Chronology

17: An attempted assassination of top SPLA leader John Garang in Nairobi left one man dead and several wounded. The SPLA leader's Nairobi residence was attacked by supporters of his rival, Major General Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, it was revealed.

18: Kenya police officers fuelled the battle between Garang and Major-General Kerubino, it has been claimed. It was revealed that the weekend fight was sparked by the arrest of Kerubino, his deputy Dr Amon Wantok , and his three top aides at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

18: A fight between supporters of Garang and Kerubino took place at a Muthangari Police Station in Nairobi. And Garang has gone underground.

18: A Sudan government war plane bombed a hospital run by the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) agency in a rebel-held town in south Sudan killing two people including a child and injuring 11, rebels and the aid group reported. “A Sudan government Anotonov plane dropped six bombs on Yei town,” said a statement by the aid agency.

19: The SPLA has accused Kerubino of trying to assassinate Col Garang, in Nairobi. A “hit squad” raided Col. Garang's house but the attack was foiled by the “alertness of the Kenyan police,” an SPLA statement said.

19: Kenya parliament will be told the cause of the fight between Sudanese rebels at a police station in Nairobi. Minister of state Major (Rtd) Marsden Madoka made the pledge after Dagoretti MP Beth Mugo sought a ministerial statement from office of the president on the fight.

20: General Kerubino has said he will not be returning to the side of the Sudanese government, despite accusations by the SPLA that he tried to assassinate Col. Garang. “This is ridiculous. Going back to Khartoum would not be good for our people. Our people are fighting for self-determination,” Gen Kerubino said.

20: The Deputy speaker of the Sudanese ruling National Congress, Mr Ali al Haj Mohammed, has denied any link between the Sudanese government and bloody conflict in Nairobi between Col Garang and Gen. Kerubino. Mr Haj was quoted by the daily newspaper Al Usbu, denying government involvement in the assassination bid and asserted that in fact Col Garang had sought to have Gen Kerubino murdered.

21: Sudanese officials and rebels signed a pact guaranteeing better security to aid workers, including a promise not to lay land mines in areas where they provide help, a UN official said. The accord, signed in Rome, was forged to allow food to reach people caught in a 15-year civil war in the south.

22: President Hassan Omar el-Bashir has warned opposition groups based in neighbouring Eritrea and Ethiopia that Sudan was about to mend fences with the two Horn of Africa nations. Relations between Sudan and its two neighbours have been fraught with tension for several years. Khartoum accuses them of aiding Sudanese rebels while Ethiopia and Eritrea level similar charges.

23: Civil strife in Africa has escalated because of the continued manufacture of arms by some states in the West, the Kitale Catholic bishop, Maurice Crowley, has said. He was speaking at the Blessed Josephine Bakhita Formation Centre, Kitale, Kenya, during the graduation ceremony for 23 Sudanese catechists.

23: A gun-fight in Nairobi between two factions of the SPLA, in which one man was killed and several wounded, exposed the sharp divisions in the main opposition fighting to oust the Khartoum government. Col. Garang, who reportedly escaped an assassination attempt by supporters of Major-General Kerubino, 10 days ago, was said to have gone underground.

23: The head of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II, has appointed Father Caesar Mazzolari the bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek in Southern Sudan. Fr. Mazzolari, a Comboni missionary, has for the past eight years (1990-98) been the apostolic administrator of the Sudanese see.

23: Sudanese authorities have completed the seizure of weapons from the pro-government militia leaders in Khartoum in a bid to end factional fighting, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. “The campaign of collection of arms from the southern factions, which was implemented recently in Khartoum state, was completed with success, “SUNA quoted Major-General Oman Jaafar Osman, police commander of Khartoum state, as saying.

25: Sudan's parliament has passed a controversial bill allowing organised political activity amid protests that the legislation was rushed through with insufficient debate, press reports said. Some Members of Parliament walked out of the assembly to protest the way the bill was debated.

25: Sudan has asked the UN to stop the US and other countries from “obstructing” the peace process with southern rebels, the official SUNA reported. President el-Bashir made the request during a meeting with Sir Kieran Prendergast, the UN under-secretary general for political affairs.

25: A Sudanese newspaper said Egypt had sentenced a number of Sudanese citizens to jail on spying charges after they were “kidnapped” by Egyptian authorities last month in the disputed Halaib border area on the Red Sea Coast. “The kidnapped were tried by the Egyptian state security court on charges of spying for Sudan and the court passed harsh verdicts ranging from 15-25 years in prison,” the independent Al-Usbua newspaper said without giving a source.

25: Major-General Kerubino has called for reconciliation and unity in the liberation struggle. In a statement, Kerubino said reconciliation was necessary if the struggle was to succeed in the face of “determined policy of prosecution, domination, exploitation, cultural and religious imposition by the government of Sudan''.

25: A rebel group has attacked a convoy of commercial trucks, killing 34 northern Sudanese merchants in a southern town, a pro-government newspaper reported. The daily Alwan quoted government sources in the Upper Nile state as saying the attack took place in the Khor Donglawi area near the town of Renk, 450 kilometres south of Khartoum

27: The SPLA has accused agents of the Sudanese government of being behind an attack on Col. Garang's Nairobi residence in Nairobi. The director in the office of the chairman, Mr Edward Lino, said the SPLA held the Khartoum government responsible for the 9.30 p.m. attack which was foiled by Kenyan security detail.

30: Sudanese parliament speaker Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi is expected to tender his resignation as leader of the national assembly, a post he has held since 1996, press reports said. The Al-Rai al-Akher daily said Turabi, seen as the eminence grise of the Moslem fundamentalist-backed military junta that seized power in 1989, was said to be giving up the post to devote his time to the organisation of the National Congress.

December 1: Several outlawed political parties in Sudan have rejected a new law on party formation, saying they considered themselves legal all along, press reports said. Representatives of the Democratic Unionist (DUP), Umma Communist and Moslem Brotherhood parties argued that they do not need a licence to operate because they do not recognise the new legislation.

1. The famine which affected hundreds of thousands of people in southern Sudan in the summer is under control, but aid agencies fear a new crisis without a settlement of the 15-year civil war in the area. “There is a considerable improvement, the number of people admitted to the feeding centres is diminishing,” said Gillian Wilcox of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) set up by the UN to organise international aid.

2: Sudanese rebels said they were still fighting government forces in the Nuba mountains of the south-central Sudan after the army launched an offensive there last month. Officials of the SPLA said the government had embarked on a dry season offensive in the Nuba Mountains of the Southern Kordofan Province on November 11, attacking on four fronts with around 2, 000 troops.

2: Sudanese foreign minister Mr Mustafa Osman Ismail has criticised Sir Prendergast, the UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, for meeting secretly with the opposition in Khartoum, press reports said. Khartoum newspapers quoted Mr Ismail as saying that the government “would not have refused arranging a meeting of the UN envoy with internal opposition representatives ...but he preferred to ignore diplomatic norms and hold an unscheduled meeting with the opposition without permission or knowledge of the government.

2: In a response to the increase in attacks against its staff members, World Food Programme has launched a new security initiative for its employees. A new WFP task force is examining current security practices in field offices and a special training programme for staff will be implemented next year. The agency said in a statement. In 1998 alone, nine WFP staff members have been murdered.

3: The Sudanese army claimed to have recaptured areas on the eastern border from opposition forces. The armed forces general command said in a communiqué that its troops, supported by the popular defence forces, recaptured the border areas of Telik and Toqan near Kassala town from “the traitors and outlaws'' who “ran away, leaving numbers of dead bodies behind”.

3: The WFP has sent about 2,500 tons of relief aid for hungry civilians in war-torn southern Sudan, a UN official said. A convoy of seven river barges carrying relief material left the river port of Kosti, 300 kilometres south of Khartoum, to distribute the aid. to people along the Nile River, the WFP representative in Khartoum, Mr Mohammed Saleheen, said in a statement.

4: Sudanese parliamentary speaker and the junta's helsman of political reform Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi has confirmed to MPs that he will resign in January, state television has announced. Mr Turabi, an Islamic law expert, said he would stand down once the ruling National Congress was confirmed into a political organisation and that he would then concentrate on his leadership of the movement.

4: Christian Solidarity International (CSI), an anti-slavery organisation has voiced concern over alleged trafficking of slaves in Sudan. CSI, which has “bought back” more than 4,000 slaves in the past three years, called for a UN probe into slavery in Sudan.

9: A Sudanese government plane bombed an NPA hospital and medical training school at Chukudum in southern Sudan, but caused no casualties or damage, the NPA said. The NPA said in a statement that the government Antonov plane appeared at 9.30 am and dropped six bombs aimed at the hospital but there were no casualties.

10: Famine devastated Sudan in 1998, with skin-and-bone survivors sacrificing the weakest members of their families, but the civil war went inexorably into its 16th year. International peace bids resulted in limited cease-fires in Africa's largest country, but did nothing to resolve the fundamental split between the Arabised, Islamic north and the black, largely Christian south despite an agreement to hold a referendum at some stage on the “unity of outright secession” for southern.

10: President el-Bashir has signed a law to restore a multi-party system nine years after his military coup dismantled democracy, state radio Omdurman reported. Opposition parties have dismissed the Islamist government's moves to reinstate democracy as a sham.

10: The UN Security Council is considering requests for UN officials to be allowed to take part in a refugee conference in Khartoum, despite sanctions that bar such meetings in the Sudan, council members said. The ministerial-level conference being organised by the OAU is a three-day session of experts, to which the UN was also invited.

11: Africa must face up to the problem of its eight million refugees and bear the responsibility, the organisation of OAU said in Khartoum. Opening a pan-African conference on refugees, the assistant secretary-general of OAU, Mr Daniel Anotonio, said host countries were experiencing “fatigue and donors were suffering fatigue”.

11: The US special envoy to the horn of Africa met with Sudanese rebels and dissidents during his six-day mission in the region to deal with the Ethiopian-Eritrean border conflict stay, according to a rebel spokesman,. Mr Yasir Arman, spokesman in Eritrea for the SPLA, Mr Anthony Lake met with representatives of the National Democratic Alliance in the Eritrean capital.

12: Ethiopian troops have left the Sudanese border town of Kurmuk, leaving it in the hands of Sudanese rebels who have held it since 1996, a senior political source told a Sudanese daily. Al-Rai al-Aam daily did not name the source but said the Ethiopian withdrawal marked the “new step” in the improvement of relations between the neighbouring countries.

12: Two senior Sudanese military officers were killed when a government vehicle struck a landmine near the north-eastern border town of Kassala, Sudanese rebels said. The chief government operational officer in Kassala and an intelligence unit officer were killed in the incident near the border with Eritrea, according to a statement issued by the NDA, the umbrella group for Sudanese dissidents and rebel groups.

14: The OAU defied the UN Security Council by failing to seek permission for a refugee conference in Sudan, UN officials said. The officials said that OAU ambassadors to the UN had met to discuss a US demand and that the OAU - which is sponsoring the conference in violation of a UN resolution- request UN permission for the event.

14: When Pope John Paul II visited Khartoum five years ago, he likened the treatment Christians sometimes undergo in Sudan to Christ's crucifixion at Calvary. Now the Sudanese government is threatening a pair of Roman Catholic priests and 18 co-defendants with the crucifixion for allegedly setting off almost a dozen bombs around Khartoum on June 30 to mar official celebrations marking the anniversary of the 1989 coup that brought the National Islamic Front to power.

14: Sudan's ruling party has reshuffled its leadership ahead of what the Islamist government bills as a return to a multi-party system after a nine-year gap. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir banned all political organisations in Sudan after seizing power in a 1989 coup.

15: African leaders attending a ministerial conference on refugees in Khartoum have called on the international community to increase assistance to millions of displaced people throughout Africa. President el-Bashir, in his opening speech, warned of “an imminent catastrophe” in Africa with the refugee problem “getting worse and international assistance diminishing.

The Diocese of Rumbek, which was established in December 1974, covers an area of 22, 000 square miles. It has a population of about 980,000. Monsignor Mazzolari becomes the third bishop of the see which has approximately 90,000 Catholics, or 10 per cent of the population.
A Comboni clergy, Monsignor Mazzolari has had a long association with the African state stretching back to more than a decade. He was first assigned to Sudan in 1981 and worked as a curate in the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio in Western Equatoria, about 1,400 kilometres south-west of Khartoum.
Between 1984-90, he worked in Juba, the largest town in southern Sudan, as the Provincial of the Comboni missionaries in southern Sudan.
For the past eight years (1990-98), Monsignor Mazzolari has been the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Rumbek.

Born in Brescia, Italy, on February 9, 1937, Monsignor Mazzolari attained his secondary studies in the minor seminaries of the Combonis in Crema-Brescia and Gozzano in his native country. He then went to the United Sates of America in 1953 for further college and theology training.
On March 17 1962, he was ordained a priest in San Diego, California. He remained in the USA for 19 years during which time he served in various priestly services among Mexicans, the Blacks and the Appalachians, doing formation work in minor and major seminaries of the Combonis in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Among other achievements, Monsignor Mazzolari has been credited with the establishment of an ultra modern educational institution for Sudanese in the north-western Kenya town of Kitale. The institution known as Blessed Josephine Bakhita Formation Centre, trains catechists, seminarians and teachers. It also offers short induction course on Dinka culture to foreign missionaries assigned to serve in the war-torn African state.

Following his appointment, Monsignor Mazzolari has received several message of congratulations. The Arch-bishop of Khartoum, Gabriel Zubeir Wako described the appointment as a greater blessing to the people of Rumbek and not a “benefit” to Monsignor Mazzolari.

Charles Omondi

In his speech, Fr. Crowley blamed arms-manufacturing nations for the escalation of civil strife in Africa He said that without supply or arms from outside, most wars in Africa could not be sustained.
Bishop Crowley urged the graduands to preach reconciliation to the warring Sudanese communities. “You must preach the message of reconciliation to all since the Bible states clearly that all human beings are created in God's image and likeness,” he said.

The catechists will serve in different centres in southern Sudan sees of Rumbek, Wau and El-Obeid. BJBFC was initiated by the Diocese of Rumbek headed by Monsignor Caesar Mazzolari. It was built on the Kenyan soil because the current war situation in southern Sudan cannot allow for the establishment of a similar institution in Africa's most expansive state.
Formal education in southern Sudan ground to a near-halt about a decade ago.
The civil war in Sudan, whose causes are deeply rooted in the country's colonial past, pits the mostly Arab and Muslim north against the mostly Christian and traditionalist south. It's current phase, now in its 15th year, together with its consequences, have claimed not less than 1.5 million lives. Thousands of others have been forced into exile as refugees while equally large numbers are displaced internally.
Since its inauguration on August 21, 1996, BJFC has experienced tremendous growth in a bid to cater for the ever increasing demand for qualified man power in the war torn southern Sudan. New programmes have been introduced, among them the Mission Orientation course for missionaries posted to serve in Southern Sudan.

Six sisters and one priest have this month completed the orientation training in Dinka culture and language. Of the seven participants, two were from Costa Rica, one from Mexico, one from Italy, one from Eritrea, while the other two were from Uganda.
The next lot of students comprising 80 seminarians, 23 teacher-trainees and 47 catechists, will report to the institution on January 7, next year.
Named after a Sudanese slave girl who became a Catholic nun in Italy and was proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul in 1992, the institution aims at forming young people into promoters of evangelisation, education and development.
The graduation ceremony was also attended by Monsignor Mazzolari, who praised the institution's first group of graduates for their “excellent work'' despite the many difficulties in their respective areas of operations.
He singled out hunger and isolation as the biggest challenges the catechists have had to contend with. He appealed to them to remain steadfast in their faith as many more challenges are yet to come.

Charles Omondi

The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Fax: 613-996-3443

Dear Mr. Axworthy,

RE: Talisman Energy Inc. and Sudan

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This development requires the Canadian government's urgent attention. Several of us have been in direct dialogue with Talisman but have been unsatisfied with the responses received. In principle, we are not against a Canadian firm helping to develop Sudan's oil wealth. However, with the Islamist National Islamic Front in control of the Sudanese government, we believe that any revenue generated by oil production and sales will be used to further prosecute the civil war and result in many more human rights abuses and civilian deaths. Therefore, everything possible should be done to curtail or at least limit the activities of Talisman and other Canadian companies wanting to invest in Sudan at this time. We believe that Canada has tools at its disposal for this purpose. We would like to draw your attention to several:

First, a word about Talisman's operations in Sudan. Talisman's presence will help provide the Sudanese government with oil for domestic use and much-needed revenue. Currently, according to Talisman's own reports, 10,000 barrels of oil a day are being pumped from wells in the Bentiu region of southern Sudan. The crude oil is being refined in nearby El Obeid and, we believe, used to fuel military activities including the operation of tanks, personnel carriers, and the planes that bomb hospitals and displaced persons camps in southern Sudan. We have received credible reports from displaced people from the areas surrounding the oil fields charging ethnic cleansing.

The reports allege that government forces and the militias armed and directed by the government have cleared the area of local people (whom the government believes could be sources of support for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army) in order to secure the safety of Canadian and other foreign oil workers and increased oil production.

Furthermore, the presence of a credible Canadian oil company will also create a favourable climate of investment and allow the Sudanese government to access international credit, which, we believe, it will use to prosecute the civil war with even greater intensity.
Note: Among observers of the civil war in Sudan, there is widespread agreement that the struggle will not be resolved militarily, but that it can be prolonged.

We would like to make some practical suggestions concerning how Canada might take a stronger stand on this matter. It is inevitable that other Canadian companies will be interested in sub-contracts and investments made possible by Talisman's venture in Sudan. These companies, along with Talisman, will, no doubt, seek to have their financial risks underwritten by Canada's Export Development Corporation (EDC). In a letter to the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa (April 1997), you wrote that Sudan remains "off-cover" in terms of EDC financial assistance to Canadian firms working in Sudan or supplying equipment and services to such companies or Sudan itself. We hope that Canada has no plans to change this policy and that pressure from these companies will be resisted.

We would further request the suspension of all support for Canadian firms doing business in or with Sudan, including export programmes and commercial promotion.
Sudan, like Burma, could be placed on the Area Controls List which would require companies wanting to export equipment and technology to Sudan to apply for an export permit. Applications for permits could be carefully screened and denied on the basis of the human rights record of the Sudanese government. We understand that any country can be added to the list at your discretion as minister.
Secondly, Canada could use the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) to unilaterally impose economic sanctions on Sudan. A prior resolution from an international body (e.g. the Commonwealth or UN) would not be needed to empower such an action. For the Act to be used, Cabinet must be of the view that a grave breach of peace and security has occurred that has resulted, or is likely to result, in a serious international crisis. We believe that more than five million displaced people, the use of famine as a weapon of war, humanitarian relief programmes costing $1million each day, support of insurgent forces in Uganda and Eritrea, and acts of international terrorism-all associated with the Sudanese government,-qualify as a serious international crisis.

We understand that determining whether there is such a breach leading to such a crisis is a discretionary decision taken by Cabinet, and one that is very difficult to challenge in the courts. This implies that the use of the SEMA is a matter of political will, not legal consideration-an important distinction. Economic sanctions, we realise, can have far-reaching implications for civilians and should never be taken lightly. While we are not at this time calling for sanctions, we believe that Sudan qualifies for measures under the SEMA, and respectfully request that your office review prospects for the use of the Act as soon as possible. We suggest that a research memorandum be prepared to explore the options. We appreciate Canada's commitment to peace, human rights, and humanitarian relief in Sudan, demonstrated tangibly through support for the IGAD peace process, resolutions at the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), and donations of humanitarian aid. We hope this commitment will also find expression in political resolve not to allow Canadian corporations to add to the misery and suffering of innocent people in Sudan.

Thank you for your attention to this most urgent concern. We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,
Gary W. Kenny
Director, Inter-Church Coalition on Africa (ICCAF)
On behalf of the following agencies:
Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers) (Contact: Carol Dixon 613-228-2805) Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: (Contact: Madeleine Robins 905-336-2920) Canadian Labour Congress: (Contact: Paul Puritt 613-521-4655 Ext. 435)
Emmanuel International: (Contact: David Bainbridge 905-640-2111)
Freedom Quest International: (Contact: Mel Middleton 403-818-5010)
Inter-Church Coalition on Africa: (Contact: Gary Kenny 416-927-1124)
Mennonite Central Committee: (Contact: Chris Derksen Hiebert 519-421-9078)
Primate's World Relief and Development Fund-Anglican Church of Canada: (Contact: Zaida Bastos 416-924-9192)
Project Ploughshares: (Contact: Ernie Regehr 519-888-6541 Ext. 263)
Steelworkers Humanity Fund: (Contact: Gerry Barr 416-487-1571)
United Church of Canada: (Contact: Lee Holland 416-231-7680 Ext. 5156)
Copies: Sandelle Scrimshaw, Director General, Africa Bureau, DFAIT
Aubrey Morantz, Director, Eastern and Southern Africa Relations
Division, DFAIT
The Hon. David Kilgour, Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa
The Hon. Bill Graham, Chairperson, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade
The Hon. Colleen Beaumier, Chairperson, Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Human Rights
David Melvill, Political Officer for Sudan, DFAIT
Eric Hoskins, Policy Adviser, Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
John Schram, Canadian Ambassador to Sudan
Preparation of this letter was facilitated by the Sudan Inter-Agency Reference Group (SIARG).
Inter-Church Coalition on Africa 129 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON Canada M4V 1N5
Tel: 416 927 1124 Fax: 416 927 7554 E-mail: iccaf@web.net
Web Page: www.web.net/~iccaf

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SUDAN CATHOLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

Bethany House, P. O. Box 21202, Nairobi, Kenya

tel. +254.2.562247 or 569130, fax 566668

e-mail:  scio@maf.org

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