---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 11:09 AM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: SPLM-N distrusts truce in South Kordofan To: Group <[email protected]>
1. SPLM-N distrusts Al-Bashir’s truce in South Kordofan August 23, 2011 (NAIROBI) – The armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has voiced skepticism in reaction to a truce declared by Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir in South Kordofan State, saying the move aims to deflect attention from abuses and an imminent military offensive. President Bashir on Tuesday unexpectedly announced a two-week unilateral ceasefire in the country’s southern frontier of South Kordodon, where his army has been battling SPLM-N fighters since early June. South Korodofan, which straddles Sudan’s ill-defined borders with the newly independent state of South Sudan, had at least 200,000 of its citizens killed, injured or forced to flee their homes and land as a result of the fighting, according to UN estimates. In late June, as the fighting intensified and the two sides appeared to be deadlocked in a military stalemate, the SPLM-N and ruling National Congress Party (NCP) signed a framework agreement mediated by the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP). The agreement provided for the initiation of ceasefire talks, integration of SPLM-N into the Sudanese army and recognition of the SPLM-N as a legal political party in Sudan. However, Al-Bashir later withdrew commitment to the agreement and ordered his army to sustain its operations in South Kordofan. Bashir’s announcement came less than two days since he held a meeting on Sunday with the SPLM-N’s chairman, Malik Aggar, and in the presence of Zenawi in order to discuss revival of peace efforts. The meeting dissolved in disagreement as both sides failed to offer concessions. Yasir Arman, SPLM-N’s secretary-general, believes Al-Bashir is "not serious" about his truce because he failed to mention this when he met Aggar 24 hours ago. According to Arman, the meeting failed to yield results because the Sudanese president insisted on rejecting the framework agreement as well as the mediation of the AUHIP chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. "This announcement is an attempt to cover up human rights violation, genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by Al-Bashir’s forces in South Kordofan," Arman told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday. Arman went on to point out that Al-Bashir announced his truce at the same time his warplanes were bombing civilian population in South Kordofan. Wide-ranging atrocities committed by Sudan’s army and its allied paramilitary forces were documented in a UN report released last month. The report detailed "extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, enforced disappearances and attacks against civilians" in South Kordofan. The UN said the allegations, if substantiated, could amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes. The Sudan government labeled the report as biased. The SPLM figure accused Al-Bashir’s government of blocking the flow of aid to the affected population in South Kordofan. "Al-Bashir is using food as a weapon,” he charged, terming the move “public relations stunt" intended to hoodwink the international community. The Sudanese president also announced on Tuesday that no foreign aid organization would be allowed to access South Kordofan, dousing earlier agreement by his government to let six UN agencies into the troubled state to assess humanitarian needs. Arman said that the genuine pursuit of peace in South Kordofan requires that the two parties return to the negotiation table but, according to Arman, Al-Bashir has ill intentions. "On the contrary, Al-Bahsir is preparing for a major military offensive in south kordofan and he should not try to deceive anybody," the SPLM Secretary General said. He further stressed that the SPLM was just defending itself and the civilian population in South Kordofan. He reiterated his movement’s commitment to a negotiated roadmap that accords priority to the conflicts in South Kordofan and Darfur and includes all political parties nationwide in order to create a national consensus. "We met Al-Bashir and demonstrated our good intentions by supporting the mediation initiative of the AUHIP and Meles Zenawi," Arman said. "The ball is now Al-Bashir’s court," he said. (ST) END1 2. Images Show Mass Graves in Sudan, Group Says By JOSH KRON Published: August 24, 2011 New York Times KAMPALA, Uganda — A satellite imagery project monitoring parts of Sudan says it has found new evidence of mass graves in the troubled Nuba Mountains region, where the government has recently waged a fierce campaign to stamp out rebels. Related In a report scheduled to be published Wednesday, the Satellite Sentinel Project contends that as many as eight mass graves have been dug in the area since June, including two new sites discovered in the past week. It says the images show body bags, vehicles and machinery used to dispose of the dead. The information and images provided by the project follow multiple allegations by residents and human rights advocates that the Sudanese government and its aligned forces have carried out widespread killings and other abuses against civilians in the region this summer. The Sudanese government rejects the assertion, saying it has taken aim solely at the rebels, not at civilians. “The pictures do not show the truth,” Rabie A. Atti, a Sudanese government spokesman, said Tuesday. “Behind them I think it is the rebels that falsify such rumors, to bring the international community to intervene in this domestic crisis.” The satellite project report also contends that the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, the national branch of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, played a primary role in digging and filling mass graves, as well as possibly burning bodies. The Sudanese Red Crescent Society has acknowledged collecting dead bodies for burial in the Nuba Mountains as part of its humanitarian mission, and that it was given machinery by the Sudanese government to help excavate land for this purpose. The organization has also been quoted as saying it was accompanied by a “criminal investigation team.” But it denies digging mass graves. On Tuesday, Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, declared a two-week cease-fire in the region, where fighting between rebels and the government intensified before neighboring South Sudan broke off from the north in July to become an independent country. South Sudan’s independence was a capstone of diplomatic efforts to end a decades-long civil war between the north and south. But as Mr. Bashir freed himself from one conflict, he became increasingly entangled in another. The Nuba Mountains are in the state of Southern Kordofan, which many fear could be Sudan’s next Darfur. Refugees from the embattled region have spoken of indiscriminate bombings and execution-style murders, and an unpublished United Nations report said the violence in the region could amount to war crimes. According to the Satellite Sentinel Project, which is partially financed by the American actor George Clooney, digital images from sites around the Nuba Mountains and testimony by witnesses present what the project calls an organized campaign to dump dead bodies in mass graves and camouflage the sites. According to the report, satellite images from an area of Kadugli, in the Nuba Mountains region, show large holes being dug in the ground, white bundles believed to be body bags placed inside and then covered up. The project says a witness reported watching an industrial excavation machine dig and cover mass graves, with Sudanese Red Crescent workers burying more than 30 bodies in two holes. The project report said, “What should no longer be debated is that these alleged crimes, including mass killing and subsequent mass burial of the dead, have happened and continue to occur.” The United Nations, which recently moved its peacekeeping mission in Sudan out of the north and opened up a new mandate in South Sudan, last week called for a new inquiry into allegations of atrocities committed in the north. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/world/africa/24sudan.html?_r=2 END2 ______________________ 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. 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