May 9, 2013 (JUBA) – Intellectuals and senior political leaders from the greater Equatoria region have called on contestants for the top seat in the ruling party, SPLM, to refrain from violent politics and allow for fair and peaceful competition in the country.

Eastern Equatoria state Governor Louis Lobong Lojore speaking at the consultative conference in Juba, May 9, 2013 (Larco Lomoyat)

Hundreds of representatives from the three states of Central, Eastern and Western Equatoria converged in Juba on Thursday to discuss the political, economic and security situation unfolding in the new country.

The governors of the three states; namely Clement Wani, Louis Lobong and Joseph Bakosoro, respectively, attended the rare event and delivered speeches during the opening of the conference.

The two-day consultative gathering was also attended by the speaker of parliament and deputy chairman of the SPLM, James Wani Igga, as well as by the deputy secretary general of the party, Ann Itto, ministers and parliamentarians from the greater region.

The regional-based consultation on the country's politics is a new turn of event that may unnecessarily drag the nation into regional blocs or alliances, say officials from other regions.

The greater Bahr el Ghazal has also announced that their regional leaders will meet in Wau, capital of western Bahr el Ghazal state, in the next few days to discuss “challenges facing the region.”

The three greater regions, Upper Nile included, were created in the difficult times of Kokora era in early 1980s, when politics turned tribal and regional as the former presidents of the then High Executive Council, which was formed after the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, became bitter rivals.

The current transitional constitution of South Sudan does not however recognize the former greater regions as it only provides for the three levels of government, which include the national, state and local levels, without referring to the former greater regions as legal blocs in the system.

While accepting party transformation and leadership contest as normal practice, the greater Equatoria leaders called on those involved to refrain from violence.

Speakers during the event, they called on the ruling party leaders to undergo the procedural internal transformation process, and warned contestants against sideling their region in the process.

Central Equatoria's Clement Wani Konga (Photo Larco Lomoyat)

Central Equatoria state governor, Clement Wani Kongo, said when the two bulls fight it is the grass that suffers, adding the conferees that the region will not continue to watch and suffer like the grass.

Louis Lobong Lojore criticized leaders who “cook” ideas without involving the regional leaders from the beginning and then later on come to ask for support. “We must be involved from the beginning,” he said.

Western Equatoria governor, Joseph Bakasoro, called on the ruling party to imitate the recent internal discipline that was witnessed from the South Africans' ANC party. Bakasoro also criticized what he said was negligent to the country's national army, saying the government should make sure they are paid on time.

The speaker of parliament and deputy chairperson of the SPLM, James Wani Igga, who is an Equatorian, encouraged the regional leaders to promote economic activities so as to achieve food security in the country.

In a meeting of the SPLM Political Bureau last March, the speaker reportedly voiced to support the current president of government and party chairman, Salva Kiir, if Kiir wanted to maintain the seat till the year 2020, a position which was criticized by the many leaders in the region.

As a second thought, Wani, also said he would compete for Kiir's top seat if Kiir decided to step down and allows for others to compete.

Speakers in the conference, however, advised not to make their colours known until the party basic documents are passed and campaign started.

The political bureau is expected to meet again next week for finalize the remaining basic documents such as the code of conduct and rules and regulations.

The highest party organ has completed the review of its manifesto but failed to agree on certain provisions in the draft constitution which is referred to the national liberation council for further deliberations.

Among the pressing issues to be confirmed by the national liberation council is whether a primary election will take place prior to the national convention where leaders will be elected.

The current chairman also wants handpick 5% of the candidates to the convention which was resisted as that would give him high ground against other competitors.

Western Equatoria's Joseph Bangansi Bakosoro (photo: Larco Lomoyat)

Another contention is about what voting system to apply between “secret ballots” and “show of hand.”

The presidential advisor and widow of the late founder of the party, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, on Tuesday warned of “red lines” as she was referring to some of the contentions. It is also speculated that she supports Machar to lead the transformation process for the next phase.

Vice President Riek Machar and SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum were among the leaders who challenged Kiir to step down.

Machar asked his running mate in the last elections of 2010 to support him to take over the top seat. Amum however wants that he be allowed as the successor to Kiir and asked the two leaders to step down.

(ST)

May 9, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir will fly to Chad on Friday to attend the Great Green Wall summit, a presidential official said today.

Chad's President Idriss Deby (L) walks next to his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir (R) at Khartoum airport Feb 8, 2010 (Reuters)

Bashir's press secretary Emad Sid Ahmed said that Bashir will address the summit which has been postponed twice before.

The summit was originally scheduled for March but rescheduled amid speculations that it was delayed over controversy related to Bashir's presence.

Bashir has been wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2009 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

The conference was rescheduled again last April in a last minute move by Chadian president Idriss Deby who has reportedly asked for the postponement due to conflicting schedules of participating leaders.

Chad has dismissed reports of international pressure to shun the Sudanese leader and insisted that the rescheduling was a result of the participants' busy calendars.

This will be Bashir's fourth visit to Chad, which is a signatory to the Rome Statute, the founding document of the ICC.

Last month Chad also received the Sudanese defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein which was the latter's first visit to an ICC member since the Hague-based court issued a warrant for him in 2012.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the upcoming visit by Bashir to Chad.

"This would represent the fourth time Chad has welcomed ICC fugitive Sudanese president al-Bashir. Chad's hosting him is an insult to victims. He should be arrested, not welcomed in Chad", said HRW senior international justice counsel Elise Keppler in an emailed statement to Sudan Tribune

African countries rallied behind Bashir and issued resolutions stating that they will not cooperate with the ICC in apprehending the Sudanese leader even if Bashir visits countries which have ratified the Rome Statue.

This has enabled Bashir to visit African ICC signatories such as Kenya, Malawi, Djibouti and Chad without incident.

During Chad's thorny relations with Sudan, president Idriss Deby vowed at one point to execute the arrest warrant against Bashir, rejecting African Union (AU) resolutions granting him immunity. However, as relations improved Deby reversed his position.

(ST)

May 9, 2013 (JUBA) – The African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) has called for a “credible, transparent and independent” inquiry into circumstances that resulted into the recent killing of the Dinka Ngok paramount chief in Abyei.

Members of Abyei Joint Oversight Committee in a meeting (AU photo)

Kuol Deng Majok and a United Nations Interim Forces for Abyei (UNISFA) personnel were on 4 May, killed when armed men reportedly attacked their convoy in Baloom, an area within the contested region. Three other peacekeepers were also injured in the incident.

The AUPSC, in a communiqué issued after its meeting on Abyei developments, urged the Government of Sudan to ensure that all those responsible for this terrible crime are brought to justice immediately.

“(..)Council also stresses the need for the urgent definition of the Terms of Reference of the proposed inquiry,” the statement reads in part.

The US, UN and scores of African leaders strongly condemned the Abyei incident, while calling on concerned authorities to investigate the matter and hold accountable, those responsible.

The attack, the AU said, was likely to compromise the “significant progress” both Sudan and South Sudan have so far made in efforts to promote mutually cooperative relations. It further urged the leadership and the people of the two countries to demonstrate utmost restraint and ensure the situation does not escalate further.

[The] Council further urges the two governments to exercise control over the respective communities in the Abyei area, it stressed.

The AUPSC, at its meeting, also expressed concern over reports that the various communities living in Abyei were heavily armed, contrary to the June 2011 Agreement on Temporary Arrangements for the Administration and Security of the disputed region.

The agreement, in part, stipulates that Abyei should be a weapons-free Area, and that only UNISFA is authorized to carry weapons inside the area.

“To this end, [the] Council urges the two Governments to take all the necessary steps to ensure that Abyei is effectively demilitarized, including through disarmament programmes as necessary. [The] Council further appeals to the Government of Sudan to fully and immediately withdraw its forces from the demilitarized zone,” further reads the communiqué.

The AU also urged the leaders of the two countries to ensure the final status on the disputed region is reached, based on its High Level Implementation Panel proposal of 21 September 2012.

Meanwhile, members of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) appealed to both Sudan and South Sudan to speed up the formation of the Abyei Area Council as well as the Abyei Area Administration.

The committee, during its extraordinary meeting held in the Ethiopian capital also agreed to engage communities from both Sudan and South Sudan so they can engage their people to restrain from further attacks.

(ST)

May 9, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese army has agreed to boost salaries of soldiers and officers by 22% amid growing military activities against rebels in the country.

FILE PHOTO - Sudanese army troops (GETTY)

Last month the Sudanese defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein complained to parliament that army salaries are low and do not encourage soldiers to make sacrifices.

Under the new pay adjustment, soldiers and officers will now receive 450 Sudanese pounds ($75) 600 ($100) respectively in what is known as "operations allowance".

The Sudanese army is now preparing for new offensive in South Kordofan to eject rebels of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) from Abu Kershola district in South Kordofan state.

A week ago, the SRF, which includes the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), along with several Darfur rebel groups, launched a major attack most notably in Um Rawaba, the second-largest town in North Kordofan state, during coordinated attacks on several nearby areas.

In the past, the rebels' military activity was generally confined to the Darfur region, as well as the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The only exception was in 2008 when the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attacked Sudan's twin capital of Omdurman.

The Sudanese government has began a mobilizing campaign to support the army and the Sudanese parliament suspended its activities next week to allow MP's to head to their constituencies in order to rally youth behind the army.

(ST)

By Ngor Arol Garang

May 10, 2013 - The past days have seen global community watching members of the Nine Ngok Dinka of Abyei, together with their cousins in the South Sudan shedding tears unabated. They are grieved by the unexpected, untimely and the sudden death of Kuol Deng Kuol, the paramount chief of the area, who, on Saturday 4th, was gunned down in a terrorist style act, when he fell into an ambush strategically planned by the members of the Arabs nomads of Misseriya in the Lenger area, north of Abyei.

He was part of the joint high-level government delegation which was visiting the area from Juba and Khartoum for a consultative meeting to find a common ground and to hasten discussions on the need to form a temporary joint administration in the area so as to facilitate return of the displaced persons and the conduct of the referendum.

He was traveling in a military convoy of the Ethiopian troops serving in the area as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force tasked with responsibilities to ensure that the area is free from any armed groups and provide adequate security and protection of civilians under imminent threat and their properties as mandated by the United Nations Security Council resolution which established the mission for the area.

The Council normally approves such a resolution to establish a Mission if it finds that the situation in any part of the world shows sign that it would deteriorate and develop into threat to the stability, break of peace or act of aggression. The situation in Abyei warranted the establishment and the government of Ethiopia offered to send troops to provide and maintain peace and security in the region until such time when the two sides shall agree to end the dispute but situation since deployment of the UN troops to the area remains volatile despite resolution of the UN Security Resolution, which called for unconditional withdrawal of the armed forces, as well as any other armed elements.

The decision to deploy foreign forces was part of the international attempt to diffuse tension and prevent a return to a full blown war after the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) took control of the town earlier in May 2011, forcing over 110,000 people, mostly unarmed civilians to flee. Several others were killed and many more remained unaccounted for until today.

With calls to exercise restraint and maintain peace from the regional leaders and the international community, the government of South Sudan, since no country exists in isolation of the other, immediately responded and pulled out its troops which were component of the Joint Integrated Units during the six years of interim period under the terms of the 2005 peace accord, which ended over two decades of civil war between the successive Khartoum based government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). Sudan was expected to do the same but decided to remain in the area until in 2012 when authorities in Khartoum, wanting to draw international attention and renew contacts, decided to reduce the strength of it forces, which had entered the region. A significant strength equipped with modern weapons and conventional knowledge remained in the form of oil police in contrary to the resolution.

In September 2012, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on Sudan and South Sudan presented to the two presidents a peace proposal to resolve the conflict. The proposal recognised and allowed members of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms as indigenous people with voting rights at the referendum together with other residents with permanently settled in Abyei.

The government in the South, including its president Salva Kiir Mayardit, immediately accepted the proposal without any conditions but the government of Sudan under its president Omer Ahmed Hassan El-Bashir quickly rejected it entirely, calling for either partitioning of the region into the north to be administered by his government and the south to be administered to be administered by the government in Juba, or inclusion of Misseriya in the vote. Khartoum sees this suggestion, which was one of the proposals by the AUHIP in 2010, as part of the attempts to resolve the dispute but which Juba had rejected, citing its lack of basis in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. It is this difference that has always left the area in limbo and the killing of the paramount chief had highlighted the level the dispute has reached between the two communities.

Late Kuol Deng Kuol

Having lived in Abyei I extensively interacted with Chief Kuol while covering a myriad of issues of national value, including the future of the region. Chief Kuol was not only a great leader, but wanted to see the two countries embracing each other to live side by side in pursuit of mutual benefits and build trust to promote the idea of two viable states.

He was also a great thinker and a peace strategist who had wanted the region to play a strategic role in fostering harmony by properly utilising the concept of Abyei being molded into a bridge between two independent and viable states without each taking advantage of the other.

His ideas were always appearing shaped by the national interest, thus the reason he was an admired as a leader in his community and beyond. He had more friends than adversaries. He never scorned at anyone whether big or small. He was always humble and ready to pay a listening ear. His death can never be celebrated even those who killed him may be feeling the guilt of their act. He will be remembered by the generations as someone who immensely contributed to the liberation struggle of not only the people of Abyei and their cousins in the South but also marginalised groups in both countries. The fact that he was killed on national mission accompanying the delegation shows the level of love of his people and the country.

Why the people of Abyei could not secede with the south?

Described as “a bridge between the countries” in its protocol under the 2005 peace agreement, the region, known for its fertile agricultural land prevalence of oil, lies at the border between the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan which was formerly part of the united Sudan until on July 9, 2011, when she gained her full independent status, becoming the 193rd member of the United Nations and 54th member of the African Union.

Although majority of the area's inhabitants are ethnically, socially and culturally linked to those in the South, could not secede with the new nation, because it was transferred to Kordofan province in Sudan in 1905 during British rule for administrative purposes. Attempts aimed at persuading successive Khartoum-based regimes since the British left in 1956 have repeatedly failed; forcing natives to join rebellions waged in the South against Khartoum, hoping that any deal with Sudan would include their case and eventually get lasting peace. Such efforts were seen when the South signed a deal with Khartoum to end the first civil war which lasted for 17 years in 1972.

In that the deal, Abyei was granted “special status” and was allowed to vote in a referendum but the vote did not take place when the agreement was abrogated by Sudan's then military president, Jaafar Mohamed Nimery, triggering a return to war in 1983.

Angered by the failure by the government in Khartoum to allow them exercise their right under the agreement, the people of Abyei decisively joined the second war in numbers and fought with the South this time as part of the marginalised group wanting broader change in Sudan, especially the system. Many of the youth abandoned studies and joined the movement at its inception. Others followed after finishing their studies and they became some of the senior members of the movement by the virtue of their education.

With the singing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement with Khartoum and the rebel group predominantly fighters from the South, the area got the same right of self determination as it did in 1972 but it has proved equally make the vote happen as the two sides have not been able to agree on voter eligibility. The government of Sudan wants the members of the Misseriya Arab nomads who seasonally access the area to get water and pasture for their cattle to be part of the vote, while the government of South Sudan maintains that voting rights should be limited to members of the Dinka Ngok.

It is from this short background about the region whose situation had continues to remain unpredictable despite the presence of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) with absolute power to clear the region of any armed groups, that leaves one wondering as to when and how the status can be resolved. Normally, there are universal ways to resolve such conflicts. One way is peaceful settlement through negotiation. The other way is the involvement of an independent and competent court of arbitration lest they fail to reach an understanding after involving third party. Another option and which is universally acceptable is to conduct referendum so as to allow people involved in the conflict make decision of their choice.

In this case of Abyei, everything has been exhausted. The two sides negotiated the deal. They also involved the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague over the territorial dispute of the area and it was resolved. But the devil has been maintaining the spirit of negotiation to implement the outcomes of the talks. The territory of the area has been defined by the International Court of Arbitration in July 2009 and the decision was accepted by both sides but the implementation has not take place. The referendum was supposed to have been conducted simultaneously with the referendum on the South's independence in January 2011 but could not take place, because of the differences over voting rights. How can this now conflict be resolved?

Some options to resolve the dispute

There are some options to avoid escalation of the conflict. One of these options is for the international community, particularly the African Union Peace and Security Council and the United Nations Security Council to use its legitimacy to unilaterally and independently, on the basis of the its communiqué endorsed by the UNSC resolution 2046, conduct the referendum for the people of Abyei so they can decide where to go within the territory defined by the court, or allow the two sides to return to war, which will have a lot of consequences that may affect peace and stability in the region.

The other option is to make it totally an independent state from Sudan and South Sudan and letting it be administered by the United Nations. Aid together with resources generated from the area, should be exclusively and meticulously used for developing it.

How the people of Abyei should honour Chief Kuol

There is no any other better way for the people of Abyei to honour Chief Kuol Adol, than to come together and clearly demonstrate thei interest and resolve to the entire world that they will work together with his replacement, Bulabek Deng Kuol. To do this, there needs to be conference in which distinguished leaders at different levels would come together to strategise on the future of their area. They must show that they are united behind a common interest. There should be no separate conference and resolutions on Abyei. There must be one, whether in the diaspora, in the South, in Sudan they must one together and decide what they want for Abyei and its future generations. Uniting for the common interest and vote unanimously to decide the destiny is the only way to realise the objective of the cause for which the chief had died.

It is important that they come together to learn to how to see things for themselves and listen for themselves and think for themselves. If they do it, then they will eventually come to intelligent decisions for themselves. But If they continue with the habit of going by what they hear Westerners say about their future, or going by what they think about the current leadership in South Sudan and Sudan tells them, instead of going and searching that thing out for themselves and seeing it for themselves, they will be walking west when they should be going east, and walking east when they should be going west. They must have an ultimate say in issues which relates to the affairs of the region, as did by the Nuba Mountains. They did not want anybody to tell them what to do.

If they don't, then they will always be manoeuvered into fighting themselves. It is already clear that someone has planted the seeds of division in the area to make them not show genuine concern for each other.

They shouldn't also forget the fact that the area represents one of the most important, if not the most important, fields of battle against all the forms of exploitation existing in the world. There are big possibilities for success for the people of Abyei, but there are also many dangers. The positive aspect includes general hatred for expansionism, racism and discrimination. But there is also the principal danger of the possibility of division among the peoples, which appears to be continually rising. I have concrete reasons for fearing this danger. There are many problems and challenges but the unity could be strength to find solutions. They are perfectly capable of deciding upon their own future. They have capable people, most of them great leaders of the caliber of Dr..Francis Deng, Dr. Luka Biong, Edward Lino, Juac Agok, Deng Alor, Dr. Chol Deng Alaak, Arop Madut Arop, Deng Arop Kuol, just to name a few of the committed personalities. What they need is to exert much more, and break out of the vicious cycle of dependence on others, especially those who see Abyei as a small area of few square kilometers to be compromised for peace between the South and Sudan.

The author is a Sudan Tribune Journalist. He can be reached via ngorgarang8@gmail.com.

May 10, 2103 (Khartoum) - The Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari voiced Iran's enthusiasm for stronger naval cooperation with Sudan and announced that his forces are prepared to train Sudanese naval forces.

Sudanese naval officials wave as the Iranian Navy helicopter-carrier Kharg docks at Port Sudan in October 2012 (photo Press TV)

The Iranian military official made these statements on Thursday after a meeting with the commander of Sudanese Navy, General Dalil al-Daw Mohamed Fadal-Allah who is on a visit to Teheran.

Sayyari, who spoke upon receiving his Sudanese counterpart on Thursday, also said that unity between the two countries' forces will be effective in confronting their common enemies.

The Iranian news agency Fars quoted Sayyari as saying that the strategic location of Iran in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and northern Indian Ocean and the strategic location of Sudan in the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab Al-Mandeb, would enable the two countries to build close relationships to secure the region.

Sayyari further noted the two visits of the Iranian warships to Port Sudan last year pointing out that his country plan to conduct similar docking in the future.

Fadal-Allah for his part, called for the transfer of Iran's naval experience to his country in a bid to protect the security of the Red Sea.

He disclosed that that Iran agreed to provide the Sudanese Navy with military equipment to secure its coastlines but did not elaborate.

Iran warships which are regularly patrolling the Red Sea docked in October and December 2012 in Port Sudan. The first visit took place days after the bombing of a weapons factory in Khartoum. Sudanese officials at the time accused Israel of conducting the airstrike.

The docking of the Iranian warships, however, was criticised by the Arab press and the Sudanese opposition.

Reacting to this visit, the Sudanese opposition considered the Iranian-Sudanese military cooperation a threat to Sudan's relations with the international community, Washington, and the Arab gulf countries.

The media spokesperson for the Sudanese opposition, Kamal Omer, said that the move represent a threat to Sudan's foreign relations and stressed that it undermines any possible rapprochement with the international community and the United States.

"Khartoum is placing itself into the brink of the abyss", he added.

(ST)

May 10, 2013 (BOR) - The Governor of South Sudan's Jonglei state on Thursday urged the Federal government to ensure that the country's security law is properly utilised once the document is endorsed.

Participants including the Jonglei governor, at the South Sudan consultative forum on drafting of national security policy in Bor, May 9, 2013 (ST)

Governor Kuol Manyang Juuk made these remarks while addressing a forum held in the state capital, Bor.

“I hope South Sudan will not draft the resolutions and leave it and then they go somewhere”, he said.

The Governor, during the forum, also described what he said was his own understanding of national security.

“I think definitely security is our life. Security is when we are stable. Security is when there is nothing disturbing our minds”, he defined.

Juuk blamed the state rebel leader Major general David Yau Yau and his alias for creating insecurity to Jonglei and to South Sudan in general.

The forum, among other resolutions, concluded that corrupt officials should not only be relieved from posts by government, but also tried in courts and must not be employed anywhere, if found guilty.

National reconciliation and healing program, most participants argued, should be done to reconcile communities and tribes. They further said strengthening of security forces, capacity building of the army and provision of modern weapons would reduce internal conflicts and outside aggression.

The drafting committee, at the forum, got full notes about the national priorities, including security, improvement of infrastructure (priority on roads), health, agriculture and peacebuilding through national healing and reconciliation process.

More than 100 people attended the forum, with similar ones expected to be conducted all over South Sudan's 10 states.

(ST)

• David Yauyau / David Yau Yau

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

May 10, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) - Human rights group, Amnesty International, on Thursday criticised Eritrea over the allegation that it is arresting thousands of people for political reasons.

President of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki (Getty)

The new report comes as the Red Sea nation is set to mark its 20th anniversary of independence on May 24, after 30 years of armed struggle with Ethiopia.

The report said Eritrea's harsh prison facilities remain packed with thousands of political prisoners arrested indefinitely without any charges or trial.

Amnesty said President Isaias Afeworki's hardline regime in Asmara has currently imprisoned at least 10,000 political prisoners, many in “unimaginably atrocious conditions” describing the East African nation as one of the most repressive, secretive and inaccessible countries in the world.

“The government has systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive restrictions it places on people's lives”, said Claire Beston, Amnesty International's Eritrea researcher.

Some of those imprisoned are suspected dissidents, journalists, politicians, those caught while trying to flee the country or avoid conscription into the army and "anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive system".

Eritrean authorities have reportedly arrested over 180 people since January when some 200 mutinous soldiers stormed the Ministry of Information in Asmara and demanded the release of all political prisoners across the nation.

Two decades after it gained independence, Eritrea is a country in which human rights are systematically violated, a country with no independent media, no opposition political parties, or any civil society.

The Eritrean government recognises only four religions and anyone who is member of an unregistered religion will be arrested if found to be performing any religious activities, such as preaching.

ERITREA REACTION

The Eritrean government has immediately rejected the "wild accusations" in Amnesty's latest report.

In a statement, the Eritrea's foreign ministry said it "rejects in the clearest of terms" that it had jailed thousands of dissidents and activists.

"The sordid picture it paints resembles little to the reality" said the ministry.

The Eritrean government has in the past repeatedly dismissed international criticism of its human rights record.

In the latest report, Amnesty International called on Afewerki to immediately release all prisoners of conscience arrested for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, opinion, association, religion or belief, or their identity as family members of people who have fled the country.

OPPOSITION RENEWS CALLS

An Eritrean opposition group on Friday called on the international community to look into the "gross" human rights violations being committed by the regime against innocent Eritreans particularly against ethnic minorities groups of Afar and Kunama.

The Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) said human rights situation in Eritrea have increasingly deteriorated with no sign of improvement since Afewerki assumed power in 1991.

In an interview with Sudan Tribune, an opposition official accused the international community of turning its back on addressing the human rights situations in Eritrea.

“Despite our repeated calls, the international community has failed to take actions” Nessredin Ahmed who is in charge of the group's foreign affairs told Sudan Tribune.

“We renew our calls on the international community to put pressure and intervene in the release of all political prisoners in Eritrea”, he said, further calling for the arrest of Eritrean officials responsible for the long-standing atrocities in the country.

“Eritrean government and Military officials have for years committed brutal and inhuman crimes against thousands of Eritreans and must be brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Justice”, said Ahmed.

The opposition group said it strongly opposes a lifting of any of the sanctions imposed against the country citing attempts by some pro-Eritrea bodies who are seeking for their partial removal.

“Lifting any sanctions would mean encouraging the terrorist government to intensify its ill activities inside Eritrea and across the region”, Ahmed added.

The Eritrean opposition official further said the number of Eritrean political prisoners is far larger from the figure released by Amnesty.

He further alleged that dozens of members of the Army and journalists were detained this week.

(ST)

May 10, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's High Committee for Mobilization and Alert has held a meeting with mosque's Imams to discuss the implications of the rebel Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) recent attacks in South and North Kordofan states and to call for Jihad (holy war).

An unidentified Islamic group leader speaks after a mass “standing prayer” in Khartoum on 3 May 2011 in honour al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was shot dead in Pakistan (Reuters)

The meeting discussed the need to reinforce the message of the mosque in the society and to urge worshipers to fulfil the virtue of Jihad and martyrdom as well as fighting the enemies who, according to them, terrorized the peaceful residents at Um Rawaba, Abu Kershola, and Um Brimbita.

The spokesperson for the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) Mohamed Ahmed Haj Majid, warned against the project sponsored by the SRF which he said aims to disrupt the national unity and break up the country, calling on Imams to spur people for Jihad and fight in the path of Allah.

The mayor of Khartoum locality, Omer Nimir, for his part, stressed the importance of mosques and Imams in shaping public opinion, urging Imams to appeal to people donate money, food, and clothing for the victims of what he called "insidious" attack on North and South Kordofan.

On Wednesday, Sudan's National Assembly decided to suspend its sessions for a week in order to enable MPs to head to their constituencies and lead a mobilization campaign in support of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in its ongoing battle with rebel groups which have stepped up their military activities recently.

In a rare attack last month, SRF rebels swept through the city of Um Rawaba in North Kordofan, before withdrawing later in the day.

Fighting between the rebels and SAF has previously been mainly limited to Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states bordering South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011.

North Kordofan, which includes Um Rawaba and forms part of Sudan's commercial heartland, is a hub for the country's agriculture, livestock and gum Arabic industries.

SAF now has it eyes on reclaiming Abu-Kershola district in South Kordofan which was overran by rebels during last month's assault.

Officials in Khartoum say that they have completely surrounded the area and pledged not to stop until they recapture Kauda which is the stronghold of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan.

(ST)

May 10, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese ministry of health has watered down reports of meningitis outbreak in the country and called avoid crowded places.

Following reports about the existence of suspected cases of meningitis in different parts of the Sudan, Federal Ministry of Health said that there were no new reported cases of the disease but warned however against crowded places.

The director of the department of epidemiology at the ministry of health, Hayat Salah Al-Din, said in a press statement that the ministry carried out vaccination campaign for meningitis in ten states last year and will continue to cover the remaining seven states by May 17.

The vaccine of meningitis is effective for ten years.

Meningitis bacteria, according to the ministry, are transmitted from one person to another through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions.

The most common symptoms of the disease are stiff neck, high fever, confusion, headaches and vomiting, among others.

(ST)

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

May 10, 2013 (BENTIU) - Women and children in South Sudan's Unity state have resorted to crashing gravels to fight hunger threat in the oil-rich region.

In a series of interviews with Sudan Tribune, women and children as young as 10 years, narrated how their daily lives depended on stones to not only earn a living, but also meet school needs.

Ruei Tena Bol, a 13-year old boy from Kordapdap village says he is engaged in the activity in order to raise money to pay school fees.

“I have no money to pay school fees that forced me into street jobs; I'm only brought up by a single parent after the death of my father. My mother struggles to bring us up through making alcohol for money. And I'm digging gravels in order to pay my school fees and to use some money in additional to our daily consumption”, said Bol.

The young lad, who has been in the business for the last one and half years, said he was forced into it after the school administration started demanding for money his mother could hardly afford.

Unity state has been severely hit by hunger, due to heavy floods that affected some areas, and the situation worsened after the closer of the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

Nyatuay Gatluak, 25 said she decided to collect gravels to make money in order to raise money for her sick seven year old child.

“My coming here today was because of my small son who got sick and this forced me to join these groups of women in digging gravels. I'm not a resident of this town. I came from GoliGoli deep in the village to collect gravels in order to take him to the hospital," she said.

Part of the money, she said, would help transport her back to village”, she said.

With the current austerity measures, initiated in the wake of last year's oil shut down, South Sudan's economy almost reached the verge of collapse, a leaked World Bank revealed.

Elizabeth Nyawuok Gai, a 40-year old woman says life has been extremely hard since South Sudan gained independence in July 2011. For her, raising her seven children as a single mum, has not been an easy walk.

“We have a lot of challenges in common as women. You may find a woman raising up children without [her] husband, and this really makes us suffer as women in this nation. This is why we came here as groups of women collecting gravels," she said.

Each woman, Gai stressed, could get about SSP 10 (about $3) daily, which they use to feed their children when they return home.

(ST)

By Eric Reeves

May 11, 2013 - I'm often asked, "Is the Darfur situation still awful? is it still a humanitarian crisis?" It's a painful question to have to answer, if only because of the difficulty in providing even a superficial overview of such unfathomable human suffering and destruction; or the brutality of Khartoum's war of attrition against humanitarian relief efforts; or the massive and continuing displacement of civilians (more than 1.3 million since 2007). And it is just as difficult to give an adequate account of the role of the Khartoum regime in sustaining what Human Rights Watch a number of years ago called "Chaos by Design." In fact, the vast crisis in Darfur continues to be "designed"—sustained by denial and obstruction of humanitarian access; by Khartoum's granting impunity to militia proxies engaged in extortion, murder, and land appropriation; and by the relentless military assaults of the regime's regular Sudan Armed Forces and its proxy forces. The SAF air force in particular continues its brutal assaults—largely indiscriminate aerial assaults on civilian targets, of which there have been many hundreds confirmed (seewww.sudanbombing.org).

"But why has it disappeared?" is the typical follow-up question. "What about the vigorous advocacy movement at the beginning of the genocide? Why don't we read about Darfur in the news any longer?" This is a harder set of questions, but there are at least some obvious answers:

[1] Khartoum allows no journalists into Darfur, except under tightly controlled circumstances; and such control can produce egregiously inaccurate reporting by even talented journalists; see my April 15, 2012 account of a deeply misleading New York Times dispatch from West Darfur).

[2] Independent human rights reporting has not been permitted in Darfur for many years, and most of the various UN human rights "reporters" have done exceedingly little. The former UN Panel of Experts on Darfur did some excellent work, but its well-researched findings did not have a large audience; and by 2010, the Panel had become badly politicized and its reporting deeply inadequate (see Sudan Tribune, April 28, 2013). For example, September 2010—the month of the large-scale and utterly savage slaughter of non-Arab civilians by an Arab militia force in Tabarat, North Darfur—was carefully elided from the calendar of both the outgoing Panel and the incoming Panel, which began with October 2010, even as the previous Panel had covered only through August 2010. We still have no UN account of the ethnic slaughter at Tabarat, even as it was reported contemporaneously—in detail—by Reuters, which had actually taken the time to interview survivors.

[3] The UN, both in the Secretariat and in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has badly misrepresented the scale of the crisis in Darfur, indeed has gone so far as to lie about humanitarian access. The UN has also acquiesced before Khartoum's demand that humanitarian data and reports not be promulgated. UNAMID, which is also routinely denied access by Khartoum's officials, is a demoralized mission whose reporting has become slovenly and wildly incomplete.

I sense that many people not from Darfur have come to believe that the crisis has simply gone on too long to be a true crisis—a conclusion that is only etymologically correct. But attention has certainly drifted, and fatigue has settled in for many activists and advocates—mainly for the reasons outlined above.

But there is another less obvious reason that Darfur has become invisible. For the suffering and destruction have at various times been seriously misrepresented by those who claim to know the region best. Alex de Waal, who has repeatedly and stridently condemned civil advocacy in the U.S. and elsewhere—as ignorant, misguided, and finally destructive—seems the best exemplar here. After the debacle of the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement (Abuja, Nigeria), de Waal went on to become the "Darfur expert" for the African Union Panel on Darfur (AUPD) that convened in 2009; the Panel was chaired by the politically ambitious Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa. The AUPD produced a lengthy, excruciatingly redundant report (without a single citation of work by others, including those upon whose work they obviously depended), and as conclusion offered a "Roadmap for Peace in Darfur."

Implementing the "roadmap" predictably transformed the AUPD into the (now geographically vague) "African Union High-Level Implementation Panel" (AUHIP), with Mbeki again chair. Many will recall that it was Mbeki who refused to accept well-established scientific evidence concerning HIV/AIDS, and subjected South Africans to a brutal epidemic that still ravages the country. And it was Mbeki as well who threw a crucial diplomatic lifeline to Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe; there is no crueler or more destructive one-man tyranny in Africa than Mugabe's. All too predictably—given their flawed means of proceeding and even more flawed leadership—the AUHIP failed badly in Darfur. They have subsequently migrated to other Sudanese issues, with the same vaguely exalted title of "African Union High-Level Implementation Panel"; their inadequacies have been similarly manifest elsewhere in greater Sudan.

So what sort of advice was Mbeki receiving from de Waal? What view of Darfur shaped the AU's? For someone so critical of the purported ignorance of advocates for Darfur, de Waal in 2009—the year the AU panel convened—offered a rather remarkable view of Darfur. Speaking of the village of Ain Siro in Kutum Locality, North Darfur, de Waal declares rapturously:

"A few days in Ain Siro is a reminder of what life used to be like in Darfur. The village is nestled in the spine of hills that runs due north from Jebel Marra into the desert. Protected by the mountains, the SLA has controlled the area for the last four years, and for many of the people in the vicinity, allowed an element of normality to return. Villages have been rebuilt, a rudimentary health service set up—and the school re-opened."

"Ain Siro shows how people on all sides are tired of war and, when given the chance, can make their own small but significant steps towards peace and normality. When Julie Flint first wrote about Ain Siro ‘'saving itself' in 2007, most were sceptical that it represented anything significant. Two years on, not only has Ain Siro survived, but its model of self-help is less exceptional than it was."

(May 29, 2009 at his SSRC blog: http://blogs.ssrc.org/darfur/2009/05/28/a-taste-of-normality-in-ain-siro/)

Ain Siro and its surroundings are presently caught in the middle of the vast maelstrom of violence surging in all three Darfur states—violence that has been surging for many months, even as it has ebbed and flowed for the past ten years. The village lies approximately 30 miles from Kassab camp in Kutum Locality, where some of the worst violence of the past year has been focused. But even at the time de Waal was writing, violence in Darfur had by no means ceased; human displacement had certainly not abated, indeed was continuing at terrifying levels (see http://www.sudanreeves.org/?p=3970); and Khartoum's intention to crush the Darfur insurgency by genocidal means remained just as clear under new direction by the notoriously brutal senior presidential advisor Nafie Ali Nafie (this following the death of his predecessor, Majzoub al-Khalifa, in June 2007). Methods certainly had changed from the most violent period of the genocide (2003 – 2005/2006), but large-scale, ethnically-targeted violence remained very much a fact of life for the people of Darfur. The previously noted example of Tabarat (September 2010)—close to de Waal's Ain Siro in North Darfur—is all too revealing (http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/17/ozatp-sudan-darfur-survivors-idAFJOE68G0BJ20100917).

Moreover, in May 2009 most of Darfur was still reeling from Khartoum's catastrophic expulsion of thirteen international relief organizations in March 2009, and the shutting down of three Sudanese national humanitarian organizations. Senior relief officials within the humanitarian community consistently estimated that this represented approximately half the total relief capacity for all of Darfur. Did de Waal somehow think—two months after this event—that there would be no serious consequences? In fact, these consequences have become steadily more apparent in the following years. Humanitarian conditions, already poor, continue to deteriorate badly; humanitarian capacity and access continue to shrink. Indeed, the people of Ain Siro may well be beyond the reach of relief assistance; Khartoum continues to engage in the systematic denial of humanitarian assistance to areas where specific ethnic groups are concentrated; and some 100,000 Darfuris have been displaced from this part of North Darfur alone over the past year.

Strongly encouraged as I have been for almost ten years now, by a great many Darfuris, I have continued to write about the realities of the region as reported to me by the people of Darfur themselves and increasingly by Radio Dabanga, an extraordinary journalistic collaboration of Darfuris, based in The Netherlands. Radio Dabanga has done far more than the UN or international journalism it making Darfur's realities visible (and is increasingly cited by other news sources, including the UN's Integrated Region Information Networks, IRIN). I have also benefitted from confidential humanitarian sources who have reported from the ground in Darfur, and from within UN OCHA, as well as from a range of other confidential sources. I have also read all the literature on Darfur from INGOs, human rights groups (typically using Sudanese national sources), policy organizations, and others; even in 2009 and subsequently these reports and accounts continued to be voluminous and time-consuming, if often fragmentary and incomplete. But I was certainly not alone in seeing something other than the idyllic scene at Ain Siro that de Waal reports, and which presumably informed his advice to the AU high-level panel then assembling.

What I heard and read was reflected in my running commentary (most of it published in the Sudan Tribune, a venue dismissed by de Waal as "biased") on the humanitarian and security crises in Darfur. Here I should frankly acknowledge that de Waal has recently written dismissively of these efforts: "Those who have hardly been [to Sudan] have no difficulty in writing reams of text…" (AllAfrica.com, May 9, 2013). What one would not surmise from this characterization is how much in these "reams" is citation and quotation, frequent and substantial citation and quotation from the widest possible range of reliable sources. It is in one sense an effort at archiving what is in great danger of being lost or forgotten or simply ignored, as it has clearly been by de Waal.

It may be useful, then, to compare de Waal's rapturous account of May 2009 with my own more expansive accounts from the periods before and after this moment. I offer no summary overview; the catastrophe in Darfur is neither simply nor easily rendered—and it is continually evolving. Understanding how deeply, perversely wrong-headed de Waal has been requires, indeed, some substantial reading. Better this than the glibness for which de Waal has become so well known.

• Humanitarian Efforts in Darfur Face Escalating War by Khartoum, Sudan Tribune, October 29, 2008, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29073

• Darfur Enmeshed Within Sudan's Broadening National Crisis, Sudan Tribune:

January 2, 2009, Part 1: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29742

January 22, 2009, Part 2: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29948

March 3, 2009, Part 3: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article30389

• Khartoum's Expulsion of Humanitarian Organizations (March 4, 2009), Sudan Tribune, March 25, 2009, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article30643

• Darfur Humanitarian Expulsions, Two Months On, Sudan Tribune, May 14, 2009,http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article31163

• Redefining Darfur's Agony: A Shameless Betrayal, Sudan Tribune, September 27, 2009, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article32602

• Humanitarian Conditions in Darfur: An Overview (in two parts), Sudan Tribune:

June 23, 2010, Part 1: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article35480

July 5, 2010, Part 2: http://www.sudantribune.com/Humanitarian-Conditions-in-Darfur,35569

• QUANTIFYING GENOCIDE: Darfur Mortality Update, Sudan Tribune, August 10, 2010, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article35911

More recently, and giving an even fuller sense of how profoundly misguided de Waal's May 2009 assessment has proved to be:

• Humanitarian Conditions in Darfur: The most recent reports reveal a relentless deterioration, Sudan Tribune, February 12, 2013, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article45480

• THE DARFUR GENOCIDE AT TEN YEARS: A Reckoning, Sudan Tribune,

April 20, 2013,http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article46292

• A Key Report on Darfur by UN Panel of Experts Consigned to Oblivion, Sudan Tribune, April 28, 2013,http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article46376

Much of this and other work, including academic publications, is assembled in archival fashion in Compromising With Evil: An archival history of greater Sudan, 2007 – 2012(www.CompromisingWithEvil.org).

Many generous words have been accorded this volume; none mean more to me than those of Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Eisa—former head of the Amal Center for Treatment of Victims of Torture and Rape (Nyala, South Darfur) and Robert F. Kennedy human rights award laureate for 2007. And his words, I have been convinced by frequent communications, represent the views of a great many Darfuris, who understandably express their bewilderment at the silence of an international community that seems to have taken de Waal's as the last word concerning the situation in Darfur:

"For the past few years, while the world has been stunningly silent, Eric Reeves has continued to write about the atrocities and immensely destructive policies of the Sudan government. His 2007 book, A Long Day's Dying, brought many of the atrocity crimes in Darfur to international attention. While some skeptics or deniers, such as Mahmood Mamdani, dismissed his writings, activists in Darfur and elsewhere continue to be sustained in their commitment by virtue of the research of A Long Day's Dying.

"His new and lengthy eBook [Compromising With Evil], representing much of his writing from 2007 to the present, makes a great deal more key information available concerning the evolving crises in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and the border region between North and South Sudan. In recent years the international community has chosen to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Darfur and Sudan. For his part, Eric Reeves has continued relentlessly to expose the failure of the international community in bringing about peace to Sudan, whether through implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 or the UNAMID mission in Darfur.

"Reeves's new eBook contains 14 annexes, each dealing with a specific topic of controversy that demands to be read. I strongly that urge those concerned about Sudan to read this new publication, which offers a sobering view of the deteriorating situation in both North and South Sudan."

I have certainly not spent as much time "on the ground" in Sudan as Alex de Waal has; but sadly, as his words reveal in various ways, those who have spent a great deal of time on the ground may still be unable to look in the right places or see what is quite plainly, if inconveniently, before them.

Eric Reeves is a professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, US. He has spent the past thirteen years working as a Sudan researcher and analyst.

Secretary General of the Sudan Scholar Council Mohamed Osman Saleh Al-Amin (SUNA)

May 11, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan Scholar Council (SSC) has called upon authorities to strictly regulate the massage business claiming that some practitioners have made the business a cover for "harmful" and "immoral" activities.

The Secretary General of the SSC, Mohammed Osman Saleh, said in a statement to the official news agency (SUNA) that there is a need for launching inspection campaigns on massage shops and closing down unauthorized ones in order to avoid violation of religious sanctities.

Saleh further discussed the Islamic ruling on massage, saying “if massage is exercised as a therapy under supervision of a physician or an expert, it is permissible provided that men aren't treated by women and vice versa”.

SSC is an informal body comprised of eminent Sudanese Islamic scholars but its views are not binding to the government.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese security agents shut down a TEDx community forum organised in Khartoum on Saturday after unplugging their power supply midway through the event, which aimed to inspire the sharing of ideas through the internet and social media.

Members of TEDx Khartoum pose for a collective picture (photo Tedx Khartoum website)

Hundreds of people had turned out for the event, which was hosted at Khartoum's luxury Corinthia Hotel, under the theme: “Knowledge into action”.

Security officials reportedly complained about a video broadcast being streamed live from the event to Khartoum university students, before later instructing the hotel's management to cut off the power supply in the middle of a speech.

New York-based non-profit organisation TED started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, with independently-run TEDx events now held annually around the world.

Sudan's version of TEDxwas founded by Anwar Dafa-Alla, a translator and professor of computer sciences, and was previously held in Khartoum in 2011 and 2012 without incident.

A tearful Dafa-Alla was cheered on in support as he fronted the crowd on Saturday to announce that security officials had revoked their permit and the event could no longer continue.

The abrupt cancellation also prevented the screening of the 'Our Sudan' documentary film project, which had been due to premier as part of the forum.

“What concerns us at this moment is to firstly apologise to our speakers and audience both locally and internationally. We did everything we could and dealt in utmost professionalism to try to solve the problem. Unfortunately, everything we did was not enough”, event organisers said in a statement posted on their Facebook page this morning.

This year's TEDx Khartoum for the first time featured international keynote speakers, who had travelled to the forum from the United States, Britain, India and Uganda.

Previous TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Sir Richard Branson and Gordon Brown.

According to the TEDx website, all affiliated events are organised independently on a community basis to “stimulate dialogue” and are free of any commercial, religious or political agenda.

Supporters took to TEDx Khartoum's Twitter and Facebook pages to praise organisers and vent their frustration at the event's closure.

“What happened just proved that something right was being done. To them, something right must be stopped”, wrote one supporter on Facebook.

Another wrote: “Thank you everybody for the great work and keep going ... we [are] all with you”.

Sudan's security services have recently cracked down hard on independent think-tanks, civil society groups and local newspapers which are perceived to be spreading anti-government sentiments and promoting democratic change.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (JUBA/KHARTOUM) - South Sudan has rejected forming a joint administration with the Sudanese government in the contested border region of Abyei, accusing Khartoum of having "killed the spirit of dialogue with [the] assassination of the area's paramount chief, Kuol Deng Kuol”.

South Sudan's minister of cabinet affairs, Deng Alor Kuol, said on Saturday “the entire Ngok Dinka chiefdom” had totally rejected the proposal which calls for the formation of a joint administration in the area with representatives from Sudan.

Alor, a native of the oil-producing region of Abyei, made the comments at a news conference in Juba following a visit to the area where he spent nearly a week after leading a high-level government delegation from South Sudan to attend the burial of the tribal chief.

He accused Sudan of intentionally killing the chief, adding that the people of Abyei do not see any reason why they should share the area with those who conspired in his death.

"We are totally convinced that the chief was killed by the government of Sudan. They just used the [rival] Misseriya [tribe] as a tool because it is their culture", Alor told reporters at the press briefing.

"The Ngok people have therefore rejected forming [a] joint administration. They do not want to share the area anymore with members of the Misseriya because it was the government of Sudan and their militia from the Misseriya that killed the paramount chief”, he added.

In statements published in Khartoum on Saturday, the Misseriya paramount chief, Mukhtar Babo Nimir, called to form Abyei administration stressing that such measure would contribute to end the current tension in the disputed area.

Nimir said that the lack of local administration and legislative council created a vacuum in the region, adding that the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) does not know about local customs and traditions.

The two sides failed to form an interim administration in Abyei due to their difference over the composition of the legislative council. The Misseriya demand 50% of the 20 seats while the Dinka Ngok stick to have 12 members as it was the case in the past.

END OF ENGAGEMENT

Deng Mading Mijak, the deputy co-chairperson of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) representing South Sudan, said the killing of the chief essentially meant that the government of Sudan had killed all attempts to peacefully resolve the disagreement over the area.

Mijak was one of the leaders of a delegation from Juba that was caught up in the attack, which left Kuol dead.

The group was visiting the area for consultative talks with a delegation from Khartoum on how to hasten the process of forming a joint administration to facilitate the return of displaced persons and prepare for a planned October referendum. He survived the incident on 4 April, describing it as a carefully planned attack by Sudan rather than an ambush.

"People say we were ambushed. It was not an ambush. It was a clear ploy by the government of Sudan. We were held for five hours during which we were online communicating with authorities in Khartoum. They knew we were caught. They were the ones directing every single move. The people who killed the chief did not know him. They even asked [who he was]. This means that it was a clear ploy by the government of Sudan", Mijak said at a news conference on Saturday.

The official stressed that the death of the paramount chief meant the end of any engagement with Sudan.

“I don't think it will be possible to come together again. The killing of the paramount chief means that they have killed peaceful coexistence. It means that they have killed joint administration. It means that they have killed the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee, because I do not think we will meet again in Abyei to discuss anything”, Mijak added.

NO GOOD REASON

Juac Agok, the deputy chairperson of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Abyei, said there had never been a good reason to form a joint administration with Sudan.

"If the international community want the issue of Abyei to be resolved, they should support the conduct of the referendum so that people of Abyei can vote to decide where they want to go", Agok said.

"To form joint administration so that the same elements who have always been masterminding the killing of our people come back to the area again and share with us is not acceptable. It is better we leave it just like that; it can be never be resolved through dialogue", he added.

An referendum initially scheduled for January 2011 to decide the fate of the Abyei area failed to take place over disagreements between the two countries about who was eligible to participate in the vote.

In a bid to break the deadlock, the African Union (AU) last year, proposed that the plebiscite go ahead, but only for those permanently residing in the area. The decision effectively excludes the nomadic Arab Misseriya, who enter the area periodically during the year to graze their cattle, from participating, leaving the Southern-aligned Dinka Ngok free to vote in favour of joining South Sudan.

Khartoum has rejected the plan, but AU mediators stress the exclusion of the Misseriya nomads is consistent with the decision of the International Court of Arbitration in July 2009, which defined Abyei's territory as the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (JUBA) - A former member of state parliament in South Sudan's Northern Bahr el Ghazal has issued a signed apology, amid reports of bullying and allegations relating to a family dispute and legislators.

Hikma Ali Malek was one of six members of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) expelled from parliament last July over allegations they were collaborating with members from other political parties and participating in activities against the house.

A relative of Malek told Sudan Tribune on Friday that she had been pressured into making an apology about her alleged involvement in order to smooth over a family rift.

“The apology was prepared by someone else and she was only collected and drove to where she found herself before the governor Malong Awan and the paper was brought for her to sign”, the source said.

State member of parliament Angok Achuol confirmed that Malek has been “at odds” with her husband, former Aweil East commissioner Diing Aher, over her expulsion from the SPLM.

He backed claims that the legislator had bowed to family pressure and made an apology, purportedly to avoid being isolated by her in-laws.

“I am told Hikma Ali Malek has been forced by the situation to apologise. She was under big pressure from some members in her constituency who were mobilised by some elements with special interest to make an apology. I do not know what she had apologised for, when she does not know what she did”, Achuol said in an interview with Sudan Tribune on Friday.

Malek's relative said he suspected the apology was motivated by her wish to contain a worsening dispute with her husband and his family over the matter.

“As a brother, I cannot blame her. I know Hikma very well. She is my sister. The period she has been out of her work shows that she has the principle to live by what the majority want. She would have changed her mind long time ago if she had wanted. What happened now is something strange. I do not know how it happened but I think she wanted to break the family dispute and contain it. She has been at odds with her husband over this issue for long time. It grew to the extent that her husband stopped coming to the house. She told me the husband has not been visiting her for the last two months. The husband wants her to apologise even if there was nothing [to apologise for]. I heard her husband once telling her, ‘[an] apology does not kill'”, he said.

Kuac Wek Wol, another legislator who was expelled from the party along with Malek, corroborated reports, saying he was not surprised by the events given the current economic and political hardship in the country.

“Everybody had already known what happened and what they [the SPLM] are doing is the policy of divide and rule, which was why we fought against successive Khartoum regimes. Replicating it here in this country will not only betray the principles and the vision of the SPLM but will not be accepted”, Wol told Sudan Tribune on Saturday.

He says he will not apologise unless he is provided with an explanation that warrants his expulsion from the party and subsequent dismissal from the parliament, where he says he was exceptionally executing the policies of the ruling party and the legislative functions in the area.

Sudan Tribune was not able to independently verify the allegations despite repeated attempts to contact Malek. The SPLM's branch office in the state has made no official comment on the allegations.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (JUBA) - The secretary-general of the South Sudan ruling party (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has distanced himself from the controversial dismissal of six members of his party in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, saying he did not want to get involved in "political allegations lacking substantial evidence".

Pagan Amum (Getty)

The members' expulsion from parliament followed allegations they were collaborating with members from other political parties and were engaged in activities in the house against the SPLM.

"We did not dismiss you. It is the SPLM in Aweil which dismissed you", Amum told representatives of the six expelled members on Friday. His deputy, Anne Ito, says she also regrets signing a recommendation letter of dismissal she received from the state after dispatching a fact-finding committee last April to investigate the allegations.

Ito says the committee claimed to have met with both sides to hear their version of events and that she believed the report to be credible at the time.

She did not say whether the decision would be cancelled or upheld.

The state recommended the dismissal of the members on the basis that it was approved by the national secretariat which Ito represented in the letter dated 2 July 2012.

Based on the committee's findings, the national secretariat endorsed the state branch's decision to expel the members, finding it to be a valid and lawful.

"The general secretariat therefore endorses the decision of the SPLM state chairperson and directs the state secretariat to proceed with implementation of the decision of the state chairman", the letter said.

However, one of the expelled members, Kuac Wek Wol, denied meeting the investigating team and described the decision as "unilateral action to intimidate members".

Politicians in the state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal have been at odds with governor Paul Malong Awan over his management of state affairs.

Those critical of his administration's performance say Awan is widely viewed as someone who does not tolerate criticism, however constructive.

According to a 2011 report by the National Bureau of Statistics, Northern Bahr el Ghazal is South Sudan's poorest state, with residents repeatedly calling for political action to improve people's quality of life in the region.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (JUBA) – The Republic of South Sudan has established a Commission for Refugee Affairs (CRA) as hundreds of thousands of refugees have entered the new republic from the neighbouring countries.

Most of the refugees fled from the neighbouring Republic of Sudan due to the conflicts in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Others come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR), Ethiopia and Uganda.

The refugees are mzinly concentrated in the four states of Upper Nile, Unity, Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria, out of which 170,000 are resettled in Upper Nile state alone.

Barnaba Marial Benjamin, official spokesperson of the government, on Friday said South Sudan's cabinet in response to the fast increasing number of refugees passed the organization's structures and logo for the establishment of the new institution.

The Commission was established by a presidential decree in accordance with the South Sudan's Refugee Act, 2013.

It will establish its headquarters in Juba and open branches in the states. The new institution will regulate the presence of refugees and their legal status in the Republic of South Sudan.

Millions of South Sudanese including the current leadership were either displaced to the northern region in the current Sudan or had gone for refuge in the neighbouring countries during the decades of war; an experience which perhaps easily made them sympathize with the situation of the new refugees.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (JUBA) – A high-ranking official from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) was shot and injured after unknown gunmen ambushed the vehicle in which he traveled on Friday.

A senior security officer who requested anonymity said Maj-Gen Machol Deng Ring suffered a gunshot wound after a group of armed men appeared in front of the car and immediately opened fire, in what he said was a suspected road robbery attack.

The incident occurred in Pacuok just after Bar-Naam bridge in Lakes state's Rumbek East county at about 8pm.

According to the source, Lakes state authorities have yet to make any arrest related to the incident.

It's not the first time that the Lakes state highway has been the scene of an alleged road robbery.

A number of cars, including those owned by government officials, have been targeted in attacks which have left several people dead and others with gunshot injuries.

In January, South Sudan's president Salva Kiir removed Lakes state's elected governor Chol Tong Mayay because of insecurity concerns in the region and replaced him with military general.

Since his appointment, Maj. Gen Matur Chut Dhuol, has adopted tough security reform, which despite public criticisms, has helped to improve insecurity in Lakes state.

As part of his new approach, for instance, Dhuol has instructed commissioners of all the eight counties to directly confront cattle raiders and bring them to justice. He also warned the commissioner that they risk being dismissed should they fail to implement his directive.

The caretaker governor, upon his elevation to the helm, also ordered the state legislative assembly not discuss political matter or else face closure.

Critics have already expressed concerns regarding the constitutional provision on Dhuoul's stay in office as governor. An election, according to South Sudan's Transitional Constitution, should have been held 60 days after the caretaker governor was appointed.

However, no ballot has been announced, despite the deadline passing on 21 March.

Neither journalists nor activists in the state have spared by hard-line approach adopted by the new caretaker governor. Many of them often complain of being harassed by security officials, allegedly acting on the governor's orders.

Last month, lawmakers in the state petitioned Hilde Johnson, the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), over growing cases of human rights violations in the region since the governor's appointment.

(ST)

May 11, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The High Committee for Mobilization and Alert at Khartoum's locality headed by mayor Omar Nimir announced the inauguration of Popular Defense Forces (PDF) military training camps and the formation of a "strategic battalion" comprised of government officials to secure the locality.

FILE - Sudanese soldiers march holding the flag of the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) during a visit from President Omer HAssan al-Bashir in Khartoum on March 3, 2012 (EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP/Getty Images)

According to the government-sponsored Sudanese Media Center (SMC), a meeting of the committee chaired by Nimir has agreed to establish two training camps on May 17 and a "closed" one for the officials who will participate in the training. The latter will accommodate 400 conscripts from the Sudan's Islamic Movement (IM), ruling National Congress Party (NCP), youths, students, women, PDF, national service and ordinary citizens.

The mayor said that the decision to open the camps came against the backdrop of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) recent offensive in South and North Kordofan states adding that they are also collecting relief for the civilian population affected by the recent attacks.

The Sudanese government has stepped up its mobilization campaign in wake of the surprise attack by SRF on areas that in the past were believed to be beyond the rebels' reach. In the past, fighting between the rebels and Khartoum has largely been limited to Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states bordering South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011.

This week the High Committee for Mobilization and Alert held a meeting with mosques' imams to discuss the implications of the rebels' offensive and to call for jihad (holy war).

Also on Wednesday Sudan's national assembly decided to suspend its sessions for a week in order to enable MPs to travel to their constituencies and lead a mobilization campaign in support of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).

Late last month, SRF rebels swept through the city of Um Rawaba in North Kordofan, before withdrawing later on the same day.

North Kordofan, which includes Um Rawaba and forms part of Sudan's commercial heartland, is a hub for the country's agriculture, livestock and gum Arabic industries.

SAF now has it eyes on reclaiming Abu-Kershola district in South Kordofan which was overrun by rebels during last month's assault.

Officials in Khartoum say that they have completely surrounded the area and pledged not to stop until they recapture Kauda which is the stronghold of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan.

(ST)