---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:57:04 +0300 Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: South Kordofan and Darfur To: Group <[email protected]>
One hopes that the SPLM-N's alliance with Darfur movements will not infect the Nuba with the factionalism which has so undermined the Darfur struggle. The statement in article 2 below by Afaf Tawor, the leader of the NCP’s bloc from South Kordofan in the national assembly, that "the solution to the crisis in South Kordofan lies in the hands of Al-Bashir and Kiir" is a common mistake amongst (northern) Sudanese and the international community. The South Kordofan struggle is a (northern) Sudanese civil war completely independent of South Sudan. The solution lies in Khartoum, not Juba. It's good to see that the UN appears to have moved away from quoting the arbitrary figure of 73,000 displaced. Article 9 below has OCHA saying "since early June, at least 200,000 people in South Kordofan have been killed, injured or forced to flee their homes and land" and WFP delivering supplies to over 123,000 people. Local sources that put the figure as high as 400,000 displaced may yet be proved right. John BEGIN 1. SPLM-SLM alliance is not yet sealed, talks continue to include JEM Ethiopia’s PM meets SPLM-N’s leader over resumption of talks with Khartoum August 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — The recently announced agreement between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and two factions of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) is the first step in the negotiations between the opposition forces, Sudan Tribune has learnt. A reliable source who preferred anonymity said the negotiations between SPLM-N, Justice and Equality Movement, (JEM), SLM-Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur (SLM-AW), and SLM- Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) will continue to bridge the gaps between the parties over the contentious issues in order to reach a final agreement. On 7 August SPLM-N, SLM-AW and SLM-MM inked a political deal announcing the establishment of the Sudan’s Revolutionary Front Alliance (SRFA). The three signatories agreed to unite their political and military means to overthrow the regime of the National Congress Party (NCP) and to set up a liberal and secular state in the country. The agreement was put out after a series of talks including SPLM-N the SLM factions of AW and MM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The four parties diverged over the place of religion in the post-NCP regime. The SPLM-N and the two SLM factions supported the idea of a "secular state" while JEM said the SRFA manifesto should emphasize on the "citizenship state". The expression of citizenship state is used in Sudan to underline the separation between the religion and politics but maintains the role of religion in different areas related to the personal sphere like the personal status law. The 7 August deal, according to the mechanism set up by the four parties, had to remain secret and to be discussed at a presidential conference gathering the heads of the four political forces, the source said. The forty member conference have to finalize "an agreement signed by the leaders the parties," he stressed. JEM officials reached by Sudan Tribune earlier this week said there was no difference over the separation between the state and the religion with the other three groups, but they stressed that the divergence was at the level of the "drafting" of the text. But they reiterated their commitment to the idea of preventing any political exploitation of religion. The source who disclosed the details of the process regretted that the deal has been revealed at this stage. He stressed that JEM is working effectively with the SPLM in South Kordofan and the difference on this point will not alter the good relations between the two groups. The leading official further said that besides the political platform there is a structural organization the parties have to achieve. SPLM-N Secretary General Yasir Arman, who is in charge of the process told the opposition Hurriyat website this week that his movement will extend its hand to all the other Sudanese political forces willing to achieve change and democracy in Sudan. The Sudanese government slammed the rapprochement between the SPLM-N and Darfur rebel groups saying it aims to destabilize the political stability in the country after the sging of Doha peace agreement with the Liberation and Justice Movement. Nafie Ali Nafie, presidential assistant, accused the movement of working with foreign circles to harm his government, while other officials openly accused the South Sudan ruling party, the SPLM, of supporting the SPLM-N and Darfur armed movements. ETHIOPIA MEDIATES BETWEEN SPLM-N AND NCP The leader of the SPLM-North, Malik Aggar met Wednesday with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zinawi who was approached by the Sudanese presidency requesting him to narrow the divergences between the two parties. President Omer Al-Bashir rejected on 7 July a framework accord reached by his assistant and NCP deputy chairman Nafie with Aggar in Addis Ababa on 29 June aiming to consolidate a truce in South Kordofan and to negotiate a political settlement to the conflict. Analysts agree that Bashir’s decision to renounce the deal was dictated by the army which seeks to play an important role in the political arena, as the ruling party witnesses divisions and frictions. The SPLM-N refuses to resume talks with Khartoum without a foreign mediation. It also says committed to the 29 June agreement brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki who chairs an African Union panel on Sudan. Aggar who is the governor of Blue Nile state last week said he refuses to meet Bashir in his capacity as leader of the SPLM-N but he is willing to meet the president as a governor to tackle the issue of his state. Also, it is not yet clear whether Khartoum wants Addis Ababa to undertake a new mediation or to seek the resumption of the interrupted process engaged by Mbeki. (ST) END1 2. Sudan’s NCP to slap ban on SPLM-north party August 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is contemplating a move to ban the armed opposition party Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the country, according to Sudan Tribune’s sources. ST’s sources on Friday said that the ban is likely to be made through the Council of Political Parties which oversees and regulates the registration and activities of political parties. The SPLM northern sector in Sudan has been structurally bifurcated from the SPLM in South Sudan which rules the newly independent state. SPLM northern sector is officially registered as a political party in Sudan but NCP officials have in the past said indicated that they would not allow it to continue its activities in the north, saying it would be considered as an extension of a foreign party after the south declares independence. The potential ban comes against the backdrop of an alliance being forged by the SPLM northern sector with two rebel groups from the country’s western region of Darfur. It has been reported that the alliance deal, which includes beside the SPLM northern sector two factions of the Darfur rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by the Uganda-based Abdul Wahid Nur and Minni Minawi, is not yet sealed as efforts continue to incorporate the other Darfur rebels Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). A reliable source speaking on condition anonymity to Sudan Tribune said on Wednesday that negotiations between SPLM, JEM and the two SLM factions would continue to bridge the gaps between the parties over the contentious issues in order to reach a final agreement. The declared goal of the alliance is to overthrow the Khartoum government whose army has been battling Fighters of the SPLM’s military wing, Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), in Sudan’s southern region of Kordofan since early June. South Kordofan fighting continues to rumble on after the NCP reneged on a framework agreement signed by its negotiators last month with the SPLM to deescalate the situation. Sudan President and NCP’s chairman Omer Al-Bashir expressed objection to the agreement’s recognition of the SPLM as a legal political party in the north, ordering the army to sustain its operations in South Kordofan until it is “purged” of whom he called rebels and the SPLM’s leader in the state Abdul Aziz Al-Hilu is arrested. Meanwhile, the director of Khartoum’s Center for Human Rights (KCHR), a state-run organization, claimed that the continuation of the SPLM in north Sudan after the south’s split is inverse to the constitution. KCHR director Ahmad Al-Mufti on Friday told the Sudan Media Center, a website run by the country’s security services, that the existence of the SPLM in north Sudan was rendered “unconstitutional” following the south’s secession last month. He justified his legal edict by saying that the political parties law does not permit any party to have military wings. In a related development, an NCP parliamentarian has called for a summit between Al-Bashir and South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir to address the tense situation in South Kordofan. According to Afaf Tawor, the leader of the NCP’s bloc from South Kordofan in the national assembly, the solution to the crisis in South Kordofan lies in the hands of Al-Bashir and Kiir. She told reporters in Khartoum on Friday that an urgent summit between Al-Bashir and Kiir is needed to put an end to the crisis. The NCP’s parliamentarian accused the SPLM northern sector of seeking to exploit the indigenous Nuba population in South Kordofan and turn the state into a scene of military operations. Tawar claimed that fighting broke out in the last two days between two tribes of Nuba and resulted in deaths and injuries. (ST) END2 3. Russia, China blocked calls on UNSC to condemn Sudan’s fighting in South Kordofan August 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Russia and China have watered down a U.S-proposed statement to bring the UN Security Council (UNSC) to condemn the ongoing war of the Sudanese government in the country’s South Kordofan state, diplomats said. Last week Sudan appeared happy at what it saw as a diplomatic victory after a closed-door meeting held between the UNSC’s 15 members on Thursday failed to issue a statement calling for ceasefire in South Kordofan where the country’s army has been fighting rebels aligned with the newly independent South Sudan since early June. Sudan’s army has resorted to the use of aerial bombardment to quell what it termed as a rebellion against the state by the fighters of Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) amid reports of indiscriminate shelling and targeting of the indigenous Nuba population which largely supports the rebels. The country’s permanent envoy to the UN, Dafa’a Allah Al-Haj Ali, said that some countries led by the US and France had pushed for the meeting to issue a statement calling on the Sudanese government to cease hostilities against South Kordofan’s insurgents. According to the Sudanese diplomat, China, Russia, India and Lebanon objected to the demand, casting doubts on the veracity of the information on atrocities committed in the region. Al-Haj however said he expects Washington and its allies to repeat the attempt. UN diplomats on Friday confirmed that the U.S had to withdraw a statement it circulated earlier this week among UNSC’s members to condemn South Kordofan fighting and call on the government to cease aerial bombardment. The diplomats, quoted anonymously in an AP report, said the U.S. withdrew its statement because of Russian and Chinese opposition to any condemnation or mention of aerial bombing. Russia and China are both allies of Sudan, and Beijing is the dominant investor in Sudan’s oil sector. U.S. Mission spokesman Mark Kornblau was quoted as saying that "the grave humanitarian situation in South Kordofan demands a clear and strong response from the Security Council, not a watered-down statement." France’s U.N. Mission Brieuc Pont, regretted the council’s failure to speak against South Kordofan’s fighting. "Violence against civilians cannot be met with blank stares from the Security Council.""France will continue to work hard to achieve a clear and strong message on the violence in South Kordofan," he told AP. Expressing concern about "the grave humanitarian situation," a spokesman for Britain’s UN mission told AP that "The Security Council needs to speak with a clear, united and strong voice on this." Meanwhile, the UN has produced a new estimate of the causalities and displacement caused by South Kordofan’s fighting. According to Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 200,000 people in South Kordofan have been killed, injured or forced to flee their homes and land since the fighting erupted in early June. (ST) END3 4. South Sudan "feels pain" of fighting in S. Kordofan August 12, 2011 (MALAKAL) – A South Sudanese official on Friday said is feeling the pain of the ongoing fighting in Southern Kordofan State. She further said would appreciate international intervention to stop what it described as massive killing of the Nuba ethnic group. Groups from the Nuba Mountains in the Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan fought with South Sudanese against the Khartoum government for nearly two decades. Just before South Sudan became independent on July 9 this year, fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement- North (SPLM-N) led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu. "As people and government, we are feeling the pain of the fighting that is going on in Southern Kordofan," said Andrea Maya, a deputy governor of the neighbouring Upper Nile state. Maya, who was speaking at Malakal airport on Friday, accused the Sudanese of political "negligence and racial marginalization" against Sudanese nationals in Southern Kordofan and in Blue Nile states. The two states were granted special dispensation under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 but the popular consultations to express their own demands and to analyse whether the CPA addressed their grievances have not been completed. "The government in Khartoum is indeed responsible for the fighting which is continuing in the Southern Kordofan, the deputy governor affirmed. "It wanted to disarm forces of SPLM-N who were part of the joint integrated unit created by the CPA to be deployed in the transitional areas," explained Maya. She further pinpointed that that the joint units were supposed to remain in place there to support the conduct of popular consultation. But the Sudanese army were preparing to disarm them before the end of the process. The senior state official reported that Upper Nile has received and is providing assistance to 360 refugees from the troubled area of Southern Kordofan. South Sudan became the world’s newest nation July 9 and later the 193rd member of the United Nations. The independence came out as part of a peace agreement reached in 2005 that ended a brutal civil war in Sudan. The former United Nations Mission in Sudan has expressed concern about violence along the borderlines and possibilities of spreading it to the new state of South Sudan. A Different sources including a leaked UN human rights report say that there were signs indicating that members of the Nuba ethnic community were being targeted by the Sudan Armed Forces and their allied militias. Khartoum accuse Juba of supporting Kordofan’s rebellion as the international community expression fears that the ongoing conflict in the volatile area might spread into the newly independent state of South Sudan. Around 70,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. It is unclear how many have died due to the lack of access accorded to journalists and humanitarian workers. (ST) END4 5. U.S warns of Sudan’s South Kordofan contagion August 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The United States on Wednesday expressed alarm over a potential spillover from the ongoing turmoil in Sudan’s border state of South Kordofan into the newly independent state of South Sudan. South Sudan, which declared independence from the north last month, has already been affected by the fighting in South Kordofan after thousands of refugees traversed the borders into the south’s northern frontier of Unity State. Fighting in the volatile state of South Kordofan erupted in early January between Sudan army and rebels affiliated with the indigenous Nuba population which largely sided with the south during Sudan’s north-south second civil war from 1983-2005. Princeton Lyman, US special envoy to Sudan, warned in a news conference on the internet on Wednesday that South Kordofan fighting could spread to engulf South Sudan. "I think that the danger in the fighting in South Kordofan is that it could indeed spread to other parts of the Nuba mountains or of the Blue Nile," he said, warning that it "could involve the south because there are links from the civil war between elements in the south and the people fighting in South Kordofan." South Kordofan is part of north Sudan but the region was promised - under the 2005’s deal that ended Sudan’s north-south war - to hold popular consultation to gauge the level of local satisfaction with the deal’s implementation and how governance relationship with Khartoum should be reorganized. Sudan on Tuesday said that Washington and Paris had failed to rally members of the UN Security Council holding a meeting on South Kordofan to issue a statement calling for ceasefire in the area. However, the US diplomat said he was “sure” the issue would be opened for discussion again. Lyman went on to castigate the Sudanese government’s conduct of South Kordofan war, saying “it violates the standards of war in the 21st century." He cited the "bombing of civilian targets, taking people out of their homes, possible extrajudicial killings." Sudan alleges that the South is providing logistical support to its erstwhile allied rebels in the Nuba Mountains, a charge the south denies. Similarly, the European Union expressed concern over continued fighting and reports of abuses in South Kordofan. A statement issued on Wednesday by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said that the continental body remains “gravely concerned about continued fighting in Southern Kordofan state and disturbing reports of further widespread human rights violations.” Activists liken Khartoum’s heavy-handed approach to South Kordofan’s insurgency to that of its approach to the early stages of the rebellion in the western region of Darfur. In response to the outbreak of rebellion in Darfur in 2003, Khartoum orchestrated an abusive counterinsurgency campaign blamed for killing and creating dire humanitarian conditions responsible for the death of 300,000 people and displacement of 2.7 million, according to UN figures. (ST) END5 6. Africa: The Crisis of Sudan Explo N. Nani-Kofi 11 August 2011 allAfrica.com Competition between rival interests is behind the violence in Sudan, writes Explo N. Nani-Kofi. As a result, voices for empowering popular forces for justice and resistance are not being heard. Post-colonial Sudan has faced one of the longest wars on the African continent, a war which was fought as a war between the south and the north. For those who saw the problem in Sudan as one between north and south, the independence of South Sudan on 9 July will appear to be the end of the crisis. However, as I said on a Press TV programme in January this year, the crisis will not end with the independence of South Sudan as other flash points which have not attracted attention in the past will emerge. The recent conflict in South Kordofan, with reports of a genocidal attack by the government of Sudan, proves me right. To put the situation in context, we have to look at the history of Sudan. Sudan has been identified today as an Arab country. Arab influence through Islam came to Sudan only in the 7th Century AD after the Islamic take over of Egypt in 640AD and later intrusion into Egypt. Before then, there had been a Christian presence in Nubia in the 6th Century AD. Islamic intrusion isolated the Christians in Nubia from Christians elsewhere. Before the advent of Christianity and Islam in Sudan, the people in Sudan were African groups with languages and culture similar to the rest of pre-colonial Africa. One of the strange features of Sudan is how difficult it is to distinguish between supposedly declared Arabs and non-Arabs. Arabs in Sudan had become Arabs through Islamisation and the loss of their original languages and culture. In trying to increase their number there has been the attempt to spread Islam to the whole population. Effective islamisation meant people losing their culture. The colonial state everywhere exploits differences to carry out the exploitation and oppression of people under capitalism. The Sudanese government, which is the leading force in directing the economy as in most post-colonial countries, is dominated by an Arab-Islamic ruling class that use it as a tool for the exploitation of the people. Over the years, the ruling class has used Islam as a tool and have treated various groups as marginalised groups whilst embarking on aggressive Islamisation and Arabisation. So you have the Arab-Isamic state and its organs of oppression in the centre, with peripheries of marginalised groups. It is therefore natural to see resistance from these peripheries of marginalisation. That is how the situation has led to the long post-colonial war between various Arab-Islamic regimes on one side, as against the south led by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, the Darfur crisis and the recent genocidal situation in South Kordofan. Before I left West Africa and travelled to Europe I didn't know anything about the Arab-led slave trade and Ottoman Empire slave raids in Africa. I thought the only slave trade was the transatlantic slave trade. When a student from Rwanda talked about Arab-led slave invasions in Eastern Africa, I thought it was a fairy tale and I have returned to West Africa to see that the situation hasn't changed with many people here, including people who consider themselves conscious political analysts, being totally ignorant of anything like an Arab-led slave trade. The worse feature of this issue is that the Arab-led slave trade is not a thing of the past, but still ongoing in the Sahel zone of Africa and Sudan. These arrangements facilitate the divide and rule disorganisation of post-colonial states, which prevents them from developing a capacity as independent nations to end their dependent relationship on former colonial authorities or new powerful forces competing with the former colonial authorities for economic and political control. This also results in a proxy relationship where forces in conflict within the newly declared countries seek external support to sort out the internal conflict. When a situation like this arises then various analysts with particular leanings resort to a distraction away from the facts of the situation, muddying the waters further. Specifically in the situation that South Sudan found itself in, having a cruel colonial relationship with the Arab-Islamic regime in Khartoum meant seeking help in the fight against Khartoum. Had there been an independent and united African force, this could have been the force to step in, but in the absence of such a force what is South Sudan left with? Some will point out that in the field of realpolitik, your enemy's enemy will be your friend, so it shouldn't be surprising seeing South Sudan work with the USA and Israel in having their eye on the goal of the decency and dignity of their people. Some will immediately conclude that South Sudan has become an agent of western imperialism and Zionism so there is no reason to sympathise and support its cause from an anti-imperialist standpoint. But from the position of South Sudan, why should they be prepared to suffer slavery and dehumanisation at the hands of the Arab-Islamic regime just to pass the test of being anti-imperialist? This is what has complicated the building of solidarity for causes in Sudan - like that of Darfur and the Nuba people of South Kordofan. Injustice in the form of the marginalisation of people perceived to be non-Arab in Darfur or of the Nuba people in South Kordofan is wrong. The lives being lost because of the fact that people are rising against inhuman treatment has to be stopped. Our starting point should be how to end the injustice. Some of the arguments about external manipulation are even very racist and give the impression that the non-Arab or African people in Darfur and South Kordofan cannot even know that they are being enslaved or marginalised until external forces come to manipulate them. This hypocrisy, hiding behind the dishonest façade of anti-imperialism, has to stop. True anti-imperialists have to mobilise on the side of all marginalised and oppressed forces, who are being marginalised for capitalist exploitation and the use of profits from resources for the interest of the small ruling class. The oil from South Kordofan and Abyei is not being used in developing the areas close to the oil but being used to advance the opulence of the Arab-Islamic regime in Khartoum. In every conflict, various interests will get involved in trying to advance their interests. After the Arab-Islamic intrusion into Sudan came the European colonial presence, with rivalry between the two. The two competing ruling class interests then became the pillars for capitalist exploitation in Sudan. Consequently, there is nothing surprising that in the present situation, western imperialist interests will also be involved in opportunistically presenting themselves as the voices against the genocidal situation in South Kordofan. It is, however, important there should also be voices for empowering popular forces for justice and resistance to the genocidal situation. Explo Nani-Kofi is the Co-ordinator of Kilombo Community Education Project, London, UK, and Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination, Peki, Ghana, which jointly publishes the Kilombo Pan-African Community Journal. He is also the Producer and Coordinator of the 'Another World is Possible' radio programme currently on GFM Radio, London. He is also a regular guest on African Analyst on Press TV and has made appearances on Al Jazeera. He contributes articles to the Counterfire website and Pambazuka News. For further information contact him through kilombo. http://allafrica.com/stories/201108120285.html END6 7. SUDAN: South Kordofan Crisis a Threat to Peace KHARTOUM, August 12, 2011 (CISA) -South Kordofan on the border between North and South Sudan is the latest threat to the stability of both the Khartoum government and the newly independent South Sudan. The Nuba rebels of South Kordofan belong to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), originally part of the SPLM the rebel movement that is now in power in South Sudan. According to a report in the Sudan Tribune the SPLM-N is negotiating with two rebel movements operating in Darfur (west of the country) to join forces in order to overthrow the Khartoum regime. On August 7, the three rebel groups announced the formation of Sudan's Revolutionary Front Alliance (SRFA), whose objective is to overthrow the National Congress Party (NCP), the ruling party in Khartoum, and create a new liberal and secular State. The seriousness of the situation in South Kordofan has been underlined by the U.S. emissary, Princeton Lyman, who fears that the conflict might extend to other parts of the region, including South Sudan, considering the existing links between the Nuba and Southern fighters. The Khartoum government has been accused of conducting bombings against civilians in the area. According to a Sudan Catholic Radio Network report, quoting a priest whose name was not released for security reasons, Khartoum has sent 500 spies to South Kordofan to coordinate the bombing. The spies are equipped with satellite phones that transmit the details of the targets to hit. END7 8. 5 links to videos in Arabic that state the reasons that SPLA is fighting the Khartoum Government, the attack on civilians from the government of Sudan and the success of the SPLA forces in Southern Kordofan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_yE-wpib9c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXsol9lbbcI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c2SP6Atpvs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkoXp0VHWk8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP67EWIEhvw END8 9. U.S. fails to get U.N. to condemn Sudan violence 12th July 2011 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and China blocked U.S. attempts to get the U.N. Security Council to condemn Sudanese government bombing and other military activities in the South Kordofan region of Sudan, U.N. diplomats said Friday. South Kordofan lies across the border from newly independent South Sudan, and the clashes between government troops from Sudan's Arab north and forces aligned with the south have added to the strained relations between the two countries. The United States circulated a statement earlier this week which would have condemned the violence in South Kordofan and called for an end to the aerial bombings. But the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions were private, said the U.S. withdrew it on Friday because of Russian and Chinese opposition to any condemnation or mention of aerial bombing. Both countries are allies of Sudan, and China is a major arms supplier and a heavy investor in Sudan's oil industry. U.S. Mission spokesman Mark Kornblau said: "The grave humanitarian situation in South Kordofan demands a clear and strong response from the Security Council, not a watered-down statement." Many inhabitants of South Kordofan fought for the south during the country's more than two decade civil war against the north and are ethnically linked to the south. Thousands of soldiers in the southern army hail from the fertile and militarized Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, whose people practice Islam, Christianity and animism. The government in Khartoum insists it is not targeting civilians. Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that since early June, at least 200,000 people in South Kordofan have been killed, injured or forced to flee their homes and land by ongoing fighting and aerial bombardments. Brieuc Pont, spokesman for France's U.N. Mission, expressed regret that the council could not agree on a unified message on the South Kordofan fighting. "Violence against civilians cannot be met with blank stares from the Security Council," Pont told The Associated Press. "France will continue to work hard to achieve a clear and strong message on the violence in South Kordofan." A spokesman for Britain's U.N. Mission, speaking with customary anonymity, expressed serious concern about "the grave humanitarian situation" in South Kordofan and said: "The Security Council needs to speak with a clear, united and strong voice on this." Pitt, who is with the humanitarian affairs office, said the U.N. World Food Program and its partners have delivered some supplies to 123,000 people in South Kordofan, and some supplies are also being delivered outside of areas under Sudanese military control. But these limited operations are under threat because the prepositioned food stocks are running out, she said. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-08-12-sudan-violence_n.htm?csp=34news END9 ______________________ 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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