---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Thu, May 16, 2013 at 2:19 PM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Abu Karshola To: Group <[email protected]>
1. THREE KILLED IN ABU KARSHOLA AIR STRIKE Wednesday, 15 May 2013 14:30 | Catholic Radio Network Two children and one woman were killed in an air raid on the village of Hajar Kenena, on the outskirts of Abu Karshola, South Kordofan, on Monday. Sudanese Revolutionary Front spokesperson Al Gadi Rumboy said another seven people were wounded including three children in the attack by the Sudanese Air Force. Colonel Rumboy said the Sudanese aircraft dropped 12 bombs on the village. http://catholicradionetwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10290:three-killed-in-abu-karshola-air-strike&catid=2:south-sudan&Itemid=84 END1 2. SRF KILLS 411 GOVERNMENT TROOPS IN KARSHOLA Wednesday, 15 May 2013 06:46 | Catholic Radio Network At least 411 government troops were killed by rebels on Monday after an attempt to recapture the city of Abu Karshola in South Kordofan State. Sudanese Revolutionary Front or SRF military spokesman, Al Gadi Rumboy, says 44 prisoners were captured. He added that surviving government soldiers were forced to flee to the nearby cities of El Rahad and Umm Rawaba, in North Kordofan state. Colonel Rumboy said the SRF forces also destroyed 37 military vehicles. They captured a tracked armored vehicle and five large trucks, as well as 26 smaller vehicles loaded with weapons, ammunitions and other military equipment. The Sudanese government could not comment on the issue. Fighting in the North and South Kordofan states intensified following the failure of negotiations between the government and SPLM-North in the Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa. http://catholicradionetwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10285:srf-kills-411-government-troops-in-karshola&catid=2:south-sudan&Itemid=84 END2 3. Sudan’s defence minister inspects military preparations in Kordofan May 15, 2013 (KHARTUM) - Sudanese defence minister Abdel-Rahim Hussein was Wednesday in Al-Obeid, capital of North Korodfan state to review the ongoing preparation to retake Abu-Kershola, an area the rebels control since 27 April. The visit comes after statements by the Sudanese president Omer Al-Bashir on Monday 13 May where he said that the army forces were on the outskirts of Abu-Kershola and vowed to defeat the rebel Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) The rebels extended last month their attacks to Um Rawaba in North Kordofan state before to redeploys its fighters to Abu-Kershola in South Kordofan on the border with North-Kordofan state. According the official news agency SUNA, Abdel-Rahim scrutinised the ongoing operations aiming to expel SRF fighters from the region, and reaffirmed the ability of the army to crash the rebels. He further stated that the army started to enforce its plans to retake the control of the areas captured by the SRF rebels. Abel Rahim was accompanied by the Sudan Armed Forces First Commander, Ismat Abdel-Rahman, and other commanders. His delegation was received at Al-Obeid airport by North Kordofan governor and the members of his government. SRF rebels, mainly composed of the SPLM-North and JEM fighters, announced on Monday 13 May they repelled an attack on Abu-Kershola by the Sudanese army from three directions. SPLM-N secretary general, Yasir Arman, in statements released on Thursday said that the recent attacks carried by SRF forces show the weakness of the regime, stressing that more political and military alliances can topple it. He further called on the opposition forces to unite, adding that missing this opportunity would be a historical and strategic mistake. Arman said they are in daily contact with political forces, youth and civil society groups, and called to set up an united political platform and an alternative political leadership in the fastest possible time. (ST) http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article46589 END3 4. Abu Karshola: liberation stands accused By Magdi El Gizouli Mai 15, 2013 - More than two weeks have passed since the hit and run attack of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) on Um Rwaba in North Kordofan a day after of the collapse of talks between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement in North Sudan (SPLA/M-N) and the Sudanese government mediated by Thabo Mbeki’s African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) in Addis Ababa. The SRF combatants, mostly fighters of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) seasoned in the art of ‘Toyota war’, drove into sleepy Um Rwaba to clash with the unlucky policemen on duty that day killing seven, and withdrew after a few hours. The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) has no presence in Um Rwaba at all but maintains a large garrison and military airport in neighbouring al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State. In the process, five civilians were killed, the town’s power plant severely damaged and according to government reports petrol stations ransacked and banks looted by the attacking liberation fighters. On the return trip from Um Rwaba the JEM contingent reportedly passed through the road stops outside Allah Kareem and al-Simeih to refuel and then together with a force of the SPLA/M-N descended on Abu Karshola in the north-eastern end of South Kordofan. The small town is the centre of a horticultural zone where pastoral routes converge from northern Kordofan in the dry season bringing crowds of Bideiriya and Shanabla herders and their livestock. The June 2010 census in South Kordofan, the re-run after the SPLA/M contested the results of the 2008 count, registered 45,377 souls in Abu Karshola. Up to forty thousand people fled the town and surrounding areas since the SRF takeover to the safety of al-Rahad in North Kordofan, reported the United Nations (UN) a few days ago. When asked by a Khartoum newspaper why he thought the SRF attacked Abu Karshola, the chief of the Hawazma community in the town al-Nur al-Tahir al-Nur referred to results of the South Kordofan gubernatorial elections in May 2011. Out of a total of 26,010 registered voters 12,059 cast their ballot for the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) candidate Ahmed Haroun and only 7,433 for the SPLM’s Abd al-Aziz al-Hilu, detailed al-Nur to support his claim that the SPLA/M-N assisted by its SRF allies targeted the town out of “electoral vengeance”. Vengeance was the explanation given by the displaced in al-Rahad for allegations of extra-judicial killings committed by the SRF in Abu Karshola under the command a senior SPLA/M-N officer. In al-Rahad, the son of the Abu Karshola imam held a funeral for his slain father and three of his uncles who administered a khalwa, a traditional Quran school, in the town. Others reported the killing of several NCP functionaries and supporters. Sudan’s Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal Osman described the reported incidences as “ethnic killings” suggesting that the SPLA/M-N specifically targeted the Arab Hawazma. Two men were killed in al-Rahad on suspicion of being SPLA/M-N rebels by an angry mob in the town market, said one news report and by fighters of the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) said another. The Hawazma chief al-Nur said the SPLA/M-N’s guns ripped apart the tender social fabric of Abu Karshola inhabited predominantly by the Arab Hawazma and the Nuba Tagali. The Khartoum press likened the SPLA/M-N takeover of Abu Karshola to the SPLA attack on the neighbouring al-Gardoud back in 1985. One hundred unarmed residents of the village, mostly Arab Hawazma, were killed in the raid often identified as the start of the first war in South Kordofan (1985-2002). Paraphrasing Mao’s famous dictum, a shrewd commentator wrote that the SRF offensive was an attempt to poison the water that sustains the NCP fish. Abu Karshola abuts the Taqali massif, the geography of the Nuba Mountain’s unique attempt at state formation, spurred, challenged and eventually obliterated by the cataclysms that engulfed the riverine Sudan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Taqali’s highland communities surrendered long-distance trade and management of relations with the world beyond the massif to their mukuk (warrior-kings) but not their lands. This particular configuration of power, a precarious sovereignty, precluded the commoditization of land in the area. The mukuk were in no position to usurp land for themselves and shielded their highland subjects from disposing of land through a monopoly of trade with the outside world. The ‘one hundred hills’ of Taqali constituted a natural castle network that protected the kingdom from invaders as did the mukuk’s diplomacy in slaves and other forms of tribute. The patronage of the mukuk extended to herders of the plains below the massif, directly and through the mediation of itinerant traders and fuqara (Moslem preachers/holy men), although limited by the incapacity of the mukuk to grant land outside their domestic royal domains. Taqali’s most celebrated mak (pl. mukuk), Adam Um Dabbalo, whose reign extended between c. 1860 and 1884, received Sudan’s most influential faqeer (pl. fuqara), Mohamed Ahmed, sometime in the dry season of 1881. Mak Adam instructed his Arab Kawahla allies of the plains below to provide the holy man with grain and livestock. Mohamed Ahmed went on to become the Mahdi declaring revolution against the Turkiyya in Aba Island on the While Nile only weeks later. Unlike his predecessors, Adam Um Dabbalo also known as Adam al-Arabi (the Arab) was bound to the plains by blood. He was the son of an Arab Kawahla woman, Halima Fadlalla, and following royal tradition was critically dependent on his maternal kin for support. The kingdom that resisted the torments of the Turkiyya could not withstand the convulsions of the Mahdiyya though. Adam Um Dabbalo himself died a captive of the Mahdi on the victorious march to Khartoum. The Anglo-Egyptian colonial regime completed the Mahdist pacification of the hills with the superior terror of the state- raid while conscripting able Nuba into its army. It was the predominantly Nuba 11th Sudanese battalion stationed in Talodi that mutinied while attending military exercises in Khartoum in 1924, the central episode of the White Flag League revolt. In response, the British authorities decided to disband six hundred of the battalion’s soldiers. Two hundred were confined to a cotton-growing colony close to Kadugli. The colonial authorities introduced mechanized farming to the Nuba Mountains but wide-scale expropriation and commoditization of land was the accomplishment of the post-colonial governments. Established in 1968 upon request of the World Bank, the Mechanized Farming Corporation (MFC) facilitated the expansion of large-scale mechanised agriculture into South Kordofan, the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Loans provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development empowered the elite clients of the MFC, often retired army officers, civil servants and well-connected businessmen, to acquire some of the richest lands in central Sudan displacing countless small producers. The ‘development’ policy devastated the natural and communal ecology wherever it was enforced. Conflicts erupted between title holders and evicted peasants and pastoralists, between pastoralists and peasants as the former were forced out of their grazing routes by the expansion of state-guarded private schemes, and between the state as the major supporter of the scheme-owners and the peasants and pastoralists reduced to squatters and trespassers. Abu Karshola lies one hundred kilometres west of al-Abbasiya, the historical centre of the Taqali kingdom. Supporters of the SPLA/M-N spoke the language of indigeneity to argue for the rebel takeover of the area. The town is one of the oldest in the eastern Mountains inhabited historically by the Nuba Taqali, wrote al-Shazali Tira, dismissing in the next sentence its Arab Hawazma residents as recent immigrants. Tira noted that the battle to liberate Abu Karshola was led by the SPLA/M-N commander Hassan Adam al-Sheikh, a native Nuba Taqali born to a prominent family in Abu Karshola. The officer was appointed military governor of the town and as such is burdened with the allegations of deadly vengeance made by its displaced population in al-Rahad. The SPLA/M-N brushed off the allegations of “ethnic killing” as hollow NCP propaganda, lumping the accusation with claims made by officials in Khartoum that SRF and SPLA/M-N chief of staff Abd al-Aziz al-Hilu was mortally wounded in an air-strike carried out by the SAF against a convoy of six cars that carried him and other senior commanders of the SRF. The daily al-Intibaha, as expected, offered a particularly imaginative version adding that al-Hilu was rushed by helicopter to a hospital in South Sudan’s Wau where he eventually died and was hurriedly buried. The rumour backfired in a sense and the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) issued a statement affirming that al-Hilu was indeed alive and continues to lead the SPLA/M-N operations in the eastern Nuba Mountains. On Monday 13 May the Sudanese al-Ray al-Aam reported that al-Hilu had been flown two days before to Brussels for treatment. The SPLA/M-N and SRF top military commander suffers from severe head injuries and multiple fractures, it said. Whether in Um Rwaba, Abu Karshola, al-Simeih or Allah Kareem the SRF guns dodged the coercive apparatus of the state to shoot at the ‘subject to be liberated’. Hassan Adam al-Sheikh captured the geography of Abu Karshola but lost most of its population. Mao would have sneered. The author is a fellow of the Rift Valley Institute. He publishes regular opinion articles and analyses at his blog Still Sudan. He can be reached at [email protected] http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article46579 END4 5. SUDAN AIR FORCE KILLS 25 CIVILIANS, INJURES 8 IN KUWALIP Thursday, 16 May 2013 07:05 | Catholic Radio Network Thirteen bombs dropped on Wednesday in the village of Kawalib, Nuba Mountains, by the Sudanese Air Force killed at least 25 civilians and injured eight others. A local source from the area confirmed the incident and said the air raid, took place at 9.00 AM on Wednesday. He said a large number of livestock were killed and 18 houses were destroyed including crops. On the same day, an antonov attacked Kauda and Kumo dropping several bombs. One young man was killed. Local residents denounced the government’s bombing of civilian areas that occurs on an ongoing basis. They called the international community to intervene and protect the civilians. http://catholicradionetwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10297:sudan-air-force-kills-25-civilians-injures-8-in-kuwalip&catid=2:south-sudan&Itemid=84 END5 6. Government of Sudan continues to subject political opposition members to arbitrary detention African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) (14 May 2013) Over the past two weeks, Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) have launched a coordinated campaign of arbitrary detentions against political opposition members belonging to the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). This latest wave of arbitrary detentions has taken place just weeks after a public statement made by President Omar al – Bashir in early April pledging to release all political detainees in Sudan. Since 1 May, 21 members of the SPLM – N, many prominent members of the party, have been arrested without charges by the NISS. Their arrests came just days after an armed attack launched in North Kordofan by the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of armed opposition groups, of which the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army – North (the armed wing of the SPLM-N) is a member. The following SPLM – N members are known to ACJPS to have been detained by the NISS. Details on the conditions of their detention are not known: Tariq Muhise, (m), arrested on 1 May 2013 by the NISS in Wad Medani, Al Jazeera state, central Sudan. Ahmed Koko Kunda, (m), arrested on 1 May by the NISS in Omdurman. Hamid Ahmed Hamid, (m), arrested on 2 May by the NISS in North Kordofan. Mohamed Alsadig, (m), arrested on 3 May by the NISS in Nyala, South Darfur. Musa Jojo, (m), arrested on 3 May by the NISS in Omdurman. Saad Mohamed Abdalla, (m), 21 years of age. Arrested on 3 May by the NISS in Mairno, Senaar state. Asma Ahmed, (f), 39 years of age. Arrested on 4 May by the NISS in Khartoum. She is currently being detained incommunicado. Asma also suffers from diabetes. Mohamed Mahmoud Alawad, (m), arrested on 4 May by the NISS in Dungla, Northern state. Alla Mohmoud, (f), arrested on 4 May by the NISS in Dungla, Northern state. Jamal Abdulaziz, (m), arrested on 4 May by the NISS in Halfa, eastern Sudan. Hanan Ali Mohamed Khalil, (m), arrested on 4 May by the NISS in Omdurman. Adam Mahadi, (m), arrested on 4 May by the NISS in El Obeid, North Kordofan. Khalifa Abuah Tour, (m), arrested on 4 May by the NISS in El Obeid, North Kordofan. Al Rashied Ali Omer, (m), arrested at 3:30pm on 8 May by the NISS in Kosti, White Nile. Al Rashied is also a member of the Sudanese Communist Party. Nimat Adam Jumaa, (f), arrested at 6:20pm on 8 May by the NISS from her home in Kosti, White Nile. Nimat was part of the SPLM – N delegation to the peace talks with the GoS in Addis Ababa. Nimat’s family was later informed that they should gather her clothes in order for her to be transferred to Khartoum. Nimat was previously arrested by the NISS during the June – August 2012 anti – regime demonstrations. On 8 May, the chairperson of the SPLM – N in North Kordofan issued a public statement expressing concern about the situation of the detainees. Sometime thereafter, the following six SPLM – N members in Um Ruaba, North Kordofan were arrested by the NISS. The six were released, and have been ordered to report back to the NISS from 8am – 4pm daily until further notice: Mubarak Ramadan, (m). Ismail Teah, (m). Ehlam Daoud, (f). Dafalla Abdu, (m). Santé-no Gerang, (m). Abdulrahman, (m). Another individual called Ismail, (m), was arrested on or sometime after 8 May. Ismail’s political affiliation is unknown; however, he is a neighbour of Faisal Musa, a military commander in the SRF. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) is concerned about the continued harassment of political opposition members in Sudan and has serious concerns that the remaining detainees are at risk of torture and ill-treatment. ACJPS calls on the GoS to: - Immediately make known the whereabouts of the detainees, grant them access to their families and lawyers and any medical assistance they may require. - Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the detainees and order their immediate release in the absence of valid legal charges that are consistent with international law and standards or, if such charges exist, to bring them before an impartial, independent, and competent tribunal and guarantee their procedural rights at all times. - Cease the harassment and intimidation of political opponents and guarantee the right to freedom of assembly, association, and expression as recognised by the Interim National Constitution (2005) and Sudan’s commitments under international law. Background The recent arrests of Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) members are thought to be directly connected to the recent attacks on Abu Karshola and Um Ruwaba in North Kordofan on 26 April by Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of armed opposition groups, of which the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army – North (the armed wing of the SPLM-N) is a member. The attacks began the same evening as peace talks collapsed between the SPLM – N and the Government of Sudan (GoS) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Since the outbreak of the armed conflict between the GoS and the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army – North (SPLA-N) in South Kordofan and Blue Nile in 2011, the GoS has banned the SPLM-N as a political party and subjected dozens of SPLM – N members to arbitrary arrest and detention. ACJPS has been unable to obtain detailed information on any of the detainees apart from Asma Ahmed. The NISS first came to Asma’s family home on 1 May while she was out. They returned the following day at 5pm. In her absence, they spoke to Asma’s elder brother and showed IDs indicating that they came from the Political Affairs section of the NISS. They ordered her brother to bring Asma to the Political Affairs section of the NISS offices in Khartoum Bahri, or to disclose her location. At 10am on 4 May, Asma turned herself in to the NISS offices. Her brother accompanied her, and was informed by the NISS that their investigation would revolve around SPLM – N activities in Khartoum and the recent attacks in North Kordofan. She has been detained incommunicado since that date. The arrests of the SPLM – N opposition leaders form part of a broader campaign targeting the right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly in Sudan, and are reminiscent of the arrest of seven opposition leaders in January following their return to Sudan from political negotiations in Kampala. Seven opposition leaders were arbitrarily arrested in Khartoum as they returned from the political negotiations in Uganda. One was released in January. The remaining detainees were released on 1 April following a decree by President Bashir to release all political detainees. One detainee was denied medical treatment while in NISS custody. In late April, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) were aware of at least 100 detainees still in Sudan’s custody, primarily hailing from Sudan’s conflict – hit peripheries and detained on the basis of their political affiliation. This number continues to grow. In one high profile case, eighteen Nuba women remain detained without access to lawyers at Al-Obeid prison at the order of the NISS on account of their suspected political affiliation to the SPLM-N. They have been detained without charge or judicial review since their detention in November 2012, breaching Sudan’s own repressive National Security Act 2010. Contact: Osman Hummaida, Executive Director, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) Phone: +44 7956 095738 (UK) E-mail: [email protected] http://www.acjps.org/?p=1405 END6 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan, South Sudan Advisor [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile) +27 79 832 8834 (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. 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