---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 2:58 PM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur conflict To: Group <[email protected]>
"A wider war may erupt in Sudan if clashes in Southern Kordofan aren’t resolved, and it would be “coordinated” against the Sudanese army, Malik Agar, governor of Sudan’s border Blue Nile state and the head of the northern branch of South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said July 3." Anybody who has been reading the material I circulate will have noticed that for several years now the Sudanese Church has consistently warned that Popular Consultations might not meet the aspirations of the people and, if a creative solution were not found, there was a strong risk of a war breaking out which could spread from Darfur, through South Kordofan and Blue Nile, to the Eastern Front. Sadly, it is a prediction which appears to be coming true. Let nobody claim that this has come as a surprise to them. John BEGIN 1. Darfur’s Main Rebel Group Joined Clash Against Sudanese Army in Oil State By Maram Mazen - Jul 19, 2011 2:00 AM GMT+0300 Bloomberg The Justice and Equality Movement, the biggest rebel group in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, carried out joint military operations this month with rebels allied with South Sudan’s army against the Sudanese army, a JEM spokesman said. The clashes took place in Sudan’s only oil-producing state, Southern Kordofan, which borders South Sudan, the JEM spokesman, Gibreel Adam Bilal, said in a phone interview from Doha, Qatar. The fighting marked the first time the two rebel groups collaborated on a military operation, Bilal said. “The government has been attacking our brothers in Southern Kordofan for over a month,” Bilal said. “We couldn’t just stand and watch with our hands tied.” Clashes between Sudanese government forces and troops loyal to South Sudan’s army in Southern Kordofan have forced more than 73,000 people to flee their homes since June 5, the United Nations said. Clashes and air strikes by the Sudanese army there continued after the south was declared independent on July 9, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on July 12. A wider war may erupt in Sudan if clashes in Southern Kordofan aren’t resolved, and it would be “coordinated” against the Sudanese army, Malik Agar, governor of Sudan’s border Blue Nile state and the head of the northern branch of South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said July 3. Spreading the War The war could spread from Blue Nile state on the Ethiopian border in the east to Darfur in the west, Agar said. Authorities in South Sudan said fighting in Southern Kordofan broke out when the Sudanese army tried to disarm residents of the state, such as members of the Nuba ethnic group, who fought with the south’s army in the civil war. President Umar al-Bashir’s government in Khartoum accused these units from South Sudan’s army of starting the violence. Last week JEM and other Darfur rebel groups boycotted a peace deal signed in Doha by al-Bashir’s government and the Liberation and Justice Movement, a splinter group. The joint military operations in Southern Kordofan will continue “as long as the government continues to kill innocent people,” Bilal said. Al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for responsibility for genocide and war crimes in Darfur. He denies the charges. Southern Kordofan accounts for about 115,000 barrels a day, according to Sudan’s minister of state for oil, Ali Ahmed Osman. To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-18/darfur-rebels-joined-clash-against-sudan-army-in-oil-state-1-.html END1 2. Darfur rebels claim joint S.Kordofan attack on Sudan army (AFP) – 19th July 2011 KHARTOUM — Darfur rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said on Monday that it carried out a deadly attack on Sudanese army positions in South Kordofan alongside anti-government forces there. It is the first time the JEM, Darfur's most heavily armed rebel group, has claimed to fight alongside the southern-aligned militia (SPLA north) in Sudan's ethnically divided border state, since fighting first erupted there on June 5. The alleged joint attack took place just two weeks after Malik Agar, who heads the political wing of the ex-rebel forces (SPLM north), warned of a "coordinated" uprising between Blue Nile state in the east and Darfur in the west, unless Khartoum agreed to a ceasefire in South Kordofan. "Today, in a joint operation between JEM troops and the SPLA north, we attacked SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) camps in Pisea, 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of Kadugli," one of the JEM's top leaders, Al-Tahir al-Fatih, told AFP. "We took control of the camps and the army withdrew," he said, adding that the rebels killed more than 100 soldiers and captured numerous weapons but lost only one man, despite coming under fire from Antonov bombers and army helicopters. The army spokesman was not immediately available to respond to the rebel claims, which could not be independently verified. For six weeks, heavy fighting has raged across South Kordofan, between the army and Nuba militiamen who fought with SPLA, the ex-rebel army of the south, during their decades-long conflict with Khartoum. South Sudan proclaimed formal independence from the north on July 9, and observers say opposition from north Sudan's neglected peripheral regions like Darfur and South Kordofan may grow in the wake of southern secession. An internal UN report seen by AFP said the army's systematic attacks, targeting the state's indigenous Nuba peoples, could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, charges strongly denied by the government, which says it is fighting an internal rebellion. On Sunday, JEM raised the possibility a fresh attack on the Sudanese capital. "Those who carried out the heroic attack on Omdurman and terrorised the regime of (President Omar) al-Bashir are capable of repeating the same attack with their partners in the struggle," the group warned in a statement. In May 2008, JEM fighters launched an unprecedented march on Khartoum, reaching the capital's twin city of Omdurman just across the Nile from the presidential palace before being repulsed with heavy losses. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gwnELGeEv928f9BGQxBCuJzeNs5w?docId=CNG.683c48c2b56ffbdeb1682f2da8863427.a21 END2 3. Sudan’s Blue Nile state governor calls for resistance against proposed law July 18, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The governor of Blue Nile state Malik Agar on Monday slammed the proposed amendment to the Popular Consultation law that was endorsed by the Sudanese cabinet today. Sudan official news agency (SUNA) said that the council of ministers headed by vice president Ali Osman Taha approved a draft bill for organizing the popular consultation in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states for 2011 presented by justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa. The cabinet’s spokesperson Omer Mohamed Saleh told reporters that the proposed law would extend the popular consultation in the two states for a period of six months. It also empowers the Sudanese president to extend it further at the request of the commissions administering the exercise. The popular consultation process in the two states is a mechanism mandated by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to ascertain local views on the implementation of that agreement and how governance relationship with Khartoum should be re-organized. However, the process has stalled in the Blue Nile while South Kordofan descended into violence between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and SPLA since early June. Agar responded to the new draft law through a statement attributed to him saying that this is a violation to the CPA and that he would not recognize it. The head of the northern branch of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) said the government bypassed the Blue Nile state government and its elected governor when it approved the draft bill. He called on the citizens to "resist the unjust and oppressive law which was passed by a single party that represents no one but itself". The SPLM figure did not say what aspects of the law he objected to. He has warned earlier this month that if the ongoing fighting in South Kordofan spilled into his state and Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur, it would be "coordinated," because "the enemy of your enemy is your ally". In July, Agar signed a preliminary accord with top presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie in the Ethiopian capital, that sets the groundwork for a comprehensive political and security settlement in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, both home to a large number of SPLM supporters. But President Omer Hassan al-Bashir came afterwords and rejected the agreement and ordered continuation of military operations in South Kordofan which a secret UN report said involved what could amount to war crimes. (ST) END3 4. UN report incriminates Sudan army’s acts in South Kordofan, calls for ICC probe [Full text of UN report circulated on this Google group on 17th July 2011] July 18, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Acts committed by the Sudan army and its allied militias during localized violence in South Kordofan State may amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, a UN report has said, recommending a probe into the alleged atrocities by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Violent clashes erupted on June 5 in Sudan’s oil-producing state of South Kordofan between north Sudan army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) According to a report prepared by the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) on the human rights situation during South Kordofan violence, the fighting appears to have been triggered by SAF’s attempt to forcibly disarm SPLA members, in contrast with SAF’s claims that the fighting broke out after SPLA members raided a local police station and stole small arms. The report accused both parties to the conflict of engaging in acts against civilians, but it singled out SAF’s conduct as “especially egregious,” saying that the army and its allied paramilitary forces “have targeted members and supporters of the SPLM/A, most of whom are Nubans and other dark skinned people.” UNMIS report documented a wide-range of atrocities it said were committed, particularly by SAF, against civilians as well as UNMIS staff. According to the report, these violations of national and international law include aerial bombardments, forced displacement, abductions; house-to-house searches; arbitrary arrests and detentions; targeted killings and summary executions. It also details reports of mass graves; systematic destruction of dwellings and attacks on churches. The UN previously estimated that more than 70,000 have been displaced by South Kordofan fighting. The report says that the violence has resulted in a significant loss of lives, highlighting thirty-seven individual incidents of extrajudicial killings or death resulting from attacks on civilians. It further said that the mission had received credible reports that extrajudicial killings have targeted people in Southern Kordofan who are affiliated with the SPLA and SPLM, most of whom are Nuba people. The report said that the acts it described may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under national and international laws. A number of recommendations were made by the report, including that the UN Security Council “mandates the establishment of a commission of inquiry or other appropriate investigative authority, including the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the violence in Southern Kordofan and violations of human rights and humanitarian laws and to identify the perpetrators or those who bear the greatest responsibility, with the view to bringing them to justice.” If the report recommendation is adopted by the UNSC, it will be the second time that the ICC has been authorized to get involved in Sudan. The Hagie-based court has already issued arrest warrants for three Sudanese individuals, including president Al-Bashir and South Kordofan governor Ahmad Harun on account of the atrocities committed by government forces in the western region of Darfur. (ST) END4 5. Sudan’s NCP dismisses UNSC’s “biased” concern over South Kordofan July 17, 2011 (Khartoum) – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has shrugged off as “biased” concerns by the UN Security Council over the situation in the country’s war-battered state of South Kordodfan. The oil-producing state of South Kordofan, which abuts the newly independent state of South Sudan, has descended into violent clashes between north Sudan army and forces aligned with South Sudan since 6 June. According to UN figures, more than 70,000 people fled their homes as a result of the fighting which escalated into artillery and aerial bombardment by the northern army amid reports of ethnically-targeted attacks on the Nuba population which largely sided with South Sudan during the second spell of Sudan’s north-south civil war. NCP’s secretary of mobilization Haj Magidtold local reporters on Sunday that the government was still bent on hunting down and prosecuting Abdul Aziz Adam Al-Hilu, the deputy chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Siwar said that conducting a dialogue over the situation in South Kordofan is contingent on the SPLM’s compliance with the requirements of registering political parties and withdrawal of the SPLM’s forces to their positions prior to the outbreak of the war. The SPLM and the NCP signed a framework agreement earlier this month to deescalate the situation in South Kordofan but the deal was quickly thwarted by NCP hardliners who objected to the agreement’s recognition of the SPLM as a legal political party in north Sudan. Siwar stressed that his party pays no heed to the concerns voiced by the UN Security Council over South Kordofan, terming them “biased” in the sense that they hold the government responsible and ignore the fact that SPLM’s members took up arms and rebelled against the state. (ST) 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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