---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:13:19 +0300 Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fwd: SPLM-N response to "cease-fire" To: Group <[email protected]>
Once can understand the frustration of the Nuba people and the SPLM/N. They negotiate an agreement in good faith under the auspices of the AU in Addis Ababa, and it is immediately repudiated by the Sudanese president. Khartoum later announces a unilateral cease-fire and then breaks its own self-declared truce within hours - and then the USA calls on SPLM/N to agree a cease-fire. The phrase, "Too many agreements dishonoured" comes to mind again. John BEGIN 1. Please find copied below and attached a press release by SPLM/N on the humanitarian situation and position on ceasefire agreement for South Kordofan: Without delay or hindering, SPLM/N calls for safe corridors for humanitarian operations The speech of President Al-Bashir about rejecting any role for the international community and the international humanitarian organizations to provide the urgently needed aid for thousands of IDPs in South Kordofan is regrettable and not acceptable. Al-Bashir is indeed using food as weapon and it comes from the highest authority in the country. Such speech adds to the already existing ethnic cleansing and genocide by the regime of Khartoum. SPLM/N condemns such irresponsible speech and calls for an urgent agreement between Government of Sudan and SPLM/N to open safe corridors for humanitarian operations in South Kordofan. The safe corridors agreement is to be supervised and operated by the UN and its concerned bodies. Furthermore, Operation Life Line Sudan (OLS) that had previously saved lives of millions of southerners Sudanese is the appropriate model to adopt and to stop the deteriorated humanitarian situation in South Kordofan. Implementing a similar model to OLS is urgently needed before the two parties reach a ceasefire agreement. Further it is to be recall that Al-Bashir was the one who obstructed and sabotaged the work of cession of hostilities committee when he denounced the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement. SPLM/N emphasizes the significant of opening safe corridors to ensure that international community can provide humanitarian assistant without delay or hindrance, and to stand against using food as weapon. The international community has to take seriously the orders and threats made by Al-Bashir with regard to humanitarian needs in South Kordofan. These orders and threats have also to be seen in a context of ongoing human rights atrocities and deterioration of humanitarian situation, which are worse than other countries that are getting international attention. Yasir Arman Secretary General Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM/N) 26 August 2011 END1 2. US urges rebels to join Sudan truce AFP – 26/08/11 The United States urged southern Sudanese rebels to join a two-week truce in a contested border state where clashes have raged since before South Sudan gained independence in July. South Kordofan remained under Khartoum's northern administration when South Sudan became independent, but violent clashes have been pitting rebels from the region's Nuba mountains against the Sudanese army. Tuesday's unilateral ceasefire by President Omar al-Bashir "is a positive initial step toward bringing stability and relief to those affected by violence since early June," State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday. "The United States strongly urges the (rebel) Sudan People?s Liberation Movement-North to show the same leadership and declare a two week ceasefire as well," she said in a written statement. Nuland added that "the parties must immediately return to talks to agree to a full cessation of hostilities and a resolution of the political future of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile." According to the Enough Project, which works in the region to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity, sources in the South Kordofan town of Kauda "identified a Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Antonov bomber flying south this morning in the direction of the town of Ungarto." The "reliable sources" told Enough Project workers that they heard "heavy shelling and aerial bombardment around Ungarto." http://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-urges-rebels-join-sudan-truce-233323695.html END2 3. Sudan reconciliation conference urges rejection of war in southern Kurdufan Text of report in English by Sudanese government newspaper Sudan Vision website on 24 August [Report by Al Sammani Awadallah: "Local Administration Conference Calls For Ceasefire in Southern Kurdufan"] Conference of Reconciliation and Peaceful Coexistence concluded in Kadugli Tuesday in presence of President al-Bashir and Presidential Adviser Nafi Ali Nafi in addition of number of senior officials and leaderships of local administration in Southern Kurdufan. Head of the mechanism Uthman Gadim stated that the total number of participants in the conference is 350, adding that number of papers were submitted to the conference on local administration, act of local administration and peaceful coexistence, marking initiatives provided by Daniel Kudi, Laqawa and Greater Kadugli. Further, participants in the conference condemned eruption of war in the region recently, considering it as an justifiable. They lauded the role by regular forces in tackling tension down, calling on Sudan People's Movement Liberation (SPLM) to give up hostile acts. They also condemned 2003 resolution issued by United Nations Security Council, considering it as new episode in the continuous series of targeting Sudan. According to Gadim, the main recommendations resulted from the conference include rejection of war besides taking dialogue as reasonable approach facilitating reaching for peace. The conference also stressed the role of social institutions in establishing peace and stability, marking the role that can be played by local administration in enhancing social fabric. Further, the conference called on government to protect security in the region in addition to review local administration act every now and then so as to facilitate coping with variables. The final statement also recommended periodical conduction for the conference in addition to providing members of local administration with appropriate training. The conference finally was addressed by Governor of Southern Kurdufan Ahmad Harun who commended positive role played by federal government in boosting development in the region. Source: Sudan Vision website, Khartoum, in English 24 Aug 11 BBC Mon ME1 MEEauosc 250811 mj END3 4. Sudanese Court Sentences Rebel Leader Al-Tom Hamed to Death by Hanging By Salma El Wardany and Maram Mazen - Aug 27, 2011 3:08 AM GMT+0300 Bloomberg A Sudanese court sentenced to death by hanging a leader in the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, which carried out attacks against the army in Southern Kordofan, state-run SUNA news agency reported late yesterday. The ruling against Al-Tom Hamed was issued by a court in Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan state for “undermining the constitutional order, stirring up war against the state and wearing the military uniform”, SUNA said. Hamed was captured by the Sudanese army when JEM, the biggest rebel group in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, carried out joint military operations in July for the first time with rebels from the northern branch of South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, against the Sudanese army. Southern Kordofan borders the war-torn region of Darfur. Fighting broke out in Southern Kordofan a month before South Sudan’s July 9 independence from Sudan, a move that capped the 2005 peace agreement that ended a two-decade civil war between north and south Sudan. Southern Kordofan is Sudan’s only oil-producing state, accounting for 115,000 barrels a day, according to Sudan’s minister of state for oil, Ali Ahmed Osman. The Khartoum-based agency said al-Tom admitted receiving “financial and logistic support from the government of South Sudan,” which also helped him enter Southern Kordofan through the newly independent region. War Crime ”We are sad that the Sudanese government reaches this level,” El Taher El Feki, chairman of JEM’s legislative council, said in a telephone interview from a West African country he didn’t want to identify. ”Brother Hamed is a prisoner of war, and the government will be committing another war crime if they implement that ruling.” JEM and the SPLM’s northern branch had urged the Sudanese government to treat three rebel commanders who were captured in that assault, including Hamed, as prisoners of war, the groups said in a July 20 statement on JEM’s website. Following the operation, the two groups pledged to ”continue to defend the innocent people” in Southern Kordofan ”against the genocide regime in Khartoum,” according to the July 20 statement. 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 on July 3. Spreading War The war could spread from Blue Nile state on the Ethiopian border in the east to Darfur in the west, Agar said. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called in an Aug. 15 report for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes, allegedly committed mainly by government forces, during clashes in the state with insurgents from the SPLM’s northern branch. Both Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir and his governor in Southern Kordofan, Ahmed Haroun, are wanted by the International Criminal Court over allegations they were involved in war crimes in the western region of Darfur, where insurgents took arms against the government in 2003. Clashes and airstrikes by the Sudanese army in Southern Kordofan forced more than 73,000 people to flee their homes, according to the UN. To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at [email protected]; Maram Mazen in Khartoum at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-27/sudan-court-sentences-rebel-leader-hamed-to-death-by-hanging-1-.html END4 ______________________ 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. 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.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth -- 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.
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