted to carry out its earlier threats to disarm SPLA fighters in the area. South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) contends that its fighters in South Kordofan are northerners. Heavy artillery and aerial bombardments were used by SAF in the fighting which occurred mainly around the state’s capital of Kadugli and its close vicinity. According to UN figures, over 60, 000 people are believed to have fled the fighting which occurred mainly around the state’s capital of Kadugli and its close vicinity which were subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardments by SAF. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in atrocities committed by SAF and its allied militias. South Kordofan is the site of oilfields and borders the troubled western region of Darfur as well as South Sudan, which is due to secede from the north in July after it voted to this effect in a referendum held in January under the 2005’s peace deal which ended more than two decades of civil wars with the north. South Kordofan is also home to the Nuba population which largely sided with the south against the north during the civil war. News of the ceasefire deal follows an upsurge of rhetoric by north Sudan army whose official spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad told a press conference in Khartoum on Thursday that SAF was currently continuing its military offensive in the state to put out the rebellion. "We are continuing our military operations in the mountains around Kadugli up to this moment, until the rebellion stops," he told reporters in Khartoum. According to Sa’ad, the situation in South Kordofan was now under the army control. However, despite the aggressive rhetoric, the army spokesman said that they were working on arrangements to integrate SPLA’s troopers in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile into SAF. He elaborated that these arrangements would seek to either integrate the soldiers into SAF, civil society or through the Demobilization, Disintegration and Reintegration program. Sa’ad stressed that South Kordofan state is 100 percent northern and that no force would be allowed to carry arms after 9 July when South Sudan declares independence as planned. Meanwhile, the cessation of hostilities deal was also confirmed by the secretary-general of the SPLM’s northern sector, Yasir Arman, who arrived in Kadugli among a high-ranking delegation of SPLM officials led by the governor of the Blue Nile State Malik Aggar and an AUHIP delegation as well as UNMIS SSRG Haile Menkerios. They held a meeting with the SPLM’s leader in South Kordofan Abdul Aziz Adam al-Hilu. Arman told Sudan Tribune from Addis Ababa that the two sides had reached a cease-fire agreement, and that a delegation of the SPLM’s northern sector would immediately commence arrangements to enforce the cessation of hostilities and its concomitant political arrangements. The SPLM official also addressed what he termed as the enormous humanitarian catastrophe created by the military operations waged by the government of the National Congress Party (NCP) which led to the displacement of thousands and killing of hundreds. Arman said that the delegation had also seen the effects of aerial bombardment in the area. Arman said that the SPLA had so far “liberated six localities” and reported that the fighting was still going on in big towns, including Kadugli and vicinity of Al-Dilling. In the meantime, UNMIS has urged SAF to open up airspace over South Kordofan, complaining that a six-day closure was “dangerously hampering” its operations to deliver aid to thousands of needy IDPS. "It is vital that the government of Sudan acts immediately to ensure access to all airspace by U.N. flights to alleviate the growing suffering of those most affected by conflict," UNMIS spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said. (ST) END1 2. Sudan border state foes agree to talks-Mbeki Thu Jun 16, 2011 8:21pm GMT * United States and United Nations have called for ceasefire * Over 30,000 children have fled the fighting - charity * Many fighters in S.Kordofan are former southern troops By Aaron Maasho and Alex Dziadosz ADDIS ABABA/KHARTOUM, June 16 (Reuters) - The warring parties in Sudan's Southern Kordofan border state have agreed hostilities should cease and that talks should start, former South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. Fighting between the northern military and southern-aligned armed groups broke out in Southern Kordofan on June 5 and has escalated to include artillery and warplanes. Over 60,000 people are believed to have fled the fighting, the United Nations said. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called for an immediate ceasefire in the north-run oil state, where humanitarian groups fear a mounting death toll. The south due to become a separate country on July 9 and a raft of issues remain unresolved between the two sides, including where to draw the common boundary. "Both sides have agreed that there should be a cessation of hostilities, and that negotiations should begin immediately. They've said they will discuss on certain modalities. The details can only be done within those negotiations," Mbeki told reporters in Addis Ababa after visiting Southern Kordofan. Mbeki, who has been helping guide talks between north and south ahead of secession, said he and other officials would begin planning "full-fledged negotiations" between the Sudanese government and representatives of Southern Kordofan. He did not give a time frame for when any ceasefire would go into effect. Earlier on Thursday Sudan's army said it would continue fighting against southern-aligned groups in Southern Kordofan to end what it calls an armed rebellion. "We are continuing our military operations in the mountains around Kadugli up to this moment, until the rebellion stops," northern military spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khaled told reporters in Khartoum. AIRSPACE CLOSED The United Nations urged north Sudan's military to open up airspace over Southern Kordofan, saying a six-day closure was endangering its aid operations there. "The ongoing closure of the airspace in Southern Kordofan by SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) is dangerously hampering our humanitarian operations as thousands of internally displaced persons are in urgent need of emergency assistance," U.N. Mission in Sudan spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said. "It is vital that the government of Sudan acts immediately to ensure access to all airspace by U.N. flights to alleviate the growing suffering of those most affected by conflict." The London-based group Save the Children said in a statement 30,000 of the displaced were children "at risk of being separated from their families, traumatised and abused". Northern spokesman Khaled dismissed charges the army was putting civilians in danger, saying its role was to help them. Southerners voted to secede in a January referendum that was promised in a deal in 2005 that ended decades of civil war. Many of the fighters in Southern Kordofan are still referred to as part of the south's army as a legacy of that conflict, though the southern military says they are no longer part of its forces. Officials in the south's dominant party have said the fighting erupted after the northern army tried to disarm fighters there, while northern officials have accused southern-aligned groups of starting the fighting. The government in Khartoum stands to lose around a third of its territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when Africa's largest country becomes two states, but most of the terminals, pipelines and refineries are in the north. The northern government's oil minister said earlier that north Sudan have agreed to accept transit fees from the south to export southern oil after July 9 but the two sides had yet to agree a price. (Additional reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz; Writing by Alex Dziadosz; editing by Tim Pearce) END2 3. U.N. Officials Warn of a Growing ‘Panic’ in Central Sudan as Violence Spreads By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Published: June 15, 2011 New York Times NAIROBI, Kenya — United Nations officials warned on Wednesday of “a growing sense of panic” in the volatile Kordofan area of central Sudan, with 60,000 people displaced, aid convoys blocked, ethnic clashes erupting and dozens dead — possibly including several United Nations workers. President Obama urged the Sudanese government to cease “its military actions immediately.” The New York Times Aid workers and historians of Sudan said that what was happening in the Kordofan region, as described by United Nations officials, had the echoes of previous conflicts in the country that had spiraled out of control, including the bloodshed in Darfur. “The ingredients for an explosion are all present,” said Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College and an outspoken activist who has written frequently on Sudan. “The violence in South Kordofan threatens peace in Sudan like no other crisis, and there are many.” Kordofan lies at the heart of Sudan, is emblematic of many of the country’s problems, and is home to myriad militias, rival ethnic groups and contested oil wells. Vicious fighting broke out there last week, and there is fear that an escalating conflict in Kordofan could complicate southern Sudan’s secession into an independent country, scheduled for next month. According to United Nations officials and aid workers, the northern Sudanese Army has embarked on an aggressive campaign against Kordofan’s Nuban people, many of whom aligned with the southern Sudanese during Sudan’s last civil war. “They are killing the black people,” said a Sudanese aid worker who just escaped from a bombed village on Wednesday and asked not to be identified for safety reasons. “The northern army is slaughtering people who supported the S.P.L.M.,” the southern-led political party that is active in several parts of northern Sudan. It was difficult to get a clear picture of what exactly was happening because northern Sudanese soldiers were not allowing United Nations monitors to travel freely in the area and have severed access to many villages, some of them heavily bombed. Anglican Church officials said that the violence was intensifying and that Kordofan could become “another Darfur.” On Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report, “There is a growing sense of panic among some of the displaced populations who find themselves trapped by the ongoing violence and the ethnic fault lines.” The report also spoke of “sectarian violence against civilians” and “widespread looting” and said that local sources had indicated that dozens had been killed in bombing runs by northern Sudanese aircraft. An internal United Nations report provided to The New York Times said that the northern army was planting mines — which have already killed at least one person — in towns and that there had been allegations of mass graves. Sudan Democracy First Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization, said at least 28 people had been killed in extrajudicial executions, and it provided the names of the people it said had been killed. “Ethnic cleansing once again,” the group said this week. The group said that among those killed were several Sudanese working for the United Nations in Kordofan. United Nations officials said they had received reports saying that one contractor working for the organization in Kordofan had been killed, an employee had been shot and wounded and several others might be missing. The officials said that the northern army was essentially encircling a large peacekeeping base and that employees inside were down to their last rations and water. Sudanese aid workers said that several people had been killed by northern soldiers in front of the United Nations base, an allegation that some United Nations officials did not deny. Church leaders in Kordofan have sent e-mails in which they said northern troops and allied militia members ransacked church offices. A new cathedral has been burned down, according to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury. Kordofan lies within the boundaries of Arab-dominated northern Sudan but is home to the Nuba Mountains and the Nuba people, many of whom are Christian and fought alongside the southern rebels during the long north-south civil war. On July 9, southern Sudan is to formally declare its independence from northern Sudan, which many analysts say will leave the southern-allied militias in the north in a precarious position. Late last month, the northern Sudanese Army warned that southern-allied militias still operating in the north should immediately disarm and that northern troops would soon be deploying across the states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, both home to thousands of heavily armed, southern-allied fighters. Many diplomats at the time said that Kordofan was a tinderbox and predicted that if the northern army stormed in, a major conflict would break out, which is what seems to be happening. United Nations officials said that while northern Sudanese warplanes bombed villages, northern forces were rolling in tanks and heavy artillery. In some areas, witnesses said, southern-allied militias are fighting back fiercely and possibly even preparing a major assault on Kadugli, the biggest town in Southern Kordofan. Northern Sudanese officials have not denied the bombings and the use of overwhelming force, calling such tactics necessary to suppress a rebellion. “Our purpose is to control the area, not kill the civilians,” said Al-Sawarmi Khalid, a spokesman for the northern Sudanese Army. He also said the conflict “may continue one week, two weeks, three weeks, one month, and also it may continue for some years.” Church leaders and others are now likening Kordofan to Darfur, Sudan’s vast western region where government-backed militias killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions from their homes in the mid-2000s. “The risk of another Darfur situation, with civilian populations at the mercy of government-supported terror, is a real one,” Archbishop Williams said in a statement on Tuesday. There are other eerie similarities to Darfur. Ahmed Haroun, indicted by the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity for massacres in Darfur, was recently elected governor of Southern Kordofan. The violence in Kordofan actually precedes Darfur’s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Sudanese Army and violent local militias swept across Kordofan, killing thousands of Nuban civilians and forcing many more into “peace camps,” essentially concentration camps where many Nubans were forced to convert to Islam. The northern army was responding to increased guerrilla activity in the Nuba Mountains, which became a base for southern rebels during the civil war. Mr. Obama, in an audio message recorded late Tuesday for the Voice of America broadcasting network, said, “There is no military solution.” “The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan must live up to their responsibilities,” he said. “The government of Sudan must prevent a further escalation of this crisis by ceasing its military actions immediately, including aerial bombardments, forced displacements and campaigns of intimidation.” But it is clear that the Kordofan problems, especially in the Nuba Mountains, are not simply going to disappear when southern Sudan breaks away. “The international community must understand this is not a north-south conflict and does not have a north-south solution,” said Julie Flint, an author who written about Sudan for years. “This is Nuba fighting as Nuba, for Nuba, within the borders of what will soon be a separate state.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/world/africa/16sudan.html?_r=1 END3 4. Sudan: Obama Overstates Role of ‘Both Sides’ in Conflict Posted by Laura Heaton on Jun 16, 2011 Amid worsening reports on the severity of the fighting in Southern Kordofan and the impact on civilians, President Obama made a statement via audio recording late Tuesday night calling for an immediate ceasefire across a swath of Sudan’s border recently embroiled in fierce fighting. Addressing the leaders of the governments of northern and southern Sudan, President Obama called for a negotiated solution. “Both sides must agree to end the violence, to allow the free movement of aid workers and relief supplies to help those in need, to fulfill their commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and to resolve their differences peacefully.” President Obama’s message focused on the potential for a solution at talks in Ethiopia. He warned that Sudanese leaders who “flout their international obligations” will face consequences, including halting steps toward normalization of relations with the United States. On the heels of Secretary Clinton’s recent engagement with Sudanese leaders and the ongoing diplomacy of U.S. special envoy Princeton Lyman, the president’s statement underscored the Obama administration’s high-level attention to what many fear could be a resumption of war between the North and South. But it also demonstrated a continued reluctance by members of the international community to identify outright which party is most responsible for the ongoing violence. It is a trepidation that has characterized much of the international discourse about the fighting of recent weeks, beginning with the confusion surrounding the provocation of the SAF offensive in Abyei. The narrative of the SPLA’s initial attack on the convoy of northern soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers set the stage for a more tempered international response when the SAF offensive began in Abyei. President Obama called for an immediate cessation of offensive actions by the Sudan Armed Forces and SAF withdrawal in the case of Abyei, reiterating the standing demand of the U.N. Security Council, U.S. State Department, and White House spokesperson, among others. But beyond this position, there has been no visible attempt by the international community to step it up when statements fail to achieve the desired results. This cautious approach is evident in the U.N.’s backstepping on whether to use the term “ethnic cleansing” to describe the violence in Abyei. An initial draft of an internal U.N. memo stated that the SAF’s occupation of Abyei was “tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Foreign Policy reported. However, the final version more conservatively warned that conditions “could lead to ethnic cleansing” if Ngok Dinka were unable to return home. The tendency to shy away from the reality on the ground has dangerously carried over into the crisis in Southern Kordofan, even amounting to international silence over serious aggressions by the Sudan Armed Forces. Such is the case with this week’s assault on the town of Kauda in Southern Kordofan, where many civilians displaced from the capital have gathered and U.N. peacekeepers have a base. The airstrip in Kauda was reportedly bombed numerous times, rendering it unusable. Sudan expert Eric Reeves explained the significance in an email: "This runway has no military purpose; its destruction is meant solely to obstruct humanitarian relief. Bombing it is ipso facto a war crime, leave aside the proximity of civilians and peacekeepers." Reeves said that the international community should have anticipated that it would be targeted, given the apparent policy of targeting of civilians and obstructing relief efforts. "It is criminal negligence not to have warned Khartoum in the strongest possible terms against targeting this crucial piece of infrastructure, and yet there is still no outcry," he added. By all accounts thus far, the northern and southern armies are not equally at fault in the current crisis. Considering the SPLA’s own record, it is likely that forces aligned with the South have committed atrocities as well, and getting verifiable information from Southern Kordofan is next to impossible right now. But what governments and most immediately the U.N. peacekeeping mission do know should be enough to act on, as journalist and author Rebecca Hamilton recently noted. Instead, there’s an emphasis is on the responsibility of “both sides,” “both parties,” to “live up to their responsibilities” to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. While President Obama’s own voice lends welcome attention and gravitas, the problematic rhetoric remains the same, misconstruing the nature of the current violence by giving the impression that the northern and southern governments evenly share the blame. As a result, the current debate over what should be done lacks the outrage that the North’s blatant targeting of civilians and humanitarians deserves. http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/sudan-obama-overstates-role-both-sides-conflict END4 5. BUTCHERS OF THE NUBA MOUNTAINS 2! Edward Abyei Lino 15/06/2011 A very reliable urgent information has just reached us that, the NCP racist Islamic fundamentalist regime of Khartoum has decided to exterminate the Nuba people with chemical weapons. Fourteen (14) trucks are now on their way to the Nuba Mountains from GIAD multi-industrial complexes in Gezira. Yesterday evening the trucks crossed the bridge at Kosti on the Nile and headed to the military garrison, where the guards were all changed. This morning they shall leave Kosti for Diling in the Nuba Mountains. Following the closed meeting which was held in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs two days ago in Khartoum chaired by Dr Nafe Ali Nafe, attended by Ahmed Haroun the butcher, who is now a refugee in Khartoum and Haj Magid Suwar with the top brass of the army, the meeting decided to target the areas of: Dalami, Kouda, Kadugli, Julud and Diling. The road between el-Obeid and the Nuba Mountains has been turned into ‘operations road’ as people say. No person can use it without due permission from the confused army or over-stressed ‘mujahideed’. The regime is desperately trying to isolate the Nuba Mountains from the rest of the north and forbid those who are reaching el-Obeid on foot escaping from the Nuba Mountains to receive any assistance they could get even from close relatives, friends and sympathizers. Many people who were rendering help are reliably reported to have been arrested and their whereabouts are not known. The regime has deployed these forces to isolate Kordufan State from the Nuba Mountains. This is a genuine call to the International Community, to know and do their best to stop that rogue regime from attempting to exterminate the people of the Nuba Mountains. We shall do our best to follow the move of these trucks and keep the world informed. This war of extermination of the Nuba people is a war that reflects racial aspirations of the regime. Let African Leaders do their best to understand where things are going in the Sudan, when we call for the necessity of building a new Sudan that shall embrace us all. Those Islamic fundamentalists have been given much more than what they deserve. They have decided to exterminate the people based on colour, not religion, because the majority in the Nuba Mountains are Muslims. The US administration, UN and others must be alert and act right now. END5 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan Advisor [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +249 919 695 362 (Sudan mobile) +27 82 853 3556 (South Africa mobile) +44 750 304 1790 (UK/international) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. 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