Iran’s Revolutionary Guards arrive to fight alongside Sudan army in
border state, SPLM says
* Article
* Comments (35)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
July 28, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
(IRG) and Somali militants have arrived in eastern Sudan in order to
participate besides the government’s army in the ongoing armed
conflict in South Kordofan State, alleged the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement (SPLM).
JPEG - 29.3 kb
Members of Iran’s Basij militia and Revolutionary Guard perform in a
play "The memory of friends" to mark the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq
war (REUTERS PICTURES)
The SPLM in South Kordofan, which has been fighting the Sudan Armed
Forces (SAF) in the oil-producing state since 5 June, said in a press
release on Wednesday that its sources had observed the arrival of 200
IRG members accompanied by 10 advanced tanks at Kassala airport in
eastern Sudan.
At the same airport, the SPLM further alleged, some Somali Islamist
militants arrived two weeks ago and were later spotted heading to
South Kordofan.
Sudan and Iran have close military cooperation agreements in different
fields. Iranian experts have also participated in the training of army
members in the past during the war against the SPLA in South Sudan.
However independent sources contacted by Sudan Tribune failed to
confirm the SPLM’s allegations on the participation of Iranian troops
in the armed conflict in South Kordofan.
The SPLM, which claimed its forces had inflicted great losses on SAF
and that some army members had defected to its forces, accused the
government of the ruling National Congress Party of using these
militias in its “ethnic cleansing” in South Kordofan.
The SPLM further echoed calls on the UN Security Council to establish
a committee to investigate reports of atrocities allegedly committed
by SAF and its allied militias.
SAF, which is encountering difficulties in quelling what Khartoum
terms as “an all-out rebellion” in South Kordofan, has recently come
under attack over allegations of committing wide-ranging abuses during
the conflict.
A report prepared by the UN Mission in Sudan on the situation in South
Kordofan charged SAF with committing “especially egregious” acts that
may amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The Northern Sector of the SPLM split away from the SPLM in South
Sudan, which is the ruling party of the newly independent state. After
Southern secession areas like the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan and
in Blue Nile remain in North Sudan despite fighting with the SPLM for
much of Sudan’s second North-South civil war (1983-2005).
A peace deal in 2005 allowed South Sudan to secede through a
referendum earlier this year. South Sudan became an independent
republic on July 9. Speaking at the ceremony South Sudan president and
SPLM chairman, Salva Kiir Mayardit, said he had not forgotten the
people of South Kordofan, Blue Nile, Darfur and the contested region
of Abyei.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
