---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 7:38 PM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Independent reports from Blue Nile To: Group <[email protected]>
For those who are constantly asking for "independent" confirmation about the conflicts in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, the recent spate of reports from Blue Nile by international journalists suggest that SPLM-N is open to independent observers, whereas Khartoum is still preventing access. See articles 1 and 2 below. It is good to see the Carter Center (article 3, below) calling for a peaceful solution. Some would argue that Carter Center's hasty and ill-advised endorsement of the elections in South Kordofan contributed to shutting down the peaceful political process in the first place. President Bashir's insistence on an Islamic constitution (article 4, below) is unlikely to enhance the prospect of an end to the wars in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where people value their ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. Reports of abductions and killing in South Kordofan continue to emerge (article 5, below). John BEGIN 1. SUDAN: Blue Nile subsistence farmers forced to flee KURMUK, 13 October 2011 (IRIN) - Huwa Gundi, 21, sits on a sheet outside two makeshift tents near her home village of Sali, where her extended family of eight now live off one meal a day. Cradling her four-month-old baby, Fatma, she says her three other children have died since the start of the conflict in Sudan's Blue Nile State in early September. "They were sick, and they died; there was no medicine", Gundi said, adding that Fatma now has diarrhoea and a fever at night. "We heard the voice of the Antonov [plane used by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for dropping bombs]. We know it well," she said, referring to the bombing of her village, Sali, which she and her family were forced to abandon. "We don't have anything to eat; we just go into the bush and then in the old farms we find some `dura' [sorghum] that is growing and we just make porridge", she said. "Fighting between SAF and SPLM-N [Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North] is very far away from here, so I don't understand why the Antonov comes and bombs us in our village," said Gundi. Clashes between the two sides have been going on in Blue Nile State since 2 September when SAF forced the opposition political party-turned-rebel-group out of the state capital, Damazin. In a nearby settlement where other displaced people have gathered, Arafa Bashir stirs a pot of watery okra soup which - together with the sorghum they have scavenged from abandoned farms - will feed the 10 people crowded around one tent. Such scenes of misery are replicated across the conflict area, as people flee their villages in fear of aerial bombardment. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says 27,500 people have fled the conflict in Blue Nile State to nearby Ethiopia since early September. The agency is due to open a second camp 200km from the border with a capacity of 3,000 peoplea as fighting and SAF aerial bombardments continue. Gundi's family may not have fled far from farming areas, but the sorghum will soon run out, and livelihoods are being affected, too: A few days ago, she said, an Antonov came and bombed the river where she looks for gold to sell in Kurmuk, a town an hour's drive away near the Ethiopian border. FAO appeal Last week the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a $3.5million appeal to help 235,000 people facing food shortages in the two war-affected states that are also Sudan's major sorghum producers - Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan. Erratic rainfall and tens of thousands of people being forced to abandon their farms has already led to a doubling of the price of a 90-kg bag of sorghum this year to 140 Sudanese pounds (US$52). FAO predicts prices will continue to rise as shortages bite, but says that getting information on the real situation in Blue Nile was difficult due to the ban on aid agencies by Sudan President Omar al-Bashir. At Kurmuk hospital, [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93942 ] the only one between SAF-controlled Damazin and Ethiopia, the only remaining doctor, Evan Atar, thinks large-scale food shortages are imminent. "I think the next month is going to be really tough; the people are not going to harvest anything," Atar said. "They are already running [away] and no one is taking care of their farms, for fear of bombardment." Atar cautioned that even SPLM-N stocks in the rebel stronghold of Kurmuk, just 10 minutes walk from the Ethiopian border, would run out in three months. In what was once a thriving market town, only a few shacks and stalls selling cigarettes, okra, sorghum and basic household items are open. Flight to the forest "We left everything; we just took the cooking pots," said Siham Kolfa from a makeshift den in a forest two hours' drive north of Kurmuk. Kolfa said her family left their village two weeks ago and that the three children had eaten the little food they had on the journey. "There is no food here; we just go to the forest and find something we can eat, mixing it with sorghum we find on empty farms," she said. In Maiyas village, where over 3,500 people live, village chief Khidir Abusita said a bomb dropped by an Antonov plane killed six people recently. "We just eat from these small, small farms," Abusita said. "We just do it near to our houses, as this year we haven't been able to go away to our farms in the valley. Little bits of food remain, and only sorghum." He said the village also had no medicine, while a market in a larger nearby village only had coffee, cigarettes, lentils and flour for sale. Food as a weapon Malik Agar, ousted Blue Nile governor and head of SPLM-N, said while Khartoum might have the upper hand in terms of air power, his group would fight with whatever they had, including landmines. He accused President Bashir of using food as a weapon. "The strategy is to break the will of the fighters," Agar said. "The civilians are their mothers, their wives, their beloved ones. If you bomb them you will scatter them all over the area." Agar claimed that in the pre-harvest lean season, "there was no food to run out of" in Blue Nile. "We are asking the UN to open corridors" and push for a tripartite agreement to allow humanitarian aid to come in, Agar said from a rebel hideout near Kurmuk. He claimed that up to half of Blue Nile's 1.2 million residents were now on the move, figures that cannot be verified by independent sources. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been working with Sudan's Red Crescent aid agency in the north of the state, which has seen an influx of thousands of displaced people. "We have delivered services to almost 18,000 people in nine different localities in Blue Nile State around Damazin town," providing shelter, water, clothes, cooking and washing materials, said Alexandra Matijedic, ICRC communication coordinator in Khartoum. END1 2. SUDAN: Blue Nile hospital struggles to treat shrapnel wounds KURMUK, 12 October 2011 (IRIN) - Kurmuk hospital in Sudan's southern crisis-hit Blue Nile State is struggling to cope with an influx of war wounded, according to hospital doctor Evan Atar. So far he has treated 626 people for shrapnel injuries since clashes began last month between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) opposition political party-turned-rebel group. [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93660 ] A man on the operating table cries out in pain, but Atar says the hospital has no more anaesthetics to give him. Cotton, gauze and saline solution will run out this week if aid does not arrive, he says, adding that six months of supplies have been used up in the past six weeks. "We are running short of everything - drugs, dressings." He feared the hospital would have to buy salt, boil it, and use it to sterilize wounds. "The problem is that there is no way we can get the drugs in here now because of the Antonovs [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-26 ] bombing the area, making it very dangerous to fly supplies in from Kenya." Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir will not allow foreign aid agencies inside Blue Nile or the neighbouring state of South Kordofan, [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93052 ] where the government has been fighting SPLM-N forces for months. [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93874 ]. The only doctor in Kumruk Atar is the only doctor in Kurmuk, which has the only hospital between state capital Damazin (under SAF control), and neighbouring Ethiopia. Nurse Walid Solomon says 20-year-old soldier Satdam Anima is the seventh amputee victim the hospital has dealt with. He was hit by "the big bullet of the Antonov". Atar, with Solomon's assistance, sews up the stump near the left shoulder, and Satdam's eyes roll in pain. The lack of blood donors mean that the hospital's 24 nurses donate blood to keep patients alive. The aerial bombardment in and around Kurmuk is evident and audible. "In the first war, there was peace in the villages; now they [the Antonovs] bomb even the villages - that's the problem; and the increasing accuracy of the bombing is leading to rising patient numbers as the weeks go by," Atar said. The hospital has only one ambulance and most vehicles are useless on the muddy roads. Many of the injured arrive at the hospital by donkey, often too late. In a ward bed, Altom Osman, 65, is recovering from a deep shrapnel wound to his back and another on his arm when a bomb from an Antonov landed on his mud-and-thatch hut in the village of Sali, north of Kurmuk. "I was on my farm when the Antonov came. I couldn't escape," Osman said. He was carrying sorghum flour to his wife. He managed to flag down a passing soldiers' vehicle and get to the hospital quickly, and despite his fragile appearance "and very huge wound", Atar is confident he will make a full recovery. Further north of Kurmuk in Maiyas, village chief Khidir Abusita pointed to a crater and shrapnel near two huts where six people were killed. He said one man, Sebit Ahmed Hussein, had reached the hospital in time to get treatment, but another, whose "leg was blown apart", bled to death on the way. No safe haven The priority is to move patients from the hospital as quickly as possible, either back home or across the border to Ethiopia where other aid agencies can care for them. "The fear that an Antonov might bomb [the hospital] is terrible", Atar said, adding: "Most of the people who were injured are people who were running. The bomb usually explodes upwards in a conical form, so if you keep down you are fine." Food would also become a problem, he noted. "First of all the war will continue and the second thing is, now, hunger will come and it is not going to spare anyone unless the people go and become refugees to be helped, but for the people left within, it is going to be a big problem." Artillery fire directed at rebels could be the last straw. "For now it is the Antonov bombing, but I don't think I would be here if there is shelling. and no patients could be brought here," Atar said. END2 3. Carter Center THE CARTER CENTER CALLS FOR AN INCLUSIVE SOLUTION TO CONFLICTS IN SOUTHERN KORDOFAN AND BLUE NILE 12 October 2011 The Carter Center calls on all stakeholders to work for a sustainable solution to the conflicts in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. The popular consultations could facilitate a long- term settlement in both states if implemented in a credible way. However, this requires a security environment conducive to open dialogue and the inclusion of all stakeholders in the process. The popular consultation process in Blue Nile stalled following the formal extension of the timeline by the National Assembly on July 20, 2011, and has de facto been suspended since the breakout of hostilities between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) on Sept. 1. A state of emergency has subsequently been declared in the state with governor Malik Aggar being removed and replaced by a temporary caretaker. Furthermore, SPLM-N has been banned as a political party. The GoS and the chairman of the Blue Nile Parliamentary Commission for Popular Consultations have recently stated that the process will now continue to complete its remaining steps. This includes additional hearings and the final report writing. However, it will be difficult to conduct an inclusive process that meets its goals given the challenges of the current security environment, displacement of portions of the population of the state, and inability of all political parties to participate equally. In Southern Kordofan, a parliamentary commission for the popular consultation has not yet been established and the process has not yet begun. This is the result of the postponement of the state legislative elections from April 2010 until May 2011 and the subsequent outbreak of hostilities between GoS and SPLM-N. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) protocol on the resolution of the conflicts in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile stipulates that the popular consultations are the democratic right of the people of the two states. The basic principle of the popular consultations as articulated in the CPA and the Popular Consultation Act is the right of popular expression, which is to serve as the basis for a solution to the conflicts in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. The Carter Center urges stakeholders on the national and state levels to recommit to this principle. A main point of contention in the popular consultations process is the modalities for mediation between the states and the central government. The Popular Consultation Act calls for the Council of States to be the main mediator between the state legislative assemblies and the GoS in the event that changes to the CPA are deemed necessary.3 However, the secession of the 10 states in South Sudan has changed the composition of the council. The nature of the GoS presidency has also significantly changed following the end of the interim period. The Carter Center encourages the signatories of the CPA to work for a resolution to the differences and engage in peaceful discussions about a final settlement for Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. With fighting ongoing in both Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan, the environment is not conducive to the implementation of citizen or additional hearings. Furthermore, with both major stakeholders – GoS and SPLM-N – engaged in fighting, and one party banned from participation in the popular consultations process, discussions on key themes are not practical. The issue of security arrangements continues to have primary importance and should therefore be a focus. Without SPLM-N present in discussions this is impossible. Only a peaceful and politically-reached agreement would allow for the genuine implementation of the popular consultations. The Carter Center therefore calls for the adversaries to urgently reach a negotiated settlement to the current hostilities. END3 4. Bashir says Sudan will adopt Islamic constitution Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:20pm GMT KHARTOUM Oct 12 (Reuters) - Sudan will go ahead with plans to adopt an entirely Islamic constitution and strengthen Islamic law, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Wednesday, three months after its former civil war enemy South Sudan became independent. Juba seceded on July 9 after a referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the South where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs. Bashir had said in December that Sudan would adopt an Islamic constitution if Juba seceded but many southerners had hoped he would not deliver on this. His comments will add to uncertainty for more than a million southerners who still live in the north and are now treated legally as foreigners. Khartoum has given them until spring to leave or obtain the legal right to stay, a complicated process. "Ninety eight percent of the people are Muslims and the new constitution will reflect this. The official religion will be Islam and Islamic law the main source (of the constitution)," Bashir told students in Khartoum in a speech. "We call it a Muslim state," said Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Dafur. The 2005 peace deal set up an interim constitution which limited Islamic law to the north and recognised "the cultural and social diversity of the Sudanese people". Many southerners say they feel no longer welcome in the north since the split. They have lost government jobs and now need work and residency permits to stay in the north. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Louise Ireland) http://af.reuters.com/article/sudanNews/idAFL5E7LC4KN20111012 END4 5. Satellite Sentinel Project Documents Evidence of Abductions and Killings by Sudan’s Central Reserve Police Near UN Compound 10/12/11 | Enough Project WASHINGTON – The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has corroborated eyewitness accounts and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) reports alleging that the Government of Sudan’s Central Reserve Police (CRP) unit has engaged in the unlawful abduction, detention, and extra-judicial killing of civilians in South Kordofan, Sudan. SSP, through the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s (HHI) analysis of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery and field reports collected by the Enough Project, has documented that the CRP, also known as “Abu Tira,” reinforced and fortified a police training center alongside the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) compound during the time period that CRP forces were reportedly abducting, detaining, torturing and killing internally displaced persons (IDPs) seeking refuge there. Satellite imagery shows clear evidence of the buildup of fortifications and significant reinforcement of apparent CRP personnel and vehicles between 2 June and 19 August. The UN compound and the CRP compound stand within approximately 100 meters of each other. “Reliable sources have told us that South Kordofan Governor Ahmed Haroun, an indicted war criminal, built up a goon squad known as Abu Tira, and let them commit abductions and mass murder with impunity,” said Enough Project Executive Director John C. Bradshaw. “Haroun is already notorious from his activities in Darfur and has now been caught promoting the same murderous tactics in South Kordofan.” The Enough Project is calling on the United States Government to impose sanctions on individuals who command and control Abu Tira by adding their names and any assets that they control to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. While Governor Haroun is already listed on the SDN list for alleged crimes in Darfur, no one has yet been added to the list for being associated with the CRP or for alleged crimes in South Kordofan. Eyewitness accounts collected by SSP detail the alleged 6 June abduction of IDPs from the UNMIS compound to an area between the UN compound and the CRP training center, where CRP reportedly killed them. In another incident, a UNHCHR report describes reports of armed CRP personnel, moving in and out of the UNMIS protective perimeter, conducting identity checks on IDPs on 8 June. CRP forces reportedly abducted some IDPs following the identity checks. In addition, eyewitness reports of the abduction and murder of Numeiri Philip Kalo, a UN independent contractor with Tri-Star Fueling and a Catholic seminarian, were communicated to SSP. One witness reported to SSP that Abu Tira abducted Numeiri, a Nuba man who was an active SPLM supporter, on 8 June from the east UNMIS gate. They reportedly put him in an Abu Tira Land Cruiser, drove around the corner, shot him with automatic weaponry, and dumped his bullet-riddled body from the moving vehicle in front of the CRP compound. Egyptian peacekeepers, among other people, reportedly observed the abduction and murder. Also, SSP has received a new eyewitness report from 8 June alleging that CRP, Sudan Armed Forces, and PDF militia forces tied civilians to the gates of the Kadugli airport checkpoint, beat them, shot and killed them, and buried them in a mass grave. “Abu Tira has allegedly committed in South Kordofan what may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” stated Harvard Carr Center Executive Director Charlie Clements, MD. “The international community has sanctioned others in the Government of Sudan for similar actions in Darfur.” http://www.satsentinel.org/press-release/satellite-sentinel-project-documents-evidence-abductions-and-killings-sudan%E2%80%99s-central-reserve-police SSP report, “In Close Proximity: Alleged Abduction, Detention and Extra-Judicial Killings by Abu Tira” available at: http://www.satsentinel.org/report/close-proximity-alleged-abduction-detention-and-extra-judicial-killings-abu-tira 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. 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 "South Sudan Info - The Kob" 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/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
