AFRICANEWS-Sudan
A monthly publication of AFRICANEWS
For the period covering September 15 – October 15, 2002
Contents:
Part I – Sudan
Part II- Northern Uganda briefs
Part III- Horn of Africa briefs
Part 1 – Sudan
1. Back to the table
By Cathy Majtenyi
The Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) headed back to the negotiating table October
14 in Machakos, Kenya, appearing to have been compelled to do so by the
international community.
Until the first week of October, prospects for the
two sides coming back together to iron out the details of the historic Machakos
Protocol appeared shaky. As late as September 28, the Government of Sudan said
it would only resume talks if there was a ceasefire between the two sides and
if the SPLA promised not to bring up issues that the government says have
already been covered in previous talks.
But on October 4, the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD), a group of African countries that is facilitating the
talks, announced that both sides have agreed to resume talks on October 14,
with no preconditions.
On the first day of the resumed talks, the two sides
are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that will cease hostilities
while negotiations are taking place, Dr. Samson L. Kwaje, official spokesperson
for the SPLM/A, told The East African.
“The IGAD mediators have suggested that the SPLM/A
and the Government of Sudan will observe cessation of hostilities while
talking,” so that there can be a “conducive environment” during the talks, he
said.
The fact that the Government of Sudan is returning to
Machakos without a guarantee of a ceasefire and other preconditions suggests
that it may be being pushed to do so.
In an interview in mid-September several weeks after
Machakos II collapsed, Dirdeiry Ahmed, Charge D’affairs in the Embassy of Sudan
in Nairobi told The East African that the Government of Sudan is under
“tremendous pressure” from “all corners of the globe” to return to the table.
“It is always better to have a convinced partner
willingly coming to negotiate rather than somebody who has been brought under
pressure,” he had said. “If the international community is going to intervene
and just ask the government to go back to the table for negotiations, period,
otherwise we’re going to do so and so, this will not be fair to the government
and will not be fair to the cause of peace itself.”
However, when asked whether the Sudan government was
under international pressure to come back to Machakos now, Ahmed told The East
African: “I don’t think I’d be in a position right now to talk on that
subject.”
“After we left Machakos, there was a lot of
international pressure on both sides, from the Americans, the British, from
envoys, President Moi,” said Kwaje. “For us, there was no pressure on us [to
come back now]. We’ve been saying all along that we are at the table – the
Government of Sudan walked away.
“But I think there was a lot of pressure on Khartoum
to come back,” he said. “If there is that attitude [that they have been
pressured], then I’m afraid that the government may come back with a
half-hearted approach, so I’m not confident that we can really tackle the
issues. But I hope that they can come not just because they are pressurized but
really to come and talk peace.”
The second round of talks began in mid-August
following the signing of the historic Machakos Protocol on July 20 by Dr. Ghazi
Salahuddin Atabani representing the Sudan government, and Commander Salva Kiir
Mayardit on behalf of the SPLM/A.
The Machakos Protocol commits the Sudan government to
confining Sharia (Islamic law) to the north. It also grants south Sudan a
six-year period of administrative autonomy, after which the population can
decide in a referendum whether to stay in Sudan or secede. The protocol and
associated negotiations seek to end Sudan’s 19-year civil war, which has killed
an estimated two million people.
During Machakos II, the two sides were supposed to
have ironed out issues contained within the protocol and its implementation. On
September 2, however, the Sudan government pulled out of the talks following
the capture of Torit by the SPLA, saying that it could not negotiate while
hostilities continued on the ground.
The SPLM/A had also “backtracked on so many (points)
made in the Machakos Protocol,” Ahmed had told The East African. He said that,
during Machakos II, the SPLM/A had called for a secular capital, two states
(one set in the north, and one set in the south), and the redefinition of the
“south” to include the Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile, and Abyei, issues
that were not up for discussion since they were already dealt with in the first
round, he said.
According to Kwaje, the government ended the talks
because “Khartoum does not want to share power with the SPLM/A. They want to
absorb the SPLM/A into their system.”
Topping the agenda of the latest round are issues
dealing with power sharing, wealth sharing (particularly of oil revenues),
human rights, and the rule of law. The second part will focus on security
arrangements, which include a ceasefire and who is to be in charge of security
in the south.
In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of
international movement to get the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A talking
together again.
Leading up to IGAD’s October 4 announcement were
visits to both sides by Tom Eric Vraalsen, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
envoy to Sudan, a message by President Moi to Sudanese President Omar
el-Bashir, and other meetings.
On October 7, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed a bill that, among other things, empowers President George Bush to
impose economic sanctions against Sudan if the U.S. determines that the
Government of Sudan is not negotiating in good faith to end the war. Weeks
before that, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner
urged the Sudan government to resume negotiations.
Observers are greeting the latest round of talks with
cautious optimism.
“I know that there was international community
pressure on both parties,” said Lazim Suleiman Elbasha, deputy executive
director of the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organization
(NRRDO) based in Nairobi.
“Due to this pressure, they [both sides] will come,”
he said. “The pressure is for the good of the people, because they are fed up
with the war and they want peace. Also, the international community wants peace
for Sudan.”
Elbasha said negotiators need to discuss: the
re-definition of the south to include the Nuba Mountains and other areas; the
issue of self-determination; the Sudan government’s lifting of jihad (Holy War)
against the Nuba Mountains and other areas; the respecting of human rights; and
other issues.
“We are very much in need of peace,” he said. “We
need the help of every person, every country, the United Nations, and in
particular the friends of Sudan to bring peace and an end to the conflict.”
ENDS
September
15: A top government advisor outlined the conditions under
which the Government of Sudan will come back to the negotiating table with the
rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA must withdraw from Torit
in southern Sudan, agree to a truce and respect agreements in place such as
"the relation between religion and state, the boundary of the south, the
issue of self-determination, and the claim for a confederation by the rebel
movement".
15:
Khartoum agreed to a visit in October by UN human rights rapporteur Gerhart
Baum after refusing to meet him in Khartoum earlier this month. Baum was
requesting details on how Khartoum spends its oil revenues.
16:
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail says that a military strike against
Iraq is "imminent" and will be launched from U.S. bases in Arab
states.
16:
The SPLA denied claims by Sudan's ambassador in Egypt, Ahmed Abdul Haleem, that
the SPLA is receiving arms and training from Israel. He dismissed these claims
as lies aimed at drumming up support from the Islamic world.
17: Officials
from the European Union call upon Khartoum and the SPLA to return to the
suspended peace talks as soon as possible. Greece's ambassador says the EU is
ready to back the peace process and urges the two sides to resume negotiations
as soon as possible.
17:
The Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) released a
report, “Sudan’s Best Chance for Peace: How Not to Lose It,” which urged
mediators to encourage proposals that favour the country's unity rather than
secession of the south, arguing that Khartoum is likely to stick to the peace
process with the SPLA if it believed that the risk of partition is minor. The
SPLA's interest in the peace process will, on the other hand, be sustained if
it is assured of the government's commitment to the "redistribution of
national power and wealth," the report said.
18: USAID’s
Famine Early Warning System Networks (FEWS Net) reports that the food security
situation facing western Upper Nile (Wahdah State) is "precarious,” having
deteriorated over the last month due to continued conflict. Also, thousands of
people displaced by fighting from Western Upper Nile into neighbouring Bahr-al
Ghazal (whose prospects for the coming harvest are “poor”) and Jonglei States
had lost the benefits of the current agricultural season as they have been
forced to leave before harvesting their crops, it says.
18: Sudanese special envoy Mahdi Ibrahim says
that the SPLA must accept a ceasefire, and withdraw from Torit, before the
government of President Omar el-Bashir will return to the negotiating table.
18:
The SPLA reported that the government attacked several SPLA positions in south
Sudan over the past few days and bombed several villages, killing more than 40
civilians as they slept.
19: Presidential
peace adviser Ghazi Salah Eddin told British peace envoy Alan Goulty that
Khartoum would only resume peace talks with the SPLA if they agree to a full
ceasefire. Eddin, quoted in an official statement, argued that a
"cessation of hostilities during the negotiations" was a precondition
because it would "provide an atmosphere free of tension."
19: The
Sudanese government plans to sell 74 percent of state-owned Bank of Khartoum,
the largest in the country. The shares are worth around US$100 million and will
be offered to local and foreign investors, says Salah Abdel Aziz, secretary of
the bank's board of directors. The state will retain a 26 percent stake in the
bank.
20: Interior
Minister Major General Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein advised people in the
southern provinces to prepare to defend their largest city Juba against a
possible assault by the SPLA, because of the SPLA’s September 2 capture of the
town of Torit some 135 km away.
20:
Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said the US had promised to help the Sudan
government to reach a ceasefire with the SPLA. Ismail said this during a meeting
with his U.S. counterpart, Colin Powell.
20: A
30-year-old former Sudanese military pilot identified as Mekki Hamed Mekki and
suspected of planning anti-American attacks is being held in the US. The pilot
is accused of having links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network believed to be
planning to hijack an airliner for an attack on the White House on September 11
of last year.
21: Indian
Oil Minister Ram Naik says ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of India's national
oil exploration company Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (P.ONG), will likely complete
the purchase of Canada's Talisman Energy Inc.'s (TLM) stake in Sudan by the end
of October. India is keen to expand exploration and production operations
across the globe.
21: Sudan’s
Ambassador in London, Dr Hasan Abdin, announces that Sudanese ambassadors in
Europe and North America are expected to meet in London on September 26 and 27
to discuss a post-war strategy, strengthen Sudan’s foreign relations, and drum
up support for the reconstruction of war-ravaged areas.
21: Sudan’s
second Vice-president Prof Moses Machar says that the government is committed
to resuming peace talks if the SPLA show commitment to what had been agreed
upon in Machakos (Kenya) and halt all military hostilities. He says the state
would provide the displaced people in Juba fleeing from Torit with their major
requirements.
21:
Raiders from Sudan, on horseback and camels, massacre several dozen villagers
in the north of the Central African Republic this month. Witnesses say that the
raiders, who were backed by poachers from Am Dafog in Sudan's western Darfur
province, were avenging a tribal attack.
22: State Minister Najeeb Al-Khair Abdel-Wahab
says Sudanese diplomats in Washington are contacting US officials to learn more
about the case of Sudanese pilot Mekki Hamed Mekki, who is being held on
immigration charges as investigators try to determine if he is an al-Qaida
operative.
22: Abdel
Halim al-Mutaafi, the governor of Khartoum state, said the government would not
intervene to curb a rise in Khartoum bread prices, which have climbed between
25 and 50 percent in the last three days and sparked protests. He said the rise
in bread prices is due to globally high wheat prices.
23: Bombs
dropped from Sudanese government aircraft have killed 35 people in southern
Sudan in the past five days, said the SPLA. A SPLA statement said the heaviest
death toll occurred at Amadi camp for displaced persons near Lui in Western
Equatoria province, where 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded.
24: Khartoum
said that the US is satisfied with Sudan’s cooperation in the fight against
terrorism and was not pushing to send U.S. troops into the country to hunt for
al-Qaida elements.
25: Sudanese
charge d'Affaires to Uganda Surajuddin Mohammed assured Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni that President Bashir and the Sudanese government are committed
to upholding the protocol, signed in March, that allows Ugandan forces to hunt
for Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels operating in southern Sudan.
26: The
SPLA accused the Sudan government of launching attacks on three SPLA fronts in
Upper Nile and Eastern Equatoria.
26: The
International Monitoring Team, created under the Civilian Protection Agreement,
announced that it would begin operations in southern Sudan within a week to
investigate allegations of intentional attacks on civilians by the government,
the SPLA and surrogate militia forces.
26: The
state owned SUNA news agency reported that Sudanese government troops and the
Popular Defence Forces had recaptured Midel area in the southern Blue Nile
province, inflicting "heavy losses" on the SPLA.
26: A
Sudanese military plane dropped three bombs on the Ugandan army detachment at
Palotaka in southern Sudan, injuring seriously three Ugandan soldiers. Ugandan
Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi says his Sudanese counterpart apologized and
blamed the incident on pilots who had missed their targets.
26: The
government of Sudan banned all UN relief flights into Eastern and Western
Equatoria provinces in southern Sudan for nine days, leading to speculation
that the government is about to launch a major military offensive against the
SPLA. There was no immediate explanation for the ban from the government in
Khartoum.
26: Judge
Ahmed Hajj Nour, the former head of the Khartoum Court of Appeal who helped
introduce Islamic law in Sudan and later volunteered to fight southern rebels,
was killed in a southern battle zone.
27: U.S.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the Sudanese government's
recent bombing of civilian areas in southern Sudan and urges Khartoum to resume
peace talks with the SPLA. He noted in particular a September 21 attack that
killed at least 13 people, including four children, at a cattle farm.
27: Major
Shaban Bantariza, spokesman of the Uganda army, says Uganda was investigating
whether an aerial attack on its troops by Sudanese fighter planes, which
injured three soldiers, was intentional or was a mistake. Analysts say the
current bombing may sour relations between the two countries.
27: The
SPLA announced that it would stop fighting to try to create a conducive
atmosphere for the resumption of stalled peace talks with the government.
"The SPA is prepared to create a conducive atmosphere during the talks.
This will be by way of observing restraint and not engaging in offensive
military operations during the peace talks," said the SPLA statement.
27: Concerned that the prospect
of peace in Sudan may once again be fading, the State Department's top official
for Africa has urged the government of Sudan to join the SPLA in agreeing to
end of hostilities and resume negotiations. "The SPLA has stepped up to
the plate. They have agreed to days of tranquillity, they are ready to go back
to the table any time and now it's Khartoum's turn," Assistant Secretary
of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner said.
27: Khartoum announced it
welcomed an offer from the SPLA of a "temporary ceasefire" in return
for a resumption of peace talks. A presidential peace advisory panel,
representing the government, said in a statement that Khartoum's acceptance was
aimed at "reaching fruitful results and genuine peace."
27: All humanitarian flights
from northern Kenya to strife-torn southern Sudan were grounded after Khartoum
imposed a flight ban in the region after fighting escalated between government
troops and the SPLA, a UN spokesman said in Nairobi. "All flights are
grounded as from this morning," said Martin Dawes, spokesman for the
UN-sponsored multi-agency aid group Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS).
27: The
SPLA said its forces had killed 1,000 government troops in
several days of heavy fighting near the southern town of Torit, which
government forces are trying to recapture. The SPLA said in a statement it had
shot down a helicopter gunship and killed 250 Sudanese troops as they attacked
Lafon, a SPLA-held town 60 km northwest of Torit.
28: Khartoum denied SPLA claims
that it lost more than 1,000 soldiers in a failed attempt to recapture Torit.
The declarations of the SPLA spokesman Yasser Armane "are unfounded",
said a statement from the office of army spokesman Mohammed Beshir Suleiman.
28: A media-monitoring group
sent a letter to the U.S. government requesting information on reports that an
employee of the Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera was being held at a U.S.
naval base in Cuba. The letter by the Committee to Protect Journalists
requested information on assistant cameraman Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national
who, according to al-Jazeera, was being detained at Guantanamo's Camp Delta
along with al-Qaida suspects.
28: The Kenyan Special Envoy
for Peace in Sudan, Gen L Sumbeiywo was due to Khartoum on 1 October to conduct
talks with the Sudanese officials on the recent developments in the peace
process in Sudan. The minister of foreign affairs, Dr Mustafa Osman Isma’il, announced
this.
28: Sudan reiterated its
position of demanding declaration of a ceasefire as a condition for resuming
suspended peace talks with the SPLA. The so-called Sovereignty Sector stressed
that the government would return to the talks only after declaration of a
ceasefire and an SPLA commitment not to raise issues already resolved by the
first round of talks, said presidential press adviser Abbas Ibrahim al-Nour.
29: A Saudi billionaire, Prince
Al-Waleed bin Talal, Sunday signed a U.S. $30 million agreement for the
construction of a five-star hotel and a U.S. $300 million deal for importing
Sudanese livestock. President Bashir invited al-Waleed, a nephew of Saudi King
Fahd, to Sudan, his company said in a press release.
30: The Sudanese government is
considering lifting a nine-day ban it has imposed on relief flights in parts of
southern Sudan, a government humanitarian aid official said. The government
imposed the ban in Eastern and Western Equatoria due to fighting between its
troops and the SPLA, saying the aim was to protect relief workers.
October 1: The U.N.
World Food Programme (WFP) said a government ban on U.N. aid flights to parts
of war-torn southern Sudan was depriving half a million hungry people of
emergency food supplies. WFP spokeswomen Brenda Barton said the unprecedented
restriction, which has been strongly condemned by the United States, also in
effect ruled out truck deliveries of food to the needy in Bahr el-Ghazal region
and Western Upper Nile provinces.
1: A helicopter gunship belonging to
the Sudanese air force crash-landed on the way to Torit, said the state owned
SUNA news. The SPLA had announced that it downed a helicopter gunship in the
area. However, the government claims the helicopter crashed due to a technical
fault, killing all the crewmembers.
2: The SPLA
claimed to have cut off the oil supply to Khartoum, saying they blew up the
country's main pumping station two days earlier. An SPLA unit "attacked
and destroyed" the collection and pumping station at Heglig in western Upper
Nile state, cutting off the supply to the capital, the group said in a
statement.
2: The UN has suspended a polio
immunisation campaign due to start next week in south Sudan after Khartoum's
decision to ban relief flights to the war-torn region for nine days, a UN
spokesman said. The supplementary vaccination exercise targeting 791,000
children in southern Sudan will not start as scheduled because vaccines and
staff cannot be flown in.
2: Zimbabwean Vice President Simon
Muzenda met in Harare with Sudanese envoy Mahadi Ibrahim who briefed him on the
peace process in the Sudan. Ibrahim told journalists after meeting Muzenda that
the Sudanese government was very interested in the resumption of negotiations
in the Sudan to bring lasting peace after decades of war.
3: Sudanese opposition forces took
control of two garrison towns in eastern Sudan, and were preparing to attack
the city of Kassala, SPLA leader John Garang said. The attack on the garrisons
of Hamashkurb and Shallob was carried out by the National Democratic Alliance
(NDA), an umbrella group for the SPLA and forces of the northern opposition to
President Bashir's regime, he said in a statement.
3: The Sudanese army denied a report
from the SPLA that it had captured two garrison towns in a new flare-up in
eastern Sudan. "These are mere allegations through which the rebel
movement is trying to divert attention from its setbacks, and internal
weaknesses and problems," army spokesman Lieutenant General Muhammad
Bashir Sulayman told state radio.
3: Ageing Sudanese Islamist leader
Hassan al-Turabi has been removed from jail to a hospital after falling over
during ablutions before prayers, colleagues said. The sheikh was performing his
late evening ablution...He slammed to the wall and fell unconscious. He was
rushed to hospital where he is still being kept," said Mohamed Hassan
al-Amin, a leading figure in Turabi's Popular National Congress party.
3: The Sudanese government denied
claims by the SPLA to have attacked a major oilrig in southern Sudan, cutting
off the flow of oil to the north. "This is a figment of someone's
imagination," Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese
embassy in Kenya told IRIN.
4: President Bashir received a
message from his Kenyan counterpart, Daniel arap Moi, containing ideas for
resuming peace talks with the SPLA, an official said. A Kenyan envoy, General
Lazarus Sumbeiyo, conveyed the message Bashir adviser for peace Ghazi Salah
Eddin told the state-run Omdurman radio.
4: The Sudanese government and the SPLA
agreed to a cessation of hostilities and the resumption of peace talks,
regional mediators said. In an unsigned statement faxed to AP, the secretariat
of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said peace talks would resume
on October 14.
4: A top UN official said he had
failed to convince the Sudanese government to lift a ban on delivery of
humanitarian aid to two southern provinces, which has left more than 500,000
people without food aid for nine days. Kenzo Oshima, the top U.N. official for humanitarian
affairs, said he had met with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha,
but the latter made no commitment to reverse it, Oshima said.
4: Sudan accused neighbouring Eritrea
of participating militarily in a rebel offensive in the east of the country and
made no mention of a resumption of peace talks announced by mediators in Kenya.
Defence Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh briefed an emergency cabinet meeting
chaired by President Omar al-Bashir about the "Eritrean aggression",
presidential spokesman Abbas Ibrahim Nur told the official SUNA news agency.
5: Eritrea has denied Sudanese
government accusations that it is involved in an SPLA offensive in eastern
Sudan, saying that it would welcome a commission of enquiry into the matter,
the Libyan JANA news agency reported.
5: Sudan has welcomed a resumption of
stalled peace talks with the SPLA in an effort to end the war, the daily Akhbar
al-Youm reported. IGAD announced that Sudanese government and the SPLA had
agreed to resume halted peace talks soon and to stop fighting.
5: Sudan has closed its border with
Eritrea after accusing its neighbour of backing a rebel offensive, a government
newspaper said. The government of the eastern province of Kassala "has
closed the border with Eritrea to prevent rebel movement through the
border," said Al-Anbaa daily.
6: The UN resumed food aid flights to
war-torn southern Sudan after Khartoum lifted a flight ban imposed eight days
ago, a UN spokeswoman told AFP. "We started flying this morning after the
government of Sudan told us that we can resume flights," said Brenda
Barton, spokeswoman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
6: The Sudanese army said it pulled
back from an area on the border with Eritrea that came under rebel attack. The
government accused the SPLA of attacking its army posts in the eastern province
of Kassala, about 400 km east of Khartoum, with Eritrea's help. Eritrea denied
the accusation.
7: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Sudan
are hostile to certain minority religions, a US State Department report on
religious freedom said.
7: A Sudanese pilot working as a taxi
driver in North Carolina pleaded innocent to immigration charges. Mekki Hamed
Mekki Hamed Mekki, 30, was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine counts of
violating immigration laws. The judge scheduled a trial for November but
indicated it might be pushed into December.
7: The Nuba Mountains Cease-fire
Agreement in the Sudan is holding despite renewed hostilities in some areas
further south of the country, the chairman of the Joint Military Commission
(JMC) said. In a statement, JMC chairman Brigadier-General J.E. Wilhelmsen of
Norway said the agreement has been in effect for nine months without any
hostilities.
7: The US House of Representatives
passed a bill that calls on President George W. Bush to impose economic
sanctions on Sudan if he determines that its government is not negotiating in
good faith to end the civil war. The House voted 358-8 for the measure that
could lead to sanctions.
7: The Sudanese army vowed it would
recapture within 48 hours two garrison towns that have fallen to the SPLA in
the country's south and east. Army spokesman General Mohamed Beshir Suleiman
told reporters that Khartoum's troops "have destroyed the
capabilities" of the SPLA "around Torit," near the border with
Uganda. The Sudanese army forces "have began marching to clear the rebel
pockets surrounding Hamashkurb," near the border with Eritrea, he added.
7: Frustrated by slow progress toward
a peaceful settlement in Sudan, the US House of Representatives called for a
war crimes investigation in the violence-wracked African nation, to hold those
who slaughtered civilians responsible. US lawmakers believe the US government
should know the names of the perpetrators of those crimes to make their subsequent
prosecution possible.
8: The Sudanese army recaptured the
key southern garrison town of Torit from the SPLA, reports from both sides
said. At the same time the rebels claimed to have seized an important garrison
in the northeast of the country and cut the strategic road from Khartoum to
Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
8: The African Union asked Eritrea
and Sudan to avoid raising the temperature over reports of fighting in Sudan
along their border. Amara Essy, head of the regional body, called on the countries
to exercise restraint as relations deteriorate over Sudanese accusations
Eritrea harbours groups fighting Sudan.
9: Sudan's ambassador to Lebanon said
Khartoum was ready to restart talks with the SPLA, a day after the government
retook the strategic southern town of Torit. "We will return to the
negotiating table, but we will return on our terms: the cessation of assaults
and no discussion of issues we have already talked about," said ambassador
Ahmed al-Bakhit said after meeting Lebanese foreign ministry officials.
9: The SPLA
captured two towns in eastern Sudan, cutting traffic on a strategic road
linking the capital with the country's main Red Sea port, their spokesman said.
Rasai I and Rasai II were captured when a rebel force drove out the 500 soldiers
guarding the two towns, about 440 kilometres east of the capital, Khartoum.
9: President Bashir said his
negotiators would return to peace talks in Kenya but vowed to fight on against
rebels in eastern Sudan while hoping for a truce in the south, state radio
reported. "Our negotiating delegation will go to Nairobi after tomorrow on
our conditions of a cessation of hostilities and commitment to the first
Machakos agreement," Bashir was quoted as saying on Omdurman Radio.
9: President Bashir belittled a call
by the U.S. House of Representatives to sanction Sudan if its government does
not negotiate in good faith with the SPLA. Such threats mean nothing to Sudan,
Bashir told a gathering of deputies outside the headquarters of his armed
forces' general command.
10: The Sudanese opposition
warned that the people in drought-stricken northeastern Sudan suffered from
"acute shortages" of food and water and accused the government in
Khartoum of hiding the problem. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella
grouping of both southern and northern rebel and opposition factions, said it
discovered the crisis after rebel forces scored victories in the area this
month.
10: Talisman Energy is holding
private talks with potential buyers for its controversial Sudanese oil property
and will decide in a few weeks whether to sell or keep the lucrative asset.
Company president Jim Buckee told analysts that discussions with potential
suitors are ongoing in private, "but as a sort of help, I think the matter
should clarify in about four weeks."
10: President Bashir said he
was still waiting for the east African sponsors of the Sudanese peace talks to
clarify the terms of its negotiations with the SPLA. "We are still waiting
for a reply from the secretariat" of the Kenya-based Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD), Bashir said at a press conference with
visiting Burundian President Pierre Buyoya.
10: President Bashir visited
Torit town, recaptured by the government troops from the SPLA. In his address
to the soldiers, Bashir said the army should proceed with the operations until
all territories held by the SPLA were "liberated".
10: President Bashir said Sudan
will send a delegation to Kenya next week for talks with the SPLA, but warned
that peace negotiations can resume only if fighting stops. Bashir said that
SPLA has yet to reply to his conditions for the resumption of peace talks,
which included an end to fighting in southern Sudan.
10:
Kenya has denied allegations that it plans to import oil from the Sudan.
However, Energy Minister Raila Odinga told members that local oil marketing
firms were free to import their petroleum products from their preferred sources
as dictated by market forces.
11: The Sudanese army is
tightening its siege of Old Rassai in eastern Sudan on the border with Eritrea,
while New Rassai town is still under government control, the regional governor
said. "The army and Popular Defence Forces have imposed a tight siege on
Old Rassai to clear it of rebel and Eritrean forces," Kassala state
governor Adam Hamid Mussa said, quoted by the official news agency SUNA.
11: Arab League
Secretary-General Amr Musa said the League is making intensive contacts vis-a-
vis the Sudan crisis. The contacts aim at achieving peace, putting a stop to
the decimating fighting there and maintaining the unity and integrity of the
Sudanese territories.
11: Sudan's top peace
negotiator was due to travel to Kenya to sign a ceasefire agreement with the
SPLA as a pre-condition to resuming peace talks at the end of next week, a
member of his delegation said. Amin Hassan Omar will lead the bulk of the
government's delegation to sign a memorandum of understanding prepared by IGAD.
12: Eritrea is amassing troops
on its border with Sudan, a Sudanese newspaper reported, a week after Khartoum
accused Eritrean forces of attacking areas in east Sudan. "Information has
been revealed to Akhbar al-Youm of fresh amassing of Eritrean troops in the
area of Gormika and Khor Hawora on the border of Kassala state in eastern Sudan
and of new reinforcements which have arrived at Eritrean posts on its border
with Sudan," the pro-government Akhbar al-Youm said.
12: Sudanese Foreign Minister
Mustafa Ismail Saturday branded as "unbalanced and unobjective" a US
Congressional resolution calling for sanctions against Khartoum. "We
believe the resolution was unbalanced and unobjective and would not help in
pushing the different parties to carry on with the peace process," Ismail
told AFP.
Part II- Northern Uganda briefs
September
17: The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has
condemned an attack by LRA rebels on an aid convoy in northern Uganda, which
has resulted in the suspension of relief food deliveries to some 120,000
people. "It is totally unacceptable that humanitarian aid would be the target
of such attacks," WFP Country Director for Uganda, Ken Davies, said in a
statement.
20: The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which is active in
northern Uganda, is resorting to crude weapons such as machetes and axes
because it has run out of firearms and ammunition, a senior army official said.
Media organisations reported that the LRA had attacked a village in the
northern district of Gulu, and hacked 14 people to death using machetes and
axes.
27:
The British-based human rights organisation, Amnesty
International, has expressed concern over the safety of 20 prisoners held by
the Ugandan army at a military detention facility in the northern town of Gulu.
It said the prisoners were "illegally removed" from Gulu Central
Prison on 16 September, when the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) raided
the prison and rounded up 21 men.
October 1:
A group of religious leaders has vowed to continue pressing
for talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA rebels despite a
presidential order preventing them from making further contact with the rebels.
The Ugandan media reported that President Yoweri Museveni had written a letter
to John Baptist Odama, the Catholic archbishop who chairs the Acholi Religious
Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), instructing him to stop visiting the LRA.
3: The Sudanese and Ugandan governments have delayed extending
a defence protocol because of a new situation created by the recent upsurge in
fighting between the Khartoum authorities and the SPLA in southern Sudan, a
senior Sudanese diplomat said. Siajudin Hamid, the charge d'affaires at the
Sudanese embassy in the Ugandan capital Kampala, told IRIN the two governments
were still holding consultations on terms for extending the protocol.
4: The Ugandan army said that the
Sudanese army had attacked positions of the LRA rebels in southern Sudan
killing 12 fighters and injuring 12 others. Army spokesman Major Shaban
Bantariza said that the Sudanese army had responded to attacks by the Ugandan
LRA rebels at Nisitu, near the southern Sudanese town of Juba.
4: The LRA
rebels have attacked a Sudanese refugee camp in northwest Uganda, killing five
government soldiers and burning down 65 dwellings, a spokesman for the Ugandan
army said. Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said the five soldiers killed
were defending the Amaji refugee settlement, about 440 kilometres north west of
Kampala.
4:
The Ugandan army has ordered civilians displaced
by LRA rebels to return to government-protected camps within 48 hours. Maj
Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan army's spokesman, told IRIN that the civilians
had been ordered to return to the camps so that they would be protected against
the LRA, as well as against any possible fall-out arising from the army's
stepped-up offensive against the rebels.
Part III- Horn of Africa briefs
September
17: The Representative of the UN Secretary
General for Somalia, Winston Tubman, has urged the Somali people to observe an
'International Day of Peace' on September 21 as part of the global effort to
focus on peace. According to a statement from his office, Tubman said the day
was an opportunity for Somalia "to reflect on the scourge of many years of
civil conflict".
26:
The UN Security Council has called on Somalis to
participate "constructively" in next month's national reconciliation
conference. The conference - which should have been held in April - is due to
take place on 15 October in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, after months of debate
and postponements.
October
3: The southwestern Somali town of Baidoa fell to
the rivals of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) chairman, Col Hasan Muhammad
Nur Shatigadud, who has been in control of the town since July, a local
business source told IRIN. Forces loyal to Shatigadud's two deputies and rivals
for power - Shaykh Adan Madobe, the RRA first vice-chairman and the second
vice-chairman, Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade – had seized control of the town.
8:
Women representing five regions in southern and
central Somalia held a meeting in the town of Marka, 100 km south of the
capital, Mogadishu. The workshop, which came a few days before the Somali peace
talks are due to open in Eldoret, Kenya, is expected "to give the women a
forum to discuss, debate and develop an approach for peace that can succeed in
Eldoret", said a press statement.
9:
Invitations to attend the much-postponed Somali
reconciliation conference in Eldoret, Kenya, have been sent out, sources close
to the talks told IRIN. "Everything is on track and the invitations to all
the political entities were sent by yesterday, 8 October," the sources
said.