---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:34:45 +0300 Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: Khartoum to allow access to South Kordofan? To: Group <[email protected]>
The news that Khartoum has agreed to allow access to South Kordofan is not news unless it is actually implemented. "Too many agreements dishonoured". Likewise its own human rights group. The comments by Khartoum’s UN Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman are rather confused. "Osman accused the south of failing to adhere to the 2005 agreement and starting the military attacks. 'I think that they should come to their senses and accept to sit down and negotiate a peaceful settlement'." Firstly he appears to be blaming the south for what is clearly a northern civil war. Secondly he appears to be suggesting that the south should negotiate over a northern civil war which has nothing to do with the south and over which Juba exercises no control. Thirdly, his suggestion that "they should come to their senses and accept to sit down and negotiate a peaceful settlement" is rather disingenuous given that it is his own president who disowned an agreement on Blue Nile and South Kordofan negotiated by SPLM-N. He (and his party) appear unwilling to accept that Khartoum must negotiate with the people of Nuba and Blue Nile, and with SPLM-N. John BEGIN 1. Sudan to allow UN mission to assess human rights and humanitarian needs in South Kordofan Washington Post By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, August 20, 8:33 AM UNITED NATIONS — Sudan says it will allow six U.N. agencies to take part in a government-organized mission to South Kordofan, where the U.N. human rights office has called for a probe into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Khartoum’s U.N. Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said the joint mission will be sent to South Kordofan on Saturday “to assess the situation of human rights there and the humanitarian needs.” South Kordofan lies just across the border from newly independent South Sudan and has been the site of clashes between government troops from Sudan’s Arab north and black tribesman aligned with the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. Many inhabitants of South Kordofan fought for the south during the country’s two decades-plus civil war against the north and are ethnically linked to the south. A report released Monday by the U.N. human rights office in Geneva said Sudanese security forces allegedly carried out indiscriminate aerial bombardments in South Kordofan that killed civilians in the weeks before South Sudan became independent on July 9. It also alleged that Sudanese forces executed prisoners accused of belonging to the south’s Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement before burying them in mass graves. The Satellite Sentinel Project on Wednesday released images of what it says are two piles of corpses wrapped in body bags or tarps in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan. The U.S. group said an analysis of satellite images concluded that pro-government forces are trying to cover up a third mass grave beneath a water tank. The Sudanese government denies committing atrocities and has called the U.N. report “biased” and “unfounded.” Osman told reporters after U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay briefed the Security Council on the report behind closed doors that he had just received word of the joint mission to South Kordofan which will include the U.N. health, humanitarian, refugee and children’s agencies. Before South Sudan seceded from Sudan, a U.N. peacekeeping force monitoring a 2005 peace agreement between the north and the south had troops deployed in South Kordofan. But Sudan refused to extend the force’s mandate and the remaining U.N. troops in South Kordofan are withdrawing. While Osman indicated that the joint U.N.-Sudan mission would refute the report’s findings, diplomats said Pillay called for an independent international investigation of events in South Kordofan. One European diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly, strongly backed an international probe, noting that Pillay not only mentioned possible war crimes and crimes against humanity but said the Sudanese were possibly resorting to the use of chemical weapons. Last week, Russia and China blocked U.S. attempts to get the Security Council to issue a statement condemning the Sudanese government bombing and other military activities in South Kordofan. Britain’s deputy ambassador Philip Parham said that after Friday’s briefing by Pillay, “there may well be another look at the possibility of a statement” by the council. In late June, representatives from the north and south signed an agreement in Ethiopia aimed at restoring peace in South Kordofan and neighboring Blue Nile state. But on July 1, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir said the northern army would continue its campaign in South Kordofan. Osman accused the south of failing to adhere to the 2005 agreement and starting the military attacks. “I think that they should come to their senses and accept to sit down and negotiate a peaceful settlement,” he said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/sudan-to-allow-un-mission-to-assess-human-rights-and-humanitarian-needs-in-south-kordofan/2011/08/20/gIQAnXrIRJ_story.html END1 2. SUDAN: Government to Assess Human Rights KHARTOUM August 19, 2011 ( CISA) - Sudan said on Tuesday it would form a committee to assess the human rights situation in the conflict-ridden South Kordofan , a day after the U.N. called for a probe into reports of violence and abuses in the region. Tensions have flared in the state that holds most of Sudan's known oil reserves barely a month after South Sudan seceded. Many people in Southern Kordofan sided with South Sudan during a 20-year civil war and tens of thousands have fled since fighting broke out there in June between Sudan's army and fighters, many of them from the region's ethnic Nuba group. A report by the U.N. human rights office documented alleged violations in state capital Kadugli and the surrounding Nuba mountains, including extrajudicial killings, illegal detention,disappearances, attacks against civilians, looting of homes and mass displacement. Sudan's justice minister, Mohamed Bushara Dosa, issued a decree to form a committee to "gather information and facts, visit sites of the displaced and interview them as well as meet with government authorities and citizens" in Southern Kordofan, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday. The U.N. said in its report, released on Monday, that the allegations "if substantiated, could amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes". Sudan's government dismissed the report as "unfounded" and "malicious". END2 3. Sudan to let UN access South Kordofan August 19, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan has agreed to let six UN agencies under local supervision to assess humanitarian needs in its war-stricken state of South Kordofan. Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, Sudan’s envoy to the UN, on Friday announced that its humanitarian commissioner will lead a mission involving six UN agencies to conduct an assessment of the humanitarian situation in South Kordofan which has been rattled by fighting between Sudan’s army and rebels previously aligned with the independent state of South Sudan since early June. UN estimates that at least 200,000 people in South Kordofan have been killed, injured or forced to flee their homes and land since the fighting erupted. The mission, which will last for six days in several locations, includes the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Program, World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told Agence France Presse (AFP). But a Western diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity with AFP is cynical about Khartoum’s move which he called “a smokescreen.” “Sudan is not giving in any way to pressure from the international community," he said, adding that "Khartoum is still banning free access to humanitarian aid. Khartoum is not allowing an independent inquiry into the accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity made against its troops." A UN report last week documented wide-ranging atrocities it alleges were committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allied paramilitary forces during South Kordofan’s conflict. The report said that the actions could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, calling for an independent probe into the situation. Sudan dismissed the report as bias and vowed not to heed international concerns over the situation. The country’s senior presidential assistant Nafi Ali Nafi said that Sudan would not let international shrieks over the matter to distract it from quelling the rebellion. Sudan’s UN envoy said the fact that his country agreed to the mission disproved allegations of abuses contained in the UN report. "This defeats the allegations in the preliminary report," he said. "There are no military attacks in Southern Kordofan." Sudan has recently softened stance on its commitment to fight South Kordofan’s rebels until they are defeated and expressed readiness to initiate a dialogue, in a sign that that its army has failed to defeat the rebels. The UN Security Council convened a closed-doors session on Friday to discuss the UN report on South Kordofan as Sudan strongly protested the move, saying that the report is not predicated on evidences. China and Russia last week blocked U.S attempts to bring the UNSC to condemn the Sudanese government’s doing in South Kordofan and its aerial bombardments but Western nations pledged to press the matter. (ST) END3 4. Sudan submits rebuttal to UN Security Council over S. Kordofan abuses August 18, 2011 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan has submitted a rebuttal to the United Nations detailing its objections to a human rights report, which alleges that war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been carried out in South Kordofan, a key oil state bordering newly independent South Sudan. The UN Security Council is expected to hold a closed meeting on Friday to discuss the conflict in South Kordofan between Sudan’s military and their aligned militia, and forces of the northern sector of Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA-N). On Monday a report from the UN’s Higher Commission for Human Rights said that abuses allegedly committed in South Kordofan may amount to “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” and must be fully investigated. Sudan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Dafalla Al-Haj, told Sudan’s official news agency (SUNA) on Thursday that the damning report was not credible and was based on hearsay. Khartoum reacted angrily when the report was published on Tuesday with foreign ministry spokesman, Al-Obaid Marawih, describing its contents as “biased and predicated on no evidence.” He told SUNA that the new UN report was a “repetition” of a report leaked to the media in July, which was authored by the recently defunct UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). UNMIS’s mandate expired on 9 July, with the independence of South Sudan - the last day of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by Khartoum and former southern rebels the SPLA. But South Sudan’s independence was in some ways overshadowed by the outbreak of fighting in South Kordofan between the SPLA-N and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) five weeks earlier. Fighters from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan joined the South Sudan-based SPLA in their two decade conflict with Khartoum. However, after South Sudan’s succession the largely SPLA-aligned Nuba and other groups remain in North Sudan being governed by National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum. Before the conflict erupted in early June the situation in the area was already tense after the SPLA’s political wing - the SPLM - lost state elections to the NCP in early May. The SPLM-N say that fighting began when Sudan’s military attempted to disarm them on June 3. Khartoum, however, blame the "rebels" for starting the fighting by overrunning an police station in Kadugli the state capital. The fighting quickly escalated into heavy aerial bombardment by Khartoum amid reports of attacks targeting the state’s African indigenous Nuba population. A UN official last week said that at least 200,000 people in South Kordofan have been killed, injured or forced to flee their homes and land since the fighting erupted. Entitled “Preliminary report on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Southern Kordofan from 5 to 30 June 2011”, the new report underscored the gravity of the acts committed by Sudan’s army and its allied paramilitary forces in the region. According to the report, “serious” violations of human rights law were committed in South Kordofan, including enforced disappearances aerial bombardments; forced displacement; abductions; house-to-house searches; arbitrary arrests and detentions; targeted killings and summary executions. “If substantiated [the actions] could amount to crimes against humanity, or war crimes for which individual criminal responsibility may be sought,” the report said. June’s leaked UNMIS report observed “especially egregious” conduct by Sudan’s army and one of its allied paramilitary groups - the Popular Defense Forces - saying they “have targeted members and supporters of the SPLM/A, most of whom are Nubans and other dark skinned people.” The US, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has called for the reports recommendation of an investigation into the conduct of Sudan’s army and the SPLA during the conflict to be implemented. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN urged all members of the Security Council to join them "in pressing for implementation of these recommendations". However, it is unclear whether any action will be taken, considering that Russia and China, traditional allies of Sudan, are permanent members of the council and only last week quashed US efforts to condemn the action of Sudan’s military in South Kordofan. The UNMIS report recommended that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could be the appropriate body to investigate whether war crimes have been committed or humanitarian law has been broken in South Kordofan. At the behest of the Security Council the ICC has already investigated the conduct of Sudan’s counter-insurgency campaign in the country’s restive region of Darfur. This resulted in indictments in 2007 for Sudan’s president and the now governor of South Kordofan, who was at the time minister for interior. Both were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, while President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was further charged with genocide by the Hague-based court in 2009. Sudan responded to the recommendations of the report, not only by dismissing it as as "unfounded" and "malicious", but also by announcing the creation of its own fact finding committee to assess the human rights situation and international humanitarian law in the state. Ambassador Al-Haj told SUNA that he had petitioned the current chair of the Security Council and all its members to await the results of Sudan’s own investigation before the issue of South Kordofan is discussed. He also complained about the fact that Sudan would not be able to sit in on the closed meeting. (ST) END4 5. Sudan promises own rights group in S. Kordofan - SUNA Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:00pm GMT KHARTOUM Aug 16 (Reuters) - Sudan said on Tuesday it would form its own committee to assess the human rights situation in its conflict-ridden Southern Kordofan region, a day after the U.N. called for a probe into reports of violence and abuses there. Tensions have flared in the state -- which borders South Sudan and holds most of Sudan's known oil reserves -- after South Sudan seceded last month, taking its oilfields with it. Many people in Southern Kordofan sided with South Sudan during a 20-year civil war and tens of thousands have fled since fighting broke out there in June between Sudan's army and fighters, many of them from the region's ethnic Nuba group. A report by the U.N. human rights office documented alleged violations in state capital Kadugli and the surrounding Nuba mountains including extrajudicial killings, illegal detention, enforced disappearances, attacks against civilians, looting of homes and mass displacement. Sudan's Justice Minister Mohamed Bushara Dosa issued a decree to form a committee to "gather information and facts, visit sites of the displaced and interview them as well as meet with government authorities and citizens" in Southern Kordofan, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday. The U.N. said in its report, released on Monday, that the allegations "if substantiated, could amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes". Sudan's government dismissed the report as "unfounded" and "malicious". http://af.reuters.com/article/sudanNews/idAFL5E7JG2FL20110816 END5 6. Sudan says UN agencies get access to conflict area Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:30pm GMT * U.N. report accused Sudan of abuses in Southern Kordofan * Sudan enovy says 6 UN agencies to start mission Saturday * U.S. urges Security Council action on Southern Kordofan By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Six U.N. agencies will join a government-organized mission to Sudan's conflict-ridden Southern Kordofan region to assess the humanitarian needs, Sudan's U.N. envoy said on Friday. Earlier this week a report by the U.N. human rights office called for an inquiry into reports of abuses in Southern Kordofan that it said could amount to war crimes, an allegation that Khartoum dismissed as "unfounded." [ID:nL5E7JF1GW] "The (Sudanese) humanitarian aid commissioner and six U.N. agencies will go to Southern Kordofan on Saturday," Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Reuters. He added that they would "assess the situation and see what is needed to fill the gaps" in humanitarian aid delivery to the region, which holds most of north Sudan's oil reserves. Tensions have flared in the oil-rich state after South Sudan seceded last month, taking its oilfields with it. U.N. officials have complained of limited or no access to the area, which contains large populations which sided with South Sudan during a 20-year civil war. Osman said the U.N. agencies going on the mission would include the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Program, the World Health Organization and the UNICEF children's fund. There will also be several foreign non-U.N. organizations taking part, he said. OCHA spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said the mission would last four days and the participants hoped to "carry out assessments in several locations." Osman said the fact that the mission is taking place disproved the charges of rampant human rights abuses and neglect contained in the U.N. human rights office's report. "This defeats the allegations in the preliminary report," he said. "There are no military attacks in Southern Kordofan." 'GRAVE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION' The United Nations said on June 22 that 73,000 people had fled Southern Kordofan after more than two weeks of fighting although some later returned to their homes. [ID:nLDE75L1Q2] Some activists have accused Khartoum of starting the fighting to assert its authority there, a charge the government denies. The U.N. rights office report alleged violations in the state capital Kadugli and the surrounding Nuba mountains including extrajudicial killings, illegal detention, enforced disappearances, attacks against civilians, looting of homes and mass displacement. The U.S.-based Satellite Sentinel Project said on Wednesday that it has identified three more mass graves in Southern Kordofan in addition to three others it identified in July. For weeks the United States and European members of the U.N. Security Council have been pressing the 15-nation body to condemn Khartoum over the situation in Southern Kordofan, but veto powers Russia and China, along with South Africa, India and Brazil oppose the idea, Western envoys said. The council discussed the issue again on Friday after U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay asked council members to weigh in on it. But the divided council took no action, which a U.S. official made clear Washington was not happy about. "Pillay has asked the U.N. Security Council to speak out against the grave humanitarian situation in South Kordofan and has recommended that an independent investigation be conducted into reported violations of international law," he said. "We have made clear that we support commissioner Pillay's calls and continue to urge the other members of the council to join us in speaking out on behalf of the people of South Kordoran," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham) http://af.reuters.com/article/sudanNews/idAFN1E77I18620110819?sp=true END6 ______________________ 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. 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