Author: Stephen Mbogo
Publication: Cybercast News Service
Date: February 12, 2003
URL: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200302\FOR20030212c.html
The United States has condemned
the Sudanese government following new attacks against civilians in rebel-
controlled areas.
The latest reports said heavy fighting
is going on in the rebel-controlled oil- producing Leer area of Western
Upper Nile province, where militias allied with the government murdered
civilians this week.
The Sudan government and the rebel
Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) on Feb.5 signed an agreement to strengthen
an earlier ceasefire deal. But State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher
issued a statement saying that Sudan has violated the ceasefire agreement.
He condemned what he described as "unconscionable attacks and abuses" against
civilians in the Western Upper Nile region.
Boucher was responding to a report
by U.S.-led team of international monitors who detailed a number of attacks
in southern Sudan in December and January, and the displacement of thousands
of civilians.
The condemnation follows reports
by an international team of U.S. and Canadian officials, who traveled to
Liang in Western Upper Nile province, where they discovered fields littered
with human remains. Many of the victims were young children, they said.
The bodies were those of civilians
killed in Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawaji areas in late April 2002. It
is estimated that as many as 4,000 civillians were killed in that attack.
The report was released by officials
from organizations including Servant's Heart, Freedom Quest International,
and The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada).
Although Sudanese embassy officials
in Nairobi were unavailable for comment, independent sources close to the
Sudanese government told CNSNews.com that the fighting is still going on
in Western Upper Nile, with SPLA Commander Riek Macher leading the rebels.
"The attacks on SPLA positions are
being made by local militias supported by the government. The fighting
has been going on for more than two weeks now," said the source.
One villager described the horrors
of April 2002, as he watched Sudan soldiers shoot and kill his 4-year -old
daughter as she tried to run away. Then his 6-year-old son was captured
and beheaded by the soldiers, his body thrown into a burning hut.
Philipa Cevey, a spokesperson for
the US-led Joint Military Command, which monitors the ceasefire agreement
in the Nuba Mountains area, said the team's mandate does not cover the
areas visited by the international team of U.S. and Canadian officials.
In January, the charity group Christian
Solidarity International (CSI) called on the U.S. to speak out against
Khartoum's resumption of "ethnic cleansing operations" and destruction
of international aid agency facilities in rebel-controlled oil-producing
areas of Western Upper Nile.
Sudan Catholic Bishops Regional
Conference (SCBRC) officials confirmed that the latest fighting is going
on in parts of Western Upper Nile province. SCBRC Assistant Development
Coordinator Perre Odongi said the attacks by government militias were happening
near the oil fields in the province.
He said his organization had found
that local militias are encouraged by the government to attack civilians
in the rebel-controlled areas in return for "small tokens" from the government.
"The attacks are sometimes brutal.
We have reports where a lady was killed by hammering nails into her head,"
said Odongo.
The Islamist-dominated, Arab government
of Sudan is fighting a civil war against black African Christians and animists
in the South. At least two million people have died since the fighting
began twenty years ago.
The Bush administration launched
a peace initiative in September 2001, when the president appointed former
Sen. John Danforth as special envoy for peace in Sudan.
The U.S. initiative has invigorated
an eight-year-old peace process sponsored by a regional body called the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
IGAD Special Envoy on peace in Sudan
Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo on Feb.6 forecast that peace in Sudan would be realized
before the end of the year. He spoke after the two parties signed an agreement
on the issues of wealth- and power- sharing and committed themselves to
tackling governance and security issues when the talks resume, possibly
on March 2.
