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------Original message------ From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> To: "Group" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, February 11, 2013 7:46:00 PM GMT-0500 Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Khartoum's attitude towards agreements "Bashir says Sudan has no more concessions to offer Juba" - an interesting concept, since many observers would argue that Khartoum has barely made any concessions (apart from recognising the right of self-determination for South Sudan, which it then tried very hard to block) compared to what Juba has conceded. Bashir's remarks "that previous agreements signed with Juba are not subject to revisions or change and they must be implemented as signed" are also interesting. Does this mean that Khartoum will now honour the agreements it signed, such as the protocols of the CPA for Abyei, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, and the peace agreement with SPLM-N which Bashir abrogated even before the ink was dry, and the humanitarian access agreement for Blue Nile and Kordofan, and the agreements it signed recently in Addis Ababa? Meanwhile Khartoum continues its proxy war against South Sudan, using disaffected South Sudanese militia. Once again Uncle Abel Alier's words come back to haunt us: "Too many agreements dishonoured" - by Khartoum, not by Juba. John BEGIN 1. Bashir says Sudan has no more concessions to offer Juba February 10, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir has toughened his stance toward his country’s ongoing post-secession negotiations with South Sudan saying that they have no more concessions to offer. In remarks at a hospital inauguration in Khartoum, Bashir stressed that previous agreements signed with Juba are not subject to revisions or change and they must be implemented as signed. "We handed the South [Sudanese] a fully sovereign state but rather than focus on building their state they have become devoted to creating conflicts," the Sudanese president said. "We are advocates of peace but peace will not be at any cost. We have given everything and we do not have anything new to offer" Bashir added. The two countries have been negotiating for years over issues such as borders, Abyei, oil and citizenship with little progress despite regional and international pressure. Last September they signed a number of cooperation deals that would allow for resumption of oil exports from landlocked South Sudan through Sudan’s pipelines. But Sudan is insisting that security arrangements be agreed upon and that Juba halts its alleged support to anti-Khartoum rebels before it allows oil exports to flow again through its territory. Khartoum has long accused South Sudan of supporting the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) insurgents fighting in two Sudanese states bordering South Sudan - as well as other rebels in the western Darfur region. Juba denies the charges. Delegations from the two countries are scheduled to meet next week in the Ethiopian capital to discuss security issues. In a related issue, Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) said it is discussing the African Union Peace and security Council (AUPSC) demand that Khartoum negotiates directly with SPLM-N. Sudan has rejected talks with SPLM-N and scrapped an AU brokered framework agreement in June 2011 it signed with the rebel group. Hasabu Abdel-Rahman, the NCP deputy political secretary, said that no talks are possible without South Sudan severing links with SPLM-N in the two border states, which Khartoum still refer to as the 9th and 10th division of the SPLA - the former southern rebels who are now the official military of the Republic of South Sudan. (ST) http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article45476 END1 2. S. Sudan accuses Sudan of amassing troops in Abyei region February 10, 2013 (JUBA) - South Sudan on Sunday accused the Sudanese government of scaling up deployment of additional troops and massive settlement of Arabs nomads from the Misseriya tribe in the contested Abyei area, allegedly to sabotage the forthcoming referendum in the region. The co-chair of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC), Luka Biong Deng, said the Sudanese government’s decision to "form and impose" their own commission for humanitarian affairs in Abyei without consulting the government of South Sudan is a clear violation of the June 2011 agreement. "It is also against the spirit of dialogue. The agreement does not provide formation of such body. What is in the agreement is [an] inter-government task force,” said Deng. He said the intention of the government of Sudan in forming the commission, which does not have any provisions, is solely to facilitate massive settlement of members of rival Arab nomads - the Misseriya. “The government of Sudan has embarked on comprehensive massive settlement of the Misseriya in the area. They are also building up the number of their forces. They are scaling up development of more troops instead of withdrawing,” Deng told Sudan Tribune from Abyei town. “This is a clear violation of the agreement which the [United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei] UNISFA should be reporting. There is not any other better time than now. The people of Abyei have suffered a lot. It is time for the international community to give them [the] support they deserve”, he added. Nearly 110,000 people were displaced when the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) took control of the disputed Abyei area in May 2011, ahead of South Sudan’s secession in July of the same year. The status of Abyei should have been decided in a referendum in January 2011 that year, but the two sides could not agree on the participation of Misseriya nomads in the vote. In June 2011, South Sudan and Sudan sealed a deal providing to establish a temporary administration and legislative council, but Juba’s objection to the appointment of a Misseriya as the head of the local parliament delayed the process. The latest African Union proposal on the matter suggests a vote in October 2013 that would not include members of the Misseriya because they do not reside permanently in the area. South Sudanese president Salva Kiir accepted the African Union’s proposal last September, giving the green light for the implementation of the deal, renewing his commitment at a meeting held with his Sudanese counterpart, Omer Al-Bashir on 5 January this year. RETURNEES FACE FOOD SHORTAGE Meanwhile, Deng also called on humanitarian relief organisations, particularly those under the direct administrative command of the United Nations to change bureaucratic procedures and processes in order to avert the looming crisis facing returnees. “People are returning. They are coming back. I met and held meetings with some of them on Friday when I came. They have been received by traditional leaders and assisted them to return to their original places but the biggest concern is that they have exhausted everything. They have run out of everything. They are now going for three weeks without food. Can you imagine?” He said more than 1,500 people have returned home from Western Bahr el Ghazal state and more were expected in the course of coming days if transport is improved. The official said he had a meeting with heads of different relief organisations in Abyei and the agencies have promised to provide food and other assistance “very soon” but did not specify when. “I held a meeting with [the] heads of the organisations here. I asked them to remedy the situation. The people are suffering. They accepted and said they will provide food very soon. They want to do [an] assessment. They need to verify and then make [a] report which is a long process”, he said. (ST) http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article45469 END2 3. New Fighting in Borderland Between Sudan and South Sudan VoA / Reuters February 09, 2013 At least 24 people have been killed in fresh fighting in the volatile borderland between Sudan and South Sudan, the southern army and rebels said on Saturday. South Sudan's army spokesman Philip Aguer said his troops killed seven fighters from a militia supported by Khartoum which had crossed the poorly-defined border. The South's army captured a Sudanese army truck used by the fighters during the skirmish in Obed in Upper Nile state in the northeast of the country, Aguer said. Sudan's army spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid could not be reached on his mobile phone. In separate violence on Sudan's side of the border, rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) accused a militia from South Sudan, supported by Khartoum, of having attacked a village and killed 17 people. The militia also wounded 35 civilians during their attack in the area of Abujibeha in oil-producing South Kordofan state, SPLM-North spokesman Arnu Lodi said. Sudan and South Sudan came close to war in April, their worst fighting since southern secession in 2011 under a peace deal which ended decades of civil war. Both countries agreed in September to end hostilities by withdrawing their armies from the disputed border and to resume cross-border oil exports. But neither side has implemented the agreement and the two countries accuse each other of backing rebels in their respective territories. The African Union is next week hosting another round of talks between the neighbors aiming to set up a buffer zone, a precondition for Sudan to restart oil exports. South Sudan shut down its output of 350,000 barrels day a year ago in a row with Khartoum over pipeline fees. Oil is vital to both countries' beleaguered economies. The AU twice brought together Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir in Ethiopia last month but there has been no sign of progress. http://www.voanews.com/content/new-fighting-in-borderland-between-sudan-south-sudan-reuters/1600644.html END3 4. Militia raid preparation for cross border attack, Unity state By Bonifacio Taban Kuich February 10, 2013 (BENTIU) - South Sudan’s Unity state warned on Sunday that the army of neighbouring Sudan was planning an attack on their military base in the Panakuach area of Mayom county. Unity state’s minister of information, Joseph Arop Malual, told Sudan Tribune that South Sudan’s army (SPLA) are reporting that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are moving towards Parieng junction in preparation for an attack. The accusation comes after a cross border raid on Thursday wounded two civilians who were grazing their cattle by the Nyakang River. The victims told Sudan Tribune that 365 cows were stolen in the attack, which they blamed on members of the Misseriya tribe, who they claim carried out the attack with backing from the Sudanese army. Malual said the Unity state government is working hard to avoid further border clashes and has deployed border and security forces to the area to protect civilians. The border between the two nations has remained tense since South Sudan seceded in 2011. Most of the border has not been demarcated and there are many contested areas, which remain highly militarised despite a deal to create a buffer zone being signed in September last year. Both sides charge the other of backing rebel armed groups operating either side of the border and South Sudan regularly accuses Khartoum of conducting ground and air attacks on its territory. Jany Kamwini, a 22-year-old cattle keeper, was shot in the testicle during Thursday’s raid. He toldSudan Tribune on Sunday, while being treated in Bentiu hospital, that a large number of well-equipped Misseriya men with heavy ammunition attacked him and a friend as they were grazing their cattle at the Nyakang River. “When the incident happened we were with our cows, and found a big number of armed men in the bush. After seeing us they shot at us, and managed to take over 300 cows, while we were together with my colleagues with whom we look after our cows, and these were arms pastoralists from the north”, said Kamwini. Gatduong Gatluak Geaw, who was also admitted to Bentiu hospital with a severe wound on his left chest, was unable to speak with Sudan Tribune on Sunday due to his injuries. A nurse at Bentiu hospital, Abdelgadil Teak Jiek, described his injuries as serious but said the condition of both men had improved since they were first admitted. “When they were brought here it was a terrible situation compared to their condition now. At first we used a tube for feeding them but yesterday we removed the tube and we made some surgery and we are working on this for better results and hopeful everything will be fine,” Jiek said. The attack has come as a surprise to many in the community as chiefs from Mayom county last year came to several agreements with Misseriya leaders allowing them access to grazing land and free trading between them and the nomadic tribe members. The Unity state cabinet called an urgent meeting on Friday, condemning the raid and accusing the Sudanese government of backing the Misseriya nomads to carry out the attack. Mayom county residents are calling for all ties with the Misseriya to be halted, including with those who work as traders in Unity state. (ST) http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article45471 END4 5. South Sudan attack leaves more than 100 dead By Hereward Holland JUBA | Sun Feb 10, 2013 2:15pm GMT (Reuters) - More than 100 people have been killed in South Sudan in an attack by rebels and ethnic allies on a convoy of families from a rival tribe and their cattle, an official said on Sunday. Since breaking from Sudan in 2011, oil-producing South Sudan has struggled to assert control over remote territories awash with weapons after a 1983-2005 war with the north and torn by ethnic rivalries. The attack on Friday was the worst violence in Jonglei State since 900 people were killed there in tribal attacks linked to cattle rustling in 2011, the United Nations said. Rebels loyal to former theology student David Yau Yau and members of the Murle community had killed 103 people, most of them women and children, in the ambush on ethnic Lou Nuer families, state governor Kuol Manyang said. "They came under attack from people in a huge force," he told Reuters. "There are many children and women missing. Their fate is not yet known." Fourteen soldiers escorting the convoy were also killed, he said. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had sent a medical team to treat the wounded. Yau Yau rebelled in July last year. He recruited armed youths antagonised by a government campaign to end tribal violence in Jonglei, which human rights groups say was marked by abuses by soldiers. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Jonglei since independence, according to the United Nations. South Sudan accuses Sudan of dropping weapons and ammunition to Yau Yau's rebels, an allegation denied by Khartoum. The violence in Jonglei is hindering government plans to explore a major oil concession with the help of France's Total. (Editing by Ulf Laessing and Matthew Tostevin) END5 6. South Sudanese Rebels Kill More Than 100 People in Jonglei State By Jared Ferrie - Feb 10, 2013 More than 100 civilians and soldiers were killed on Feb. 8 by anti-government militia fighters and cattle raiders in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, according to State Governor Kuol Manyang and military spokesman Philip Aguer. Cattle herders from the Lou Nuer tribe and an army platoon that was accompanying them were attacked as they travelled from their wet season home to the Sobat River, where they water their cattle during the dry season, the officials said. The attack was carried out by uniformed fighters of a militia group led by David Yau Yau and members of his Murle tribe who weren’t wearing uniforms, the officials said. “It was a huge force that attacked, leaving 103 people dead, mostly children and women,” Manyang said by phone today from Bor, the state capital. Fourteen soldiers were killed, including the platoon commander, as well as 17 of the attackers, Aguer said from Juba, South Sudan’s capital. Yau Yau, a former theology student and candidate for governor, defected from the army last year and launched a rebellion. South Sudan’s army said 24 of its soldiers died in an Aug. 23 ambush by the militia group. Ethnic and militia violence in Jonglei, an eastern state bordering Ethiopia where Total SA has a stake in an oil exploration concession, has marred South Sudan’s independence from Sudan. The country seceded in July 2011 after a referendum that was part of a peace deal which ended a two-decade civil war. South Sudanese authorities accused Sudan of airdropping weapons to the militia within sight of a United Nations peacekeeping mission post in Pibor County on Sept. 22. UN peacekeeping mission spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said that while peacekeepers saw a “white, fixed-wing aircraft” drop as many as eight packages, the UN couldn’t identify the contents or who dropped them. Sudan’s army has denied supporting Yau Yau or any rebel group in South Sudan. END6 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan, South Sudan Advisor [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile) +27 82 050 1235 (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. 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