---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 8:14 AM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: Khartoum reportedly breaks its own truce To: Group <[email protected]>
1. From a source within the Nuba Mountains, 24th August 2011: "Regarding Bashir Statement, I didn't know what he mean by truce, ground or Ariel. Because after 2 hrs from his statement, Antonov bomb in different areas of Nuba Mountain, but due to the absent of phone network, we manage... to know some place, Mandal, Tabana, Julud and Sobbay... And I think by ordering Ahmed Haroon to not allow International organizations to enter South Kordofan, he want to prevent the international community from seeing the crime that NCP-SAF committed in Kadugli.... Beside, an eyewitness told me that [international NGO] vehicles are used by SAF for military purposes... I fled from Kadugli on 9th June after house to house search started and currently I'm in [the SPLA-controlled area of the Nuba Mountains]." 2. ‘Al-Bashir is a liar’ Qamar Dahlman says the Sudanese president isn’t serious about implementing a ceasefire in South Kordofan Radio Dabanga KADUGLI 23 Aug President Omar Al-Bashir is a liar, Qamar Dahlman, spokesperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Kordofan, said on Tuesday. Dahlman told Radio Dabanga, “Bashir made an announcement that there are no air strikes in South Kordofan for two weeks. That is a lie and is meant to mislead people. The government MiGs and Antonovs were bombing civilians in Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan when he was making the announcement.” Bashir had made the announcement at the final conference of a civil administration’s meeting in Kakulai on Tuesday. The ceasefire, according to Bashir, was a move that came out of his want for peace and to mark the end of the Holy month of Ramadan. To this Dahlman responded saying that a ceasefire is not implemented by making an annoucement in a press conference and that it must be discussed over negotiations. The SPLM (South Kordofan) spokesperson added that Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) had rejected a framework agreement, initiated by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, with the SPLM (North) about peace in South Kordofan. Dahlman added that Bashir wasn’t serious about the framework agreement either. Government airstrikes continue On the other hand, a woman and a child were injured in an airstrike launched by a government aircraft on Monday and Tuesday in large areas of the Nuba Mountains. Mubarak Abdul Rahman, chairperson of the Youth SPLM in South Kordofan told Radio Dabanga, “The bombing happened in the areas of Haban, Kauda, Buram. It killed an 11-year-old boy Kiriyunios Teya. It also caused the death of a number of cattle and damaged farms.” Mubarak said that the bombing renewed on Monday morning and led to 85-year-old veteran Kochi Fadlallah being seriously injured in the leg and hand in Buram. The incident also led to the death of animals and damage to crops in the region, he added. Government airstrikes targeting civilians in South Kordofan has been a routine occurrence in the past few months. http://www.radiodabanga.org/node/17731 END2 3. US group: 8 mass graves now seen in Sudan region By JASON STRAZIUSO - Associated Press | AP – 24/08/11 NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A U.S. monitoring group said Wednesday that satellite imagery had revealed the existence of two more mass graves in a contested region of Sudan, bringing the total number of mass graves sited there to eight. The Satellite Sentinel Project, a group backed by actor and Sudan activist George Clooney, said that witnesses told the group that a backhoe was used to dig some of the graves at sites in Kadugli, South Kordofan. Workers with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society were present during some of the burials, the group said. The U.S. group has not made any estimates of the number of bodies it believes have been buried in the graves, saying that onsite research would need to be carried out. 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 tribesmen 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 this month 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 evidence against the Sudanese government continues to compound and has now become impossible to dismiss. It is time for the international community to take serious action and execute its responsibility to protect innocent lives in Sudan," said John Prendergast, co-founder of the activist group the Enough Project. The Sudanese Red Crescent Society has said that it buried 59 bodies in marked burial sites in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, between mid-June and mid-July. The International Committee of the Red Cross says it supplied body bags, rubber boots and cameras to SRCS teams tasked with the management of dead bodies, according to spokeswoman Anna Schaaf. The ICRC is not on the ground in South Kordofan. The satellite group in July reported the first three mass graves as excavated areas measuring about 26 meters (yards) by 5 meters (yards) visible near a school in the town of Kadugli. The group said that an eyewitness reported seeing 100 bodies or more put into one of the pits on June 8. Sudan said last week that 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 "to assess the situation of human rights there and the humanitarian needs." Sudan President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday announced a two-week cease-fire in South Kordofan. http://news.yahoo.com/us-group-8-mass-graves-now-seen-sudan-112834163.html END3 ______________________ 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. 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