April 19, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - The chairman of the National Consensus Forces (NCF), Farouk Abu Issa, has reiterated the determination of the opposition alliance to overthrow the government, underscoring they wouldn't engage in a dialogue that doesn't lead to dismantling the regime and restoring democracy.

Last January, the president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir called upon opposition parties and rebel groups to engage in a comprehensive national dialogue to end war and restore democracy in Sudan.

The NCF refused Bashir's call for dialogue and instead propose forming a transitional government and holding a national conference with the participation of rebel groups to discuss a peaceful solution for the conflicts in Darfur region, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile states before to adopt a new democratic constitution and hold general elections.

The two major opposition forces, National Umma Party (NUP) led by Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi and Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan Al-Turabi, however have so far accepted to take part in the national dialogue process.

The NCF chairman, who spoke at a public meeting at Al-Rabta square in Shambat neighbourhood in Khartoum North on Friday, said the regime is faltering and wouldn't survive more than two months, pointing that internal divisions within the government will accelerate its demise.

Abu Issa suffered a sudden ailment while he was addressing the meeting before he was taken to the hospital and being treated from a severe low blood pressure.

Speakers have agreed that sacrifices of the Sudanese people forced the government to allow the opposition holds the public meeting, saying it was not a gift from the regime.

The representative of the Republican Party (RP), Asmaa Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, said the obscurantist forces labelled them as "apostates and infidels" in order to ban their activities, describing national leaderships who assumed power since independence as "sintered and failed".

She pointed that her father and RP founder once said the Sudanese people are like a ‘giant led by dwarfs', affirming that woman saw unprecedented humiliation under the current regime.

Her father, Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, was a Sudanese religious thinker, leader, and trained engineer. He was executed for apostasy at the age of 76 by the regime of Gaafar Numiery.

Taha further said political Islam is receding throughout the Muslim world, holding Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, and Hassan Al-Turabi, responsible for the destruction of the country.

She wondered how can we believe Turabi who confessed that he “lied” to the Sudanese people while the believer doesn't lie?

Taha also said Al-Mahdi used to say that Shari'a [Islamic] laws which were applied during Numiery's regime don't worth the ink they are written by, noting he didn't annul those laws when he assumed power.

She noted that the Sudanese people still suffer from the implications of those "bad laws".

The chairman of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP), Ibrahim Al-Shaikh, for his part, described rapprochement between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the PCP of Turabi as an attempt to reproduce the 1989 coup d'état which brought this regime to power, saying the Sudanese people wouldn't be fooled again.

The PCP split from the NCP following 1999's bitter power struggle between Bashir and Turabi, with the latter was ousted from his post as parliamentary speaker and the chairmanship of the ruling party alike.

Turabi later established the PCP and has since been a vociferous critic of the very regime whose army-backed seizure of power in 1989 he orchestrated.

Al-Shaikh said that prisons are currently full of political detainees in a clear violation of the basic human rights, demanding reviewing the absolute powers and laws governing the work of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

In order to create a conducive environment and to incite opposition forces to join the national dialogue process, president Omer Al-Bashir recently issued several decisions including, lift of ban on public rallies and meetings.

(ST)

April 19, 2014 (JUBA) - A number of children were killed in Thursday's fighting at a United Nations base in South Sudan's Jonglei state, with many either caught up in the crossfire or died after being recruited by armed groups and forces, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

UNICEF says children continue experience extreme suffering as a result of conflict in South Sudan and remain vulnerable to disease outbreaks (Photo: F. Noy/UNHCR)

The exact number of children killed, it said, was not yet known but they were among the dozens of civilians injured and many killed when gunmen attacked those internally displaced at the UN protection of civilians site in the capital, Bor.

“Utterly defenseless children were attacked in a place where they should have felt safe,” said Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF Representative in South Sudan.

“The trauma for children under such circumstances is indescribable,” he added.

The agency also expressed concerns about children reportedly seen carrying weapons, undergoing military training and others dressed in military uniforms.

UNICEF further stressed that it had credible reports that both sides to the conflict were recruiting children, contrary to existing national and international laws.

Under both international and South Sudanese national law, the forcible or voluntary recruitment or abduction of persons under the age of 18, whether as a member of a regular army or of an informal militia, is prohibited.

In 2013, the UN and the South Sudanese army (SPLA) signed an agreement in which the army renewed its commitment to release all children from its ranks. Since 2003, however, the SPLA had been included on the UN Secretary-General's list of parties to conflict that reportedly recruit and use children.

“This is fierce, brutal infantry fighting – children must not be instruments of this conflict,” said Veitch.

“We talk of the long term damage done to children who are recruited, but right now the immediate threat is to their life. Those in positions of command and leadership have a duty to keep children out of harm's way and take all necessary measures to prevent children being part of armed groups and forces," he stressed.

Several boys and girls have reportedly been killed, maimed, raped, orphaned and made homeless since the fighting broke out in the South Sudan in December 2013.

Over 10,000 people are believed to have died and more than one million have been displaced by the conflict in South Sudan. An additional nearly 300,000 have been displaced into neighbouring Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia.

(ST)

April 19, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - The leader of the opposition National Umma Party, Saddiq Al-Mahdi said rebels of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front are more realistic than some opposition thinkers in Khartoum who believe that the regime can be overthrown.

Opposition Umma Party leader and former Prime Minister Al-Sadiq Al Mahdi speaks during joint news conference with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir (R) after their meeting at Mahadi's house in Omdurman August 27, 2013 (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Al-Mahdi who since last year suspended the membership of his party in the opposition umbrella of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) was commenting on the position of the latter which refuses to participate in a national dialogue initiated by the president Omer Al-Bashir.

"In my opinion, there are elements inside the Sudan betting that the Sudanese issue can be resolved through a revolutionary action led by the Revolutionary Front, and as long as there is a reflection of this kind , there will be a bet," said Mahdi in an interview with Al-Hayat daily newspaper published on Saturday.

He further said that the SRF "is more realistic than many opposition theoreticians inside Sudan" because they realise how difficult for them to get the needed logistical support from "neighbouring countries" and to cover their expenditures adding they need some $2 million per month.

"Now they are conscious that a decisive invasion of Khartoum is impossible , and even if it happens that would open the door to new confrontations," he stressed.

The leader of the largest opposition party was alluding to the NCF alliance, which now after freezing the membership of the Popular Congress Party of Hassan Al-Turabi, gathers the Sudanese communist party and some small political parties.

COMMITTED TO COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION

Al-Mahdi however reiterated his commitment to a comprehensive solution, pointing out that the current political situation in the country requires "to put aside the old-style solution of bilateral agreements".

He added that all the "legitimate demands" for a decentralised state, wealth sharing, civilian state, and multiculturalism can be included in a peace agreement and the new constitution.

The opposition leader since two years expressed his opposition to the armed struggle and called on the rebel groups to negotiate a peaceful solution.

His stance has been criticised by the SRF forces which described him as "objective ally" of Bashir's regime.

The NUP leader emphasised that the opposition forces have to engage in the dialogue, asserting they will not lose anything because if the process fails to bring democratic change at least it will strengthen them.

Mahdi said that his party rejected three propositions the regime had made in 1993, 1996 and 2001 and he does not see why today he accepts to rally the weakened regime now.

(ST)

The Sudan Democracy First Group mourns the loss of Osman Hummaida, a towering figure of the human rights movement in Sudan, and a tireless campaigner for democracy and peace in the country. Osman passed away peacefully in a Johannesburg hospital on Thursday 17 April following health complications, with family and friends surrounding him.

Following his arrest and the ill-treatment and torture he was subjected to in the early 1990s for his human rights activism, Osman joined the London-based Sudanese Organization Against Torture (SOAT) in 1997. He worked with SOAT until 2007, eventually becoming its director, and turning SOAT into one of Sudan's leading human rights monitoring and advocacy groups. Under his leadership, SOAT extended valuable support to the Khartoum and Amal Centers, which provided counseling and medical support to torture victims in Sudan. Osman also campaigned for justice for the victims of the mass atrocities that took place in Darfur starting in 2003, leading to his arrest in 2008 during a visit to Sudan. He was again subjected to torture and degrading treatment.

Prevented from defending the rights of the Sudanese within country, Osman founded the Kampala based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) in 2009, once again making of it five years later a leading human rights monitoring and advocacy group. Through ACJPS, Osman provided extensive capacity building opportunities and expert guidance to a younger generation of Sudanese rights advocates.

The many tributes pouring in from across the world on this sad occasion bear witness to Osman's regional and international stature as an African rights defender and advocate. For the many who knew Osman, the real challenge will remain to turn our sense of loss and sadness at his passing into creative energies, as he taught us to do, by contributing to the strengthening of the human rights movement he dedicated his life to build.

Plot 52-A Ntinda 2 Road, Naguru, Kampala, Uganda – P.O. Box 250, Ntinda
Telephone: +256 312800698

Email: sudandemocracyfirstgroup@gmail.com

April 19, 2014 (JUBA/NAIROBI) - The United States has strongly condemned the recent attacks by armed groups on civilians sheltered at a United Nations base in South Sudan's Jonglei state.

Civilians fleeing violence seek refuge at a UN camp in Bor, capital of Jonglei state, in South Sudan (AP)

Heavily armed gunmen, using rocket propelled grenades, reportedly stormed the UN mission compound and opened fire on nearly 5,000 internally displaced persons sheltered at the civilian protection site.

“This brazen, inhuman attack on unarmed civilians resulted in the deaths of at least 20 civilians and the injury of more than 70 others,” said Samantha Power, the US permanent envoy to the world body.

“This latest outrage against the people of South Sudan is an affront to the international community and violates fundamental principles of civilian protection,” she added in a statement.

The US special envoy, however, urged all parties to regard UNMISS sites as inviolable, and should afford protection to citizens sheltering at those locations.

She further said the US government would work with its international partners to establish who was responsible for – or complicit in – this horrific attack and seek to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“We reaffirm our steadfast support for UNMISS and applaud its personnel who, under tremendously challenging conditions, continue to try to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian assistance across South Sudan,” noted the senior US official.

“We urge those countries that have committed additional forces for UNMISS to work with the United Nations to accelerate their deployment,” she added.

Both parties to the conflict, Samantha stressed, should stick to the terms of the 23 January cessation of hostilities agreement, lay down their weapons, and engage constructively in inclusive political negotiations led by the East African regional bloc (IGAD).

“South Sudan's leaders must put the safety and wellbeing of their fellow citizens above their own short-sighted political and economic interests, or risk the future of their country, the welfare of their people, and strong international consequences,” the observed.

SPLM-SEVEN CONDEMN ATTACK

Meanwhile, the seven members of South Sudan ruling party who now live in Nairobi, Kenya equally condemned in the strongest terms this killing of innocent civilians on the basis of their ethnicity.

“There is no doubt that this callous attack was instigated by some senior government officials in Juba who hail from Bor County,” partly reads the group's statement issued this week.

“The killing of civilians is a crime against humanity and a serious breach of international humanitarian law,” adds the statement, which bears the name of its spokesperson, John Luk Jok.

The former detainees also urged the UN to conduct thorough investigation into this horrific attack, in compliance laws with such as the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which South Sudan ratified.

“The government is responsible for the collapse of law and order in the country through its negative policies and inability to protect the lives and property of the citizens,” the group said.

The former detainees, in their release, also called upon the UN, African Union and the IGAD regions to speedily intervene in the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in South Sudan where millions of lives are still at risk.

They also welcomed the establishment of the AU Commission of Inquiry, under the chairmanship of ex-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo, but urged the Commission to speedily start its work given the continued deterioration of human rights situation in the country.

(ST)

By Eric Reeves

April 20, 2014 - On Friday, April 18 Radio Dabanga reported that Khartoum had expelled yet another critical humanitarian organization working in Darfur, this time Merlin (UK). The reason? Because Merlin had merged with Save the Children, which Khartoum had earlier expelled from Darfur on absurdly contrived grounds (March 2009). For according to Khartoum's Humanitarian Aid Commission, this merger violated "Sudanese law." Merlin—active in Sudan since 1997—has been providing medical assistance to some 600,000 people, including running 28 permanent health facilities.

At the end of January of this year, Khartoum announced that it was suspending the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the very embodiment of international neutrality and humanitarian assistance. The reason? The ICRC refused to accommodate Khartoum's extortionate demand that funds and resources be transferred to the Sudan Red Crescent. For a range of principled, as well as practical, reasons the ICRC declined to be a victim of Khartoum's extortion and its immensely important and wide-ranging work was halted.

On March 19, 2014 Radio Dabanga reported that the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime was expelling the French organization Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) from Darfur:

ACTED provides support to the displaced people in Zalingei, including water and sanitation for the camps and the surrounding villages before the rain season starts. “At least 50 members of the national staff are employed in the Central Darfur office,” a local staff member said. According to its website, the programme has 83 national staff and 3 internationals working in Sudan. “The action against ACTED comes at a critical time,” the [ACTED] staff member told Radio Dabanga.

These and other expulsions, as well as the creation of impossible working conditions, follow the massive March 2009 expulsion of thirteen distinguished international relief organizations, including two sections of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam/Great Britain, Save the Children/US, and a number of others. Several Sudanese humanitarian organizations were also shut down.

At the time, according to a highly knowledgeable UN official, this represented roughly half the humanitarian capacity in Darfur, and left many areas and humanitarian sectors without effective management or oversight; a great deal of local knowledge and institutional memory was lost. The international community tried to find its voice in demanding that the decision be revoked. But this soon came to nothing in the face of Khartoum's obduracy, and the huffing and puffing died down quickly, to be replaced in the case of the U.S. with a policy of expedient accommodation. Then-Senator John Kerry, representing the Obama administration as well as the Senate, mendaciously declared on April 17, 2009 that full restoration of humanitarian capacity would be a matter of weeks: "We have agreement [with Khartoum] that in the next weeks we will be back to 100 percent capacity." This capacity was in fact never recovered, and is now even less than it was at the time of the expulsions. And Kerry went further, holding out the promise of rewards for a regime that had just grossly violated international humanitarian law on innumerable counts:

Kerry, who says a new dialogue has been brought about by Obama's special Sudan envoy Scott Gration, suggested diplomacy could eventually result in a lifting of sanctions against Sudan and its removal from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism. 'Absolutely. That is entirely on the table. I can't tell you when, that's a decision President Obama makes," said Kerry. (Reuters [el-Fasher], April 17, 2009)

Moreover, with the expulsion of relief organizations and the consequent denial of humanitarian assistance to desperately needy civilians, the regime was perpetrating what amounted to "crimes against humanity" (see "On the Obstruction of Humanitarian Aid" in African Studies Review). Such unseemly haste to make a deal with the very men who had orchestrated this massively consequential humanitarian expulsion defines both Kerry and the Obama administration's Sudan policy.

Subsequently there would be other expulsions: Médecins du Monde, for example, the only medical NGO serving the people of Jebel Marra, was expelled in early 2010. And in May of 2012 the regime expelled, again without meaningful explanation, seven international humanitarian organizations working in eastern Sudan, one of the poorest and most severely marginalized of all the regions in Sudan. Sudan Tribune reported at the time:

Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) [Suleiman Abdel Rahman] has ordered seven foreign aid groups to suspend their humanitarian activities in eastern Sudan following the findings of an assessment study reporting infractions they allegedly committed. [The decision ended] the humanitarian activities of the seven aid groups in the three states of Eastern Sudan region: Kassala; Red Sea and Gadaref states. [The seven organizations are] Accord, Goal, Triangle, Save the Children, Plan Sudan, Malo, a British demining group, and a Japanese aid group. [The charge was that] the groups exceeded their license and roles.

We get a chilling sense of Khartoum's attitude toward foreign humanitarian assistance from words of Nafie Ali Nafie earlier that month, also from Sudan Tribune:

Earlier in May, addressing a rally organised in Port Sudan to provide support to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Sudanese presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie denounced calls for the return of NGOs to South Kordofan and described them [as] "trumpeters of conspiracy.""Those who covet that foreign aid groups [secure] a foothold in the East (Sudan) … should know there is no place for them," he further said.

This absurd propaganda—part of a long-term campaign to demonize international aid organizations as fronts for spies, Zionist infiltrators, and self-enriching opportunists—was designed to cover the regime's real motives, which include a primary desire that there be as few foreign eyes on the ground in Sudan as possible bearing witness to gross negligence and the most egregious violations of international law. There was also a desire to punish and weaken the people of eastern Sudan for their support of the South during the long civil war. This is what lies behind a more recent suspension of humanitarian activities in eastern Sudan, in this case a UN jobs and assistance project ("UN aid programmes suspended in east Sudan," Agence France-Presse [Khartoum], March 26, 2014):

The programme's beneficiaries are among 6.1 million people – 18% of the population – needing humanitarian assistance in Sudan.

Yet again, no reasonable explanation was offered. There is a supreme viciousness in using lies and propaganda in an effort to justify starving civilians to death; for eastern Sudan has long had some of the worst malnutrition indicators anywhere in Sudan.

Even before the mass expulsions of March 2009, organizations had been compelled to depart Darfur, forced by the threat of armed violence, or by working conditions that Khartoum deliberately made intolerable. And the threats of expulsion hang constantly in the air, along with more brutally physical threats. An earlier and shocking event tells all too much about the attitude of the regime—and the license it has given police and security forces of all kinds:

Aid workers have described how they watched helplessly as Sudanese police officers dragged a female United Nations worker from an aid agency compound in Darfur and subjected her to a vicious sexual attack. Staff say they feared for their lives when armed police raided their compound in Nyala, dragging one European woman out into the street by her hair and savagely beating several other international staff before arresting a total of 20 UN, aid agency, and African Union staff. [ ]

A UN official in Darfur said: "If the people responsible for beating and molesting the aid workers and UN staff are not punished, others will think they can get away with such crimes and it will happen again. Should the security situation for international aid workers not improve and the overall safety of our staff be assured, we will be forced to withdraw from Darfur.” (The Telegraph [UK] [Nyala, Darfur], January 28, 2007)

The "people responsible" were of course not punished; and while most organizations did not withdraw, their numbers of expatriate workers have plummeted in subsequent years. Normally about ten percent of a major international humanitarian operation, expatriate aid workers in Darfur now make up only about three percent of the personnel. Khartoum has created a set of conditions in Darfur—including engineering a lack of relief capacity—that keeps foreign eyes and observation out even as it punishes a large majority of Darfuris. And by design, this is felt with particular force by the non-Arab/African populations in displaced persons camps as well as in rural and urban areas throughout Darfur. We know, we may be certain from the previous ten years of grim experience in Darfur, that Khartoum has decided upon a strategy of disrupting and compromising humanitarian work as part of its broader counter-insurgency campaign, taking the form of supply delays, visa and travel permit issues (including denial), confiscations, extortion, physical violence—and expulsion whenever it is thought to be "needed."

Past inaction—along with the duplicity of actors such as current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the fecklessness of most European countries—has only encouraged more of the same on Khartoum's part. The fact that violence in Darfur is more complex, and that there is more often very serious inter-Arab tribal fighting, doesn't obscure the regime's clear strategy of denying adequate humanitarian capacity as an indirect means of weakening rebel forces. And this will continue until it is stopped.

The World Accommodates Khartoum's Savagery, Political Repression, and Economic Mismanagement: Why?

Why, then, can't the international community muster the courage to halt these expulsions? Why haven't there been threats of clear and punishing economic sanctions, directed against all that supports the regime in this ghastly genocide by attrition? Such a strengthened sanctions regime would take the primary form of European countries declaring that they will suspend all commercial, business, and construction projects in Sudan until the war on humanitarian relief has clearly and decisively ended. The Europeans should also follow the U.S. in making use of the European banking system, and the Euro in particular—this in order to make Khartoum's monetary and economic transactions as difficult in Euros as they now are in dollars. At the very least, all talk of debt relief for this most profligate of regimes must end, an issue on which several European countries have spoken with an obscene callousness. By far the largest portion of external debt, now some US$45 billion, has been accrued over the past 25 years while the regime indulged in hugely expensive wars against its own people, in profligate weapons acquisitions (including some two dozen advanced Russian MiG-29s), heavy investment in a domestic arms industry, and in self-enrichment schemes and pay-offs to political supporters.

Every care should be taken that those most economically weak in Sudan be protected from the effect of sanctions, were they to be imposed. Members of the regime and their political supporters should be the targets, and hit as precisely as possible. But it should be clear to all that the regime is presiding over an imploding economy, and that it has contributed pitifully little to the welfare of the marginalized populations of Sudan over so many years of brutal, self-enriching, and tyrannical rule—especially in Darfur and eastern Sudan (as well as the humanitarian embargo imposed on large areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile that remain under control of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-North). The regime has crippled the agricultural sector during its years in power, and instead of having vast tracts of land that might serve as Africa's breadbasket, Sudan now must import food, in particular wheat for baking bread (a food staple in the lives of many poorer Sudanese). Recent bread lines and bread shortages were caused by a lack of foreign exchange currency (Forex) with which to purchase wheat abroad. And this shortage of Forex is only one symptom of the catastrophic state of the economy that is the inevitable outcome of regime corruption and misrule:

• Real inflation is running at well over 50 percent, and likely closer to 70 percent in the view of many economists who have actually looked seriously at the Sudanese economy. Coupled with the plunging value of the Sudanese Pound, imports of goods and services will only become more expensive—when they are obtainable. Hyperinflation continues to be a distinct possibility.

• Unemployment and under-employment is very high, especially among the educated young. Sudan's demographics are those of Arab Spring countries; and given the desperate economic plight of the country, this is a formula for the kind of dissatisfaction the led to the September/October 2013 popular uprisings. These uprisings, in a number of cities and towns, were crushed only because the regime gave the military, security, and police forces "shoot to kill" orders from the very first (Amnesty International, September 26, 2013). Making protests so dangerous may have halted them for now; but anger only grows on the part of Sudanese waiting for the opportunity to bring down the regime, their explicitly stated goal.

• The regime is engaged in costly military conflicts in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, Blue Nile—and may soon feel itself obliged to take sides in deciding militarily who will control the Melut/Paloich oil fields of Upper Nile (South Sudan). If production is halted in this, the only currently producing region in South, then Khartoum will lose the hefty transit fees (in hard currency) from oil transported to Port Sudan. Production is now officially at 165,000 bpd, though Luke Patey, author of The New Kings of Crude, believes the real figure to be closer to 135,000 bpd. But even at this reduced production rate, on an annual basis Khartoum stands to lose huge amounts in hard currency if the revenue stream dries up.

• Various international banks, airlines, and other commercial operations have ceased doing business with Sudanese banks and the Central Bank of Sudan (including the central bank of Egypt, banks in Saudi Arabia, and some European banks) and will extend the regime no credit for purchases. This is not done out of moral conviction but the simple fact that Sudan can't pay its bills in hard currency; and as all are aware, the Sudanese Pound may soon be of exceedingly little value, indeed utterly without value if hyper-inflation begins.

• Although Khartoum claims that Qatar has deposited $1 billion into Sudan's Central Bank some weeks ago, there are reasons for skepticism, especially given Khartoum's disposition to lie and past Qatari reneging on such commitments. The announcement itself, of course, cost nothing (although no doubt rankled Egypt) and yet had the potential to ease pressure on the Sudanese Pound. But clearly the black market in currency isn't convinced: the Pound sank last week to an all-time low of 8.85 to the dollar in Khartoum trading.

• Sudan is widely perceived to be an extremely corrupt country, most conspicuously within the ranks of regime officials. Transparency International/The Global Coalition Against Corruption ranked Sudan at the bottom of its 2013 list: 174th on a list where last place was 175. This is immensely discouraging to economic development, especially in the total absence of Forex.

• Sudan is also widely known for its extreme repression of media freedoms and freedom of expression. Reporters Without Borders ranked press freedom in Sudan extremely low: 170th of 179 countries (2013 World Press Freedom Index). This is hardly a surprise, since the Khartoum regime's survival strategy entails shutting down all meaningful political opposition and the expression of opposition views.

The people of Sudan have received—and can expect—very, very little help from Khartoum, whether or not economic sanctions are imposed. Those who have benefited from the boom years of oil exports—in the regime itself, within the various security services and bureaucracies, and among those who have been politically loyal cronies—long ago made clear that they would pass on none of these benefits to the vast majority of Sudanese who typically live impoverished and very often malnourished lives. Figures and statistics that should be the shame of any government, and of a world that continues to allow the terrible human suffering reflected in these numbers, include:

• Malnutrition: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports in its most recent issue of Humanitarian Bulletin/Sudan (April 13, 2014):

On 10 April 2014, the United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) said that some 3.3 million Sudanese are currently suffering from food insecurity, with numbers likely to rise to 4 million in the coming months. This is due to a combination of increased conflict and displacement in Darfur, refugee movement from neighbouring South Sudan, poor harvests and spiraling food prices. This means one out of every nine Sudanese will be food insecure. In some areas of Sudan, existing crisis levels of food insecurity are expected to deteriorate to emergency levels in the coming few weeks, bringing an even higher degree of acute malnutrition with devastating consequences for vulnerable groups, FAO said.

• Rapid inflation in food and fuel prices falls, as always, disproportionately on the poor. Bread shortages are a sign of what is to come, and occurs among those who will suffer most.

• A recent study by UNICEF found that:

…survey results show a mix of very different realities across the country with high levels of stunting (chronic malnutrition) and low levels of coverage for safe water and sanitation in some areas. Poor child feeding practices are a problem across the country, with localities in Kassala and Gedaref states among the most critical. The Eastern region and the three Kordofan states have the lowest coverage of safe drinking water and improved latrine facilities, while the Red Sea, Blue Nile and the Darfur region show the highest prevalence of diarrhoea.

UNICEF also reports in the study that it expects more than 200,000 cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in Sudan for the present year. SAM among children under five is typically fatal if not treated with emergency nutritional measures (UNICEF, April 3, 2014).

A recent UN World Health Organization ("Sudan Health Sector Fact Sheet"/2014) found that: "5.75 million people in Sudan are in need of basic health services. The number of health personnel in Darfur is five times lower than the WHO benchmark." These people live overwhelmingly in the marginalized regions of Sudan.

Last year Sudan Tribune reported that "Sudan languished at the lower end of the latest Human Development Index (HDI) published recently by the United Nations, ranking 171 out of 187 countries included world-wide" (March 18, 2013).

And most fundamentally: the number of displaced persons (including Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile) is now well over 3 million human beings.

Khartoum has simply made no effort to improve the lives of those living in marginalized regions. Instead, it continues to deplete agricultural resources by selling or renting land to Arab and Asian countries looking to establish their own food security. Radio Dabanga reports (March 30, 2014) that the regime recently sold 100,000 acres of farmland to Bahrain, only the most recent of a great many sales and "agreements," over many years, transactions that mortgage Sudan's agricultural future even further.

And this is the regime that the world community allows to harass, attack, obstruct, and expel those working courageously in international humanitarian aid operations, attempting to do for the people of Sudan what the regime simply refuses to do itself.

Darfur in extremis

But it is the looming humanitarian crisis in Darfur that must command our most immediate attention: if UNAMID continues to perform as poorly as it has to date, and if the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations does decide to begin down-sizing this protection force (as has again been recently suggested), this may well be the final signal to humanitarian organizations that it is time to withdraw. Although 97 percent of the staff of these organizations are Sudanese nationals, and these people will struggle to sustain what they can, withdrawal of international organizations means withdrawal of their resources and oversight. It will be a catastrophe. Indeed, the consequences of more than a decade of ethnically-targeted destruction are already catastrophic. This is why we saw more than 400,000 people newly displaced in 2013, and an additional 250,000 people as of April 2014, according to OCHA. Altogether, far more than 2 million people have been newly displaced, many for the second or third time, in the six years since the deployment of a tragically incompetent UNAMID. Displacement and violence have always correlated extremely highly in Darfur, and we must accept that these displacement figures are our best indication of levels of violence, despite the self-serving lies by various officials of UNAMID.

UNICEF Representative in Sudan Geert Cappelaere declared in a press conference (February 3, 2014):

Half of the children in Darfur are out of school, and 40 percent of them suffer from chronic malnutrition, the Representative of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan revealed on Monday [February 3]. UNICEF Representative Geert Cappelaere on Monday briefed the press about the conclusions of a study carried by UN agencies in Sudan. He stated that minors constitute 65 percent of the population in Darfur. Most of them are living in camps for the displaced. A total of 1.2 million children in Sudan's western region do not have access to basic services. Only six women out of 100 give birth in health centres. 300 out of 100,000 women die in childbirth.

Forty percent of children in Darfur are suffering from chronic malnutrition. And yet the UN refuses to release data about the more serious Global Acute Malnutrition rates, a sign that Khartoum has made very clear that it does not wish the world to know the extent of extreme food insecurity in Darfur. This is a catastrophe, and the world needs to take seriously the possibility that hundreds of thousands of additional deaths in Darfur will begin to occur during the coming rainy season and the latter part of the "hunger gap," which will end only with a successful autumn harvest, something that appears increasingly unlikely. The world must take this possibility seriously, as well as the desperate plight of many hundreds of thousands in Blue Nile and South Kordofan who continue—now for almost three years—to be denied all humanitarian access by Khartoum's génocidaires.

How can such barbarism be tolerated? Why are there so few voices speaking specifically to Khartoum's devastating war of attrition against humanitarian relief in Darfur? Why do international actors of consequence—including the U.S., the EU, and most dismayingly the UN and the AU—refuse to acknowledge how deep the current crisis is? and how devastating a continuation of Khartoum's assault on relief assistance will be?

I hear no answers, nor do the people of Darfur—merely the unctuous reiterations of past platitudes about a "deep concern" that takes no meaningful form. Again and again and again, in most of their dispatches, Radio Dabanga publishes desperate pleas from Darfuris on the ground—desperate for protection, food, medical care, and clean water. They are anguished pleas, and they are rightly uncomprehending of why their voices are not heard. Why are they not?

The world will not outlive this shame. Far too much has been recorded not to shock those who in the future look back on this time and wonder how we could possibly have allowed such terrible human destruction and suffering to continue before our very eyes for more than a decade.

Eric Reeves is a Professor at Smith College and has written extensively on Sudan and South Sudan.

By Steve Paterno

April 20, 2014 - The theme of this article develops as a result of my extensive research and writings on a culture of revenge killings among South Sudanese communities, particularly among cattle herding communities. Of recent, with abundant supplies of deadly arms to civilians, the age old ethnic rivalries among South Sudanese escalate into unprecedented scale. The level of killing, looting and destruction is drawing much international attention and concern. Worst yet, political and military leaders are exploiting this adage of traditional revenge killings to advance their personal interests.

The current conflict in South Sudan perfectly follows the pattern of this backward traditional way of thinking and is pretty much being exploited by political and military leaders alike. The trigger starts after the ever ambitious Riek Machar long quest to ascend into presidency failed whereby he staged yet a failed coup d'etat organized primarily by his Nuer tribe. After a failed coup attempt, the Dinka tribe of President Salva Kiir then organised themselves and carried out targeted retaliatory killings against the tribal members of Riek Machar. This episode, which occurred in capital Juba, quickly spread throughout the country, with even examples of one time colleagues from rivaling communities, turning into bludgeoning and slaughtering each other without mercy.

Unfortunately, this culture of retaliatory killings now form the bases and core ideology of Riek Machar, a former vice president turned warlord. Machar message for mobilizing military support for his ambition is rather simple: "Dinka killed our people in Juba." This then feeds into the culture of a need for revenge, which very much is embedded in a long held tradition and psychic of the people. As a result, the tactics draws huge armed Nuers, popularly known as the White Army, a notorious group noted for cattle rustling, looting and pillaging. The actions of this so called White Army are of course met with retaliatory response from armed Dinka groups, perpetuating the cycle of violence.

The situation is now such that a culture of revenge is prevailing while the vision for a nation base on constitution and rule of law is losing traction. The idea of justice is overtaken by need for revenge, where the victims are often time the most innocent. Until then, there is no hope for nation building when aspiring national leaders bent on ideology of primitive culture of traditional revenge killings—a culture that perpetuate the cycle of violence.

Steve Paterno is the author of The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure, A Romain Catholic Priest Turned Rebel. He can be reached at stevepaterno@yahoo.com

April 20, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – An opposition party revealed that president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir agreed to form a transitional government to implement a national political program saying it must not last for more than two years.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir has called on political parties to participate in national dialogue aimed at stimulating a reform plan announced earlier this year (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Sudan's opposition Popular Congress Party's (PCP) secretary of foreign relations, Bashir Adam Rahma said, in an interview with the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper on Sunday, that Bashir accepted this transitional government which will administrate the country during the national dialogue process.

Rahma said the recent political roundtable meeting Bashir organised with political forces was meant to discuss formation of the Higher Commission for the National Dialogue (HCND) which will manage the process.

However several political forces brought up the issue of the transitional government although it was not part of the meeting's agenda, he underscored.

"The transitional government will be discussed when presenting the paper regarding the interim period. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) agreed to form a transitional government after it is being approved by the dialogue's general conference".

The PCP official added the transitional government would last for a maximum of two years, noting it would adopt a program to stop the war, address the issue of refugee return, and reform the civil service and foreign relations.

The interim government will hold the general elections and form a constituent assembly to draft the constitution and prepare the country for a new democratic era, the said in order to explain what was outlined in the meeting.

Earlier this month, the Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, held a political roundtable in Khartoum with the participation of 83 political parties. The move came within the framework of a call he made last January for a comprehensive national dialogue.

The opposition official was keen to explain that besides the HCND, there will be different commissions to prepare draft papers but only the General Conference will approve it.

The HCND, which is headed by president Omer Al-Bashir, is composed of 14 members 7 from the opposition and 7 representing the government parties. Its membership would be increased to 21 if the other opposition parties and rebel groups join the process.

Rahma further said the political parties which took part in the meeting agreed to Bashir's chairing of the higher commission, indicating that the general conference can be rotated between the political forces participation in the process.

“It is preferable that Bashir chairs the higher commission (HCND) in order to be legally bound to implement the outcome of the dialogue because he is the person who controls power and the state,” he added.

The PCP official said differences which may arise among political parties will be referred to an expert committee comprised of neutral and independent persons.

He said they received information that Bashir and several senior government officials believe that dialogue is the only option for solving Sudan's problems, pointing that “angry” factions within the NCP stand against dialogue and democratic transformation.

Rahma didn't rule out that rebel groups could agree to take part in the dialogue inside Sudan if the government takes several measures including creating an environment conducive for dialogue, declaring ceasefire, issuing general amnesty for convicts, and allowing humanitarian aid to affected population in the war areas.

He added such measures must be guaranteed by the African Union (AU) and the international community, saying they received positive signals that the European Union (EU), AU, and the United States will support the comprehensive national dialogue.

"We don't want foreign intervention during the deliberations but we will invite them to monitor and facilitate the dialogue process," he added.

Rahma predicted that dialogue will form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) similar to that of South Africa and Morocco, saying we need to agree on those sensitive issues.

The opposition alliance of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) refused to engage in the national dialogue, saying the government didn't respond to its conditions.

The NCF wants the NCP-dominated government to declare a comprehensive ceasefire in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. In addition it has called for the issuing of a general amnesty, allowing public freedoms and the release of all political detainees.

The two major opposition forces, National Umma Party (NUP) led by Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi and Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan Al-Turabi, however have so far accepted to take part in the national dialogue process.

The rebel alliance of the Susan Revolutionary Forces (SRF), also rejected Bashir's call for dialogue and demanded the government to hold direct talks with them to negotiate a cessation of hostilities and open humanitarian access to civilians in the rebel areas.
The SRF also says that a conference attended by all political forces should be held outside Sudan and brokered by the United Nations (UN) and the AU in order to agree on the national dialogue mechanisms.

(ST)

April 20, 2014 (NAIROBI) – South Sudanese rebels have dismissed accusations that their fighters carried out targeted killings of Sudanese traders found in Bentiu during their recapture of the oil-rich state capital last Tuesday from government troops.

A member of South Sudanese rebel SPLM-In-Opposition patrols the streets of Malakal, on March 4, 2014 (Photo AFP /Andrei Pungovschi)

Sudanese media this week published stories alleging that the rebels allied to the former vice president, Riek Machar, massacred hundreds of Sudanese nationals, particularly from Darfur region.

Darfur rebel groups on Sunday have also presented an open letter to the United Nations Security Council in which they said up to 300 civilians from Darfur were killed on 15 April.

The open letter, which was cosigned by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur, Gibril Ibrahim and Minni Minnawi, however did not accuses a particular party in the conflict but expressed deep concern that Darfur civilians were being targeted in various towns in the troubled South Sudan.

Reports released by the Sudanese social media and activists however directly blamed the rebels claiming that over 200 Darfur civilians were shot dead inside the Mosque in Bentiu town.

However, the rebel commander in charge of Unity state's military division 4, Maj. Gen. James Koang Chol, dismissed the accusation as "lies."

“By the time we came in Bentiu for this second time there were no Sudanese civilians or traders still in Bentiu who we were aware of as they all fled in the early weeks of January 2014 when violence erupted in Bentiu,” Gen Koang told Sudan Tribune on Sunday by phone from Bentiu.

He however admitted to killing of armed Sudanese nationals who were fighting alongside president Salva Kiir's forces.

"What we know is that, yes, we killed in action armed members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who were fighting alongside the government's troops. They were in military uniform and participated in active combat against our forces," he further explained.

The rebels commander could not however rule out having few Sudanese traders who remained behind in Bentiu in which some of them could have been killed in crossfire by either side in the conflict, dismissing allegation of a targeted killing by the rebels.

"We would not have killed innocent Darfur civilians. We don't see them as our enemies. Our target are those JEM members who have decided to abandon their cause in Sudan and allowed themselves to be used as mercenaries to fight for Salva Kiir," Koang further added.

The rebels have been accusing JEM and its armed militias called Torabora for interfering in the internal conflict and fighting against the South Sudanese rebels.

JEM has always denied the accusation.

Equally, the rebels also accuse the Ugandan People's Defense Force (UPDF) of military interference, which Uganda has admitted.

The SPLM-In-Opposition demands their withdrawal as a precondition for a political settlement with Salva Kiir's government.

On 8 April, during a meeting in the State House in Kampala, president Yoweri Museveni of Uganda reportedly told president Kiir to urge the IGAD regional leaders to deploy the proposed troops to South Sudan as soon as possible in order to leave no vacuum as Uganda army planed to withdraw from the region before the rainy season.

(ST)

April 20, 2014 (JUBA) - South Sudan's government on Sunday downplayed warnings that the country risks breaking down into smaller and tribally-run administrations, claiming that such utterances are meant to undermine the authority and legitimacy of its current leadership.

South Sudan's foreign affairs minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin, September 13, 2011 (ST)

"There is a democratically elected government by the people of this country. The current president was elected by the 93% votes by the people of this country. This was unprecedented win. His term has not yet finished and when it finishes, and there are people wanting to contest, their rights will be respected because we a democratic state," said Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan's foreign affairs minister.

"But before that we will have violated not only our own constitution but the democratic principles and the best practices," he added.

The minister denied that the new nation would disintegrate into regional and tribal conclaves, stressing that the government was doing everything within its power to exert full control and deliver services.

"Yes, there are challenges, but I think these challenges can be overcome if we work together as a country, as leaders, as brothers and sisters and as citizens of this country in putting the national agenda first before anything else," said Marial.

Our diversity should be a source of our strength to building this nation, he added.

The top diplomat admitted that the country was undergoing a challenging period, but stressed that the situation would return to normal when peace talks are concluded.

"The government has accepted in principle to negotiate with those who have issues. These talks will resume soon and it is important the government is given a chance to try to resolve all these issues through peaceful dialogue. There is revenge to incite and revenge and then say the country will disintegrate”, he said.

The culture of war, according to the minister, has replaced the culture of the past generation, where dialogue was the preferred choice to resolve differences between rivals.

"The effect of the past war continues to denominate our thinking attitude. The culture of peace which was the preferred choice of the past generation had been replaced with the culture. The culture of today, especially among you, the young people is influenced by the thinking that the war is the best option to claim anything," he said.

Because of this war like attitude, the politicians who have no principles at all are taking advantage to cause havoc, Marial told Sudan Tribune during the interview.

Presidential spokesperson, Ateny Wek Ateny, said the government was doing its best to bring lasting peace into the country, explaining that the army had been deployed to provide protection and safety of the United Nations and its premises as well as personnel in Bor, Jonglei state.

Mark Nyipuoc, the deputy speaker of the national assembly said he was not surprised that some people were quick to warn about disintegration of the country, instead of reaching out to their communities with a message of peace so that the government can deliver the needed services.

"Such statements do not surprise us because we have heard them before. They are part of the political attempts to undermine authority and the legitimacy of a democratically elected government. But I believe the utterance of such inflammable statement needs to be serious attention. I just don't think we were really paying attention," Nyipuoc said.

"There were periods when relations between communities flourished quite a bit and there were also periods of, shall I say, grayish mood between our two communities before but leaders from these communities never uttered such inflammable statements," he added.

The officials' reactions came in the wake of numerous public outcry regarding the attack on members of Nuer ethnic group seeking protection at the UN base in Bor.

The government denied its involvement in the attack, but a statement issued by the country's former political detainees, claimed a group of armed police, military and wildlife soldiers in plain clothes together with some elements of Dinka Bor youth, armed with AK47 rifles and machetes attacked thousands of Nuer IDPs in Bor.

(ST)

April 20, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has denied reports that it kidnapped 8 oil workers from Tiger oilfield in West Kordofan state.

Sudanese security sources in Khartoum on Saturday accused JEM of abducting 8 engineers including three foreign nationals working for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) from an area between Al-Muglad and Hegleg.

The same sources further affirmed that abductees were taken to South Sudan's borders, saying the commander of the JEM force is named Hashim Ginzeer.

JEM's spokesperson, Gibreel Adam Bilal, said in a statement extended Sunday to Sudan Tribune that his movement didn't attack Tiger oilfield or kill or abduct Sudanese or foreign oil workers.

Bilal pointed that the armed group which attacked Tiger oilfield was led by Abu Ki'aan, describing the latter as an opportunist who split from JEM more than two years ago.

He claimed that Abu Ki'aan joined the government's militias which are commanded by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

"Accordingly, NISS must be accused of this incident not JEM", he stressed.

The rebel official said that JEM doesn't carry out such killings and abduction acts, adding when they attack any area they immediately issue statements declaring their actions.

In October 2007, JEM had abducted five oil workers in after an attack on Defra oil field but they were released one month later upon the request of the Egyptian government. One the kidnapped worker was an Egyptian national.

(ST)

April 20, 14 (BOR) - Officials in South Sudan's Jonglei state have cautioned youth against organising another violent protest in the capital, Bor, saying the United Nations has "accepted" their demands to have the 5,000 displaced people relocated.

A group of demonstrators moving towards the Jonglei governors' office on Thursday 17 April 2014 in Bor (ST)

A petition was Thursday delivered to the world body by about 300 protestors who wanted the displaced people moved out of Jonglei within 72 hours.

The peaceful protest, however, turned violent when armed members of the group broke into the UN compound firing indiscriminately before they were forced back by peacekeepers, the UN has said. More than 50 people were killed in the attack, which has been internationally condemned as constituting a war crime.

“If UN does evacuate the IDPs within 72 hours, we will do another peacefully demonstration."Ayuen Guet, a spokesperson for the demonstrators told Sudan Tribune on Saturday

He said the Thursday demonstration was peaceful, but they were mistaken by UNMISS peacekeepers who shot at them at the east gate of the base. He denied responsibility for the death of the civilians who had been sheltering in the base.

The government's announcement that the displaced people would be relocated was communicated on Saturday morning using loudspeakers mounted on a vehicle.

The move, state officials said. was intended to prevent any further protests.

Ugandan soldiers (UPDF), who fought alongside the South Sudanese army (SPLA) against rebels who split away from the ruling party and army in December - had to be deployed near the UNMISS compound and at Bor airport after the fighting.

However, no arrests have been made since the clashes took place.

Heavily armed gunmen on Thursday stormed the UN mission compound and opened fire on nearly 5,000 internally displaced persons sheltered at its civilian protection site.

A least 20 civilians were killed and more than 70 others were injured, according to Samantha Power, the United State's permanent representative to the world body.

More than 53 were believed to have been killed in Bor following the clashes between Bor youth and the UN peacekeepers protecting civilians in the UNMISS base on Thursday.

A group of demonstrators moving towards the Jonglei governors' office on Thursday 17 April 2014 in Bor, (ST)

The government says that 53 people died and 41 were injured when Bor youth stormed the UNMISS compound on Thursday. They were angered by reports that the IDPs had celebrated the news that rebels, led by former vice president Riek Machar, had retaken Bentiu, the Unity state capital.

Speaking to Sudan Tribune in Bor late evening, Peter Deng Aguer, the speaker of Jonglei legislative assembly said the attack in Bor surprised the state government.

Speaker Aguer said that "46 people were confirmed dead inside UN compound and 26 wounded. From the youth side, seven were killed and 15 others wounded."

"We sat and condemned it to the strongest term. The assembly also directed the law enforcement sector to investigate the matter an bring the culprits to book", he said.

"Our country is a member of this international community, that is why we condemned the killing as well as the armed confrontation with the UN", added the speaker.

The lawmaker wondered how a peaceful demonstration would later turn violent, but rejected claims that local politicians had somehow instigated the attack.

"We were not aware of it, that is why there was no arrest made at the time [during the attack] because there was no police or any force to arrest them", he stressed.

The world body is yet to officially release a statement on the number of casualties from the attack, which initially started as a peacefully organised demonstration.

(ST)

April 21, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – Rebels led by South Sudan's ex-vice president, Riek Machar, said they were advancing towards neighbouring Warrap state after capturing Mayom, a strategic border town in Unity state on Monday morning.

Rebel fighters aligned with former vice-president Riek Machar march in a village inside rebel-controlled territory in South Sudan's Upper Nile state on 9 February 2014 (Photo:Reuters)

"Our troops this morning defeated Salva Kiir's forces and took full control of Mayom town and its surroundings. This is a strategic area situated at the border with Warrap state," Machar's spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune by phone.

He said the town fell to the SPLM-in-Opposition on Monday at about 7am local time.

Dak claimed the SPLA suffered heavy causalities, adding that details from the fighting would be made available by the rebels' military spokesperson later on.

South Sudan army spokesperson, however, dismissed the rebel claims as "untrue".

"The SPLA [Sudan Peoples Liberation Army] forces are in full control of Mayom county", Phillip Aguer said, but gave no details about the military situation there.

The fall of Mayom county, if independently confirmed, poses a direct threat to Warrap state, which is home to the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir.

The latest incident came barely a week after the opposition forces recaptured Unity state's capital, Bentiu, including the oilfields in the state.

(ST)

April 21, 2014 (JUBA) - Thousands of South Sudanese flooded to churches this weekend to celebrate Easter, while the young nation contemplates the attacks on civilians in recent days in Bor and Bentiu that may have marked a turning point in the four-month-old conflict.

South Sudan president Salva Kiir (AP)

President Salva Kiir, a Catholic, marked Good Friday by calling for forgiveness and burial of political differences in remarks at Kator Cathedral in Juba, where a prayer service was conducted by the archbishop of Juba diocese, Paulino Lukudu Loro.

South Sudan Television broadcast images of several government ministers and key foreign diplomats attending the service.

Kiir, in comments also broadcast on state radio, said he hoped the country would celebrate the next Easter in peace and described the attack on the internally displaced in Bor, an unfortunate and unacceptable act.

The leader of the governing Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) whose internal political rifts, plunged the country into conflict which has forced over one million people to flee their homes, said what happened in Bor is very regrettable and pledged that his government would do everything possible to stop the situation from escalating.

The head of state is the latest top official to condemn the attack a United Nations base in Bor, the Jonglei state capital, where 5,000 civilians have been seeking protection since the fighting broke out in December.

Fighting began in Juba as a result of a political rift within the leadership of the ruling SPLM which spread into the armed forces and quickly spread to Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile state.

It remains unclear what motivated the attack on the UN base in Bor. However, in a petition seen by Sudan Tribune the mainly Dinak demonstrators asked that the mainly Nuer civilians in the UN base be relocated out of Bor. They had been angered by reports that the displaced people in the base had celebrated news that the rebels had retaken Bentiu, the capital of neighbouring Unity state.

Many observers point have questioned why the government allowed the demonstrators to carry weapons if indeed they were going to present peaceful petition. The government has denied any involvement in the attack.

However, a statement issued by seven senior SPLM members who were detained in the first weeks of the crisis, have claimed that a group of armed police, military and wildlife soldiers in plain clothes together with armed Dinka Bor youth, were responsible for the attack.

Officials say the victims of the attack include women and children as well as elderly people. They say most of the victims were members Nuer tribe, who had sought protection at the UN base after fighting erupted in the country late last year in Juba and spread to several key town and areas.

Witnesses and survivors claimed the attackers were demonstrating in front of the UN compound before the situation turned violent. UN officials say the armed group forced their way into the camp at started shooting at civilians.

It was not clear what provoked the shooting, although South Sudanese information, Michaeal Makuei Lueth, told journalists at new conference on Friday that UN forces shot bullets into the air, provoking the attack.

"The UNMISS force shot bullets in the air. That shooting of bullets in the air provoked the situation and as a result a fight ensued between the youth and the UNMISS force and the rebels. The IDPS [internally displaced persons] on one side and youth on the other side, and that is what resulted into that unfortunate incident of yesterday", Lueth told reporters on Friday.

The attack has drawn international condemnation.

The head of the United Nations' relief efforts in South Sudan, Toby Lancer, described the attack as “pointless".

“These events show, yet again, the pointlessness of the violence engulfing South Sudan, said Lancer. The current cycle of revenge will get the people of this country nowhere. It wrecks the present and casts a dark shadow of what should have been a very bright future”, the top relief official adds in a statement.

The head of public relations and information in South Sudanese army (SPLA), Brigadier General, Malaak Ayuen and the spokesperson of the government troops, Colonel Philip Aguer, denied at the time the army was involved, saying there soldiers were about 6 kilometers outside Bor when the conflict erupted.

NO MORE IMPUNITY

In his national Easter address, president Kiir said his government would not allow the culture of impunity to flourish. The people who carried out the attack on the UN compound where the internally displaced persons seek protection would be investigated and brought to book.

"I would like to wish you a happy Easter filled with hope of peace and joy. As Christians and people of God, we should pray hard that this country celebrate the next Easter in peace. May this Easter be a new beginning of greater prosperity, success and happiness? There is no reason for fighting and killings. What happened in Bor is unfortunate and it is unacceptable act. The government does not support such act and we will work very hard to see into it that those who were behind it are brought to book. The period of when people commit atrocities and come out with unnecessary claims to just justify their acts is gone. There will be no more impunity", Kiir said in the televised statement broadcast on Sunday.

Meanwhile archbishop of Juba diocese, Paulino Lukudu Loro, during his preaching speech called on politicians to bury their differences during Easter.

"Jesus died for us on this earth so that we could be reconciled with God, with one another and society. And I believe all of us can believe in that and put our differences aside," Archbishop Loro said.

"The message of Easter is a message of man finally returning to the love and care that he used to enjoy with his Father before he sinned. If all of us can remember that the Lord has freed us, being reconciled with God and with one another but as long as we are missing out on that fact, we will continue being alienated from each other and from our God."

The top cleric said politicians seem to be losing sight that they only have one country. He observed that the ongoing war in the country signified lack of tolerance and respect of human rights among politicians.

"What we are seeing even here in Juba is very worrying. Our people are suffering and dying. First of all, just because there are some selfish individuals in our midst, unfortunately, those individuals have got power and money; they can manipulate the young people and threw the country into turmoil and suffering", he observed.

"The young people, unfortunately, who are not having anything to do, are easily bought and they start to engage in violence. Again, the root cause is that we are losing sight of the fact that we have only one country and that if we blow it up, we burn it up, we will have no place to run to."

The most senior Roman Catholic in South Sudan implored politicians from all sides of the conflict to focus on coming up with ways of bettering the lives of the innocent civil population.

"We should be talking about how we are going to move this nation forward. Both the ruling party and the opposition should be working towards one goal which is to make sure that this country has got necessary amenities that they need to enjoy the fruits of this country's natural resources," he said.

"All of them can contribute to that whether they are in the opposition or the ruling party."

He warned that if not curbed, violence would destroy the country.

"Political violence by a few individuals is going to bring disaster for our nation. I am praying that country will see violence for what it is and reject it," he said. "I appeal to politicians; they are brothers and sister so they should organise their politics like brothers and sisters as they seek the mandate of the citizens of this country to lead them. Politics of character assassination has been our setback, or one would say it is our regret that when politicians are appealing to us, they talk about each instead of issues."

(ST)

April 21, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has announced liberation of 5 areas in South Kordofan state within the framework of the second phase of the Decisive Summer campaign to end rebellion in the state.

A photo taken on April 6, 2012 shows Sudan People's Liberation Army –North (SPLA-N) fighters patrolling in South Kordofan (Photo AFP/Adriane Ohanesian)

Earlier this month, the defence minister, Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, told the parliament that the Decisive Summer military campaign against the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLA-N) in the Nuba Mountain has begun.

While, the director of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), Mohamed Atta, announced that units of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia were deployed in South Kordofan state to take part in the military operations.

SAF's spokesperson, Al-Sawarmi Khalid Saad, said at a press conference on Monday they launched sweeping attack on rebel areas and recaptured the areas of East and West Zalataya, Saraf Falata, Tendomin, and Tagilbo, noting that rebels suffered heavy losses in lives and equipments.

Saad pointed that the liberated areas are rich in gold and include large groups of traditional miners, adding that SAF opened safe corridors for the residents.

The governor of South Kordofan state, Adam Al-Faki, for his part, said that SAF liberated 7500 people from the grip of the rebellion, underscoring the government seeks to achieve peace through negotiation with the rebels.

He called upon armed bearers to turn themselves in to SAF's position and added that the latter would continue cleansing the area from rebellion in order to return residents to their areas.

He further stressed that SAF is capable of securing villages and liberated areas.

700,000 CIVILIANS DISPLACED : REBELS

But the spokesperson of the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N), Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, said in a press release on Monday the second phase of the government's Decisive Summer campaign led to displacement of 70.000 people in villages of Tomi, Tengalo, Al-Mansour, Kalopa, Klaro, Tarawa, Tendomin, Tagilbo, and Zalataya in Rashad province in the Nuba Mountain.

He claimed the government's troops looted cattle and destroyed water pumps and wells, asserting that the government army continued to bomb displaced civilians in their hideouts in the mountains using heavy artillery and aircrafts.

Lodi added that several villages in Al-Abasiya province were bombed by Sukhoi Super jet, asserting that large number of cows perished and residents were terrified.

The Sudanese government has been battling the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan state for nearly three years.

The conflict erupted in 2011 when Sudan attempted to forcibly disarm SPLM-N fighters it accuses of being backed by their brother-in-arms in the South Sudanese army.

(ST)

April 21, 2014 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government officials on Monday accused rebels loyal to former vice-president Riek Machar of committing “all kinds of immeasurable atrocities” when they recaptured Bentiu, the Unity state capital last week.

The newly appointed caretaker governor of Unity State Joseph Montuil (Photo: Larco Lomayat)

Joseph Nguen Monytuil, the state's caretaker governor told Sudan Tribune in an interview that what he witnessed had never ever occurred in the history of the Neur ethnic community. Not even his personal aides were reportedly spared by the rebels.

"What happened after the rebels of Riek Machar entered Bentiu town had never occurred in the history of our community? Some innocent civilians who could not run away when they [rebels] came and thought they would not be killed because they were members of the same community were executed, heartlessly," said Monytuil.

"Not even single person had survived from those who did not run. Only those who run into the UN [United Nations] camp in Rubkona survived. Everything has been destroyed", he added.

The caretaker governor, during the exclusive interview, also wondered what the rebels wanted to achieve with the mass killings, looting and destruction of key infrastructure every time they took control of certain areas from government troops.

“I really do not know what they [rebels] want to achieve with this destruction and mass killings of innocent civilians. I don't know the objective of this rebellion. They killed even their own people, their own relatives. They destroy public infrastructure. I am told people who did not go to receive them when their leaders entered the town after our forces withdrew were killed", asserted the governor.

He further said most of those killed were accused of either being his supporters or were seen as loyal to President Salva Kiir and his leadership.

"They[rebels] accused them of being my supporters and the president. They have committed immeasurable atrocities in their own communities," Monytuil told Sudan Tribune, adding that "Those who came are from the area".

South Sudan army (SPLA) spokesperson, in a separate interview, also accused the rebels of having committed “all kinds of atrocities” during last week's attack.

“They [rebels] have committed all kinds of atrocities. When they entered the town, we are told that they went straight to the hospital and removed all those fled there and killed them. They did exactly what they did in Bor and Malakal. They killed sick people in the hospital. They raped and killed women. The elderly were killed. All the foreigners were killed", Phillip Aguer told Sudan Tribune.

He added: "They did not leave anybody when they entered".

The UN mission in the country said when rebel forces captured Bentiu on 15 and 16 April, they searched several places where hundreds of South Sudanese and foreign civilians had taken refuge and killed hundreds of them after determining their ethnicity or nationality.

"These atrocities must be fully investigated and the perpetrators and their commanders shall be held accountable", Raisedon Zenenga, the officer in charge of the human rights department said in a statement issued Monday.

Zenenga reminded the parties of their respective obligations to protect civilians and called on them to immediately stop the targeting of innocent, unarmed civilians, and to respect the cessation of hostilities agreement they both signed in January.

On 15 April, the top human rights officer said, several Nuer men, women and children were killed at Bentiu hospital for allegedly hiding and declining to join their tribemates who had gone out to cheer the SPLA in Opposition forces as they entered the town.

“Individuals from other South Sudanese communities, as well as Darfuris, were specifically targeted and killed at the hospital. On the same day, the SPLA in Opposition forces entered the Kali-Ballee Mosque where civilians had taken shelter, separated individuals of certain nationalities and ethnic groups and escorted them to safety, while the others were killed. More than 200 civilians were reportedly killed and over 400 wounded at the Mosque," Zenenga noted in the statement.

"At the Catholic Church and at the vacated WFP compound, SPLA in Opposition soldiers similarly asked civilians who had taken refuge there to identify their ethnic origin” it added.

The world body further said its mission, between 15 and 17 April, extracted hundreds of civilians who were facing threats of violence in several places in Bentiu and Rubkona where they had taken refuge.

"Over 500 civilians, including many wounded, were extracted from the Bentiu hospital and other places, while thousands were escorted as they walked to the UNMISS base", is noted, adding that it is currently protecting over 12,000 civilians in its base.

REBELS DISMISS CLAIMS

But Hussein Maar Nyuot, a former deputy governor-turned rebel spokesperson told Sudan Tribune their forces only target government soldiers, not innocent civilians.

“This is not true. Our forces don't do that. How can they [rebels] do that while they rebels are fighting for them [civilians]? They are fighting to free them from the bondage and sufferings introduced by the government of Salva Kiir. These allegations do not reflect any trust but clear fabrications by the government which had forced the United Nations to report what suits their interest." Nyuot exclusively said Monday.

"Our forces fought the government soldiers which I suspected to be the ones the United Nations is reporting to be civilians. Some of them (government soldiers) could not flee in time and did not want to surrender”, he added.

The rebel official further claimed it was against their culture to kill innocent civilians.

"What is being alleged is not part of the culture of our forces. They operate under strict instructions and clear directives. They are very discipline and operate with clear rules of engagement. They engage the targets, who do not include civilians. It is the government forces that do that," Nyuot observed.

"What happened in Bor is a clear testimony. That is part of their culture," he added.

The rebel spokesperson also claimed what happened in Bor when armed youth attacked a UN based "reflects the intention of the government of Salva Kiir to exterminate a certain tribe," which is what our forces are resisting.

(ST)

April 21, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) has denied statements attributed to its foreign relations secretary, Bashir Adam Rahma, claiming that president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir agreed to form a transitional government for two years.

In an interview with the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper on Sunday Rahma said that Bashir accepted the transitional government which will administrate the country during the national dialogue process.

He added the transitional government would last for a maximum of two years, noting it would adopt a program to stop the war, address the issue of refugee return, and reform the civil service and foreign relations before to hold general elections.

However, the PCP political secretary, Kamal Omer Abdel-Salam, described in a press conference on Monday the statements about forming an interim government as "jumping over stages", pointing the national dialogue is still in its early stages.

Abdel-Salam further accused unnamed parties within the government and the opposition of leaking the statements in order to hinder the national dialogue process, without elaboration.

He underscored existence of contacts between his party and the opposition forces which refused to take part in the national dialogue and rebel groups in order to convince them to engage in it.

He also pointing to a meeting of the PCP leader, Hassan Al-Turabi with the deputy chairman of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP), Fadl Allah Burma Nasser. The two parties accepted to participate in the process.

Last January, the president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir called upon opposition parties and rebel groups to engage in a comprehensive national dialogue to end war and restore democracy in Sudan.

The opposition alliance of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) refused Bashir's call for dialogue and instead proposed forming a transitional government and holding a national conference with the participation of rebel groups to discuss a peaceful solution for the conflicts in Darfur region, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile states before to adopt a new democratic constitution.

The rebel alliance of the Susan Revolutionary Forces (SRF), also rejected Bashir's call for dialogue and demanded the government to hold direct talks with them to negotiate a cessation of hostilities and open humanitarian access to civilians in the rebel areas.

Abdel-Salam pointed to ongoing consultations between the opposition parties which took part in the dialogue and the registrar of political parties and organisations in order to select representatives of the opposition parties in the dialogue and set up coordinating body to form dialogue's committees.

He said the PCP met with several national and Islamic parties besides regional groups from Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan to ensure inclusiveness of the national dialogue process, noting that dialogue is the primary means for solving the country's crises.

The PCP official revealed that his party has developed a strategic plan to unify the Islamic Movement (IM) all over the world, saying the Islamic forces adhere to issues of democracy and freedoms more than the secular forces.

He said the strategic plan represents the official stand of his party and noted it was adopted against the will of the western countries, calling for the unification of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the NUP, which are now divided in several factions in order to enable Sudanese people make their choices.

(ST)

By Juliana Bol

April 21, 2014 - It was a bit disturbing to hear news of our citizens in the IDP camps (where they are seeking protection and shelter) celebrating the recapture of Bentiu -in light of what this recapture actually occasioned.

200 civilians [allegedly] killed in a mosque. Non-Nuer civilians and foreign nationals targeted and killed. Nuer men and women in a hospital killed for not being supportive or rather celebratory over the rebel forces ‘success'. Hate speech broadcast on a local radio station, calling for the rape of women.

Were we celebrating that a group of us now have to run and seek protection and shelter? Disturbingly, were the victims of this war celebrating the victimization of others? Are we seeing the creation of a ‘permanent victimhood' that denies the existence of an equally victimized ‘other'? Historically this kind of moral ambiguity has been a prelude to victims becoming perpetrators whose actions, regardless of scale - they themselves perceive as warranted and a form of self-defense. This is a disturbing development.

In addition, does this mean that we have no empathy for those who are currently hiding in the bush and are not concerned when even more of us join them? The 800,000+ South Sudanese men, women and children whom we know are not in United Nations Protection of Civilians (PoC) camps, but we do not know where they are.

Also, what does it say about the international community, when we only condemn the actions of one group of actors, in this case the youths in Bor, and fail to equally condemn the actions of the actors in Bentiu? The international media widely reported the Bor massacre; international actors correctly condemned the actions of the youth involved. However, there has been a lack of condemnation of the actors in Bentiu, there has been no widespread calls for an investigation, despite that the Bentiu massacre took place in the same week as the Bor massacre.

Do the people of Bentiu not deserve equal consideration and if this is so, we should sincerely ask ourselves why. Because this makes us appear to be only quick to condemn actions that seemingly hold the government culpable (in this case in their failure to protect the IDPs) but then we remain silent on the need to hold the rebel army equally culpable. If this is the case, then we must question not only our partiality but also our humanity.

Lastly, perhaps we should be even more apprehensive when we hear reports of community youths reacting to this crisis with violence. Thus far, the communities of the affected have not engaged either the rebels or the SPLA, and have instead remained on the sidelines. About two weeks ago, there were reports of the Shilluk community mobilizing to form a community defense force (granted, this claim has since been retracted) and now we hear of youths in Bor attacking a group of the defenseless that they associate with the rebellion. I wrote an earlier article about the need to engage with the communities of the affected, in order to avoid an escalation of this kind of reaction. This needs to happen, sooner rather than later. We also need to begin to engage with the Nuer community – these are their sons and daughters – these actions cannot be culturally acceptable even if this were blood feud or retaliation.

This has been a horrible week for South Sudan. I reiterate that time is running out for us, we are on a precipice. Let us do all that we can to ensure that we do not fall into the abyss.

Juliana Bol is a public health specialist, holding a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University, New York. Her key focus area is Population and Family health concentrating on Forced Migration and Health. She lives and works in Juba, South Sudan and can be reached at: mawazo@gmail.com

By Peter Gai Manyuon

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death", from unknown author.

April 21, 2014 - According to what had happened in Jonglei State Capital Bor on the 17th of April 2014 where one hundred and forty five (145) Nuer civilians were massacred in United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNIMISS) Compound and two hundred and seventy five (275) people wounded, justify that someone like Michael Makuei Lueth who is the Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Government of South Sudan is behind the scene. Why do I say this? On Friday 18th of April 2014, Comrade Makuei stated on both electronic and print media that “the people killed in the attack on the UN compound in Bor the previous day were ‘rebels' who committed the ‘intolerable' act of celebrating the fall of Bentiu, which was captured from government forces last Tuesday”. He also as well said “The genesis of the problems goes back to the recapture of Bentiu town by the rebels.”

Logically, what can you analyze as an individual citizen of South Sudan in this scenario where the Minster is inciting the violence? Base on my own intelligentsia and curative thinking, I think Makuei is very wrong to come out verbally with that statement and moreover, he is a National Minister for all representing the entire Republic of South Sudan. He is not the Minister for Bor South or whatever the case may be. Due to high level of disorganization or Lack of Public relations within him (Makuei), he aired out a word that might bring a very big problem to himself in the nearer future, if am not mistaken.

However, according to my own observation about Comrade Makuei, he is the one who instructed the soldiers to go and attack the UNIMISS Compound in Bor basing on what he had said during the time he addressed the Press conference last friday in Juba after the massacred happened already. Therefore the International Communities and South Sudanese should know that, Makuei Lueth is a criminal number one who deserves hanging from the President of the Republic of South Sudan because; he is the very person who is spoiling the government of Maryardit in Juba at this particular period of time.

Most of the people within the government of South Sudan thoughts that, this current crisis will not come to an end very soon but mind you; in every crisis, there is a beginning and ending; therefore those who did wrong things to the people of South Sudan especially on the tribal agenda, should be discipline afterward, so that other people should learn from the experiences.

Some people might ask themselves why I come with this article today. For your information by dear Countrymen and ladies, someone who has no boundaries in talking is good to be hang like what happen to the former President of Irag or given a life imprisonment for some times. More so , if the option of hang should not work, then he (Makuei) deserve to be indicted for the war crime against humanity because killing one hundred and forty five (145) civilians who have no arms ,moreover in the house of United Nation need a good investigation otherwise UNIMISS might be regarded as an Institution which is bias.

Someone like Mr. Makuei Lueth, deserves hanging after the war due to the fact that, he (Makuei) has gone beyond the jurisdictions of communications ethics and laws. Every profession has got its ethics and laws that should be respected.

Well, some people said that Makuei Lueth is a graduate of the University of Khartoum in faculty of Law but am not sure whether he (Lueth) really understood what he was doing at that time, I think he is among the people who like choosing courses because they have a good name due to my surprise, he does not deserve the title as the Lawyer. For those who are informed up stairs know that, Lawyers are people who can be evaluated from the way they talk, think and reacts toward certain things in society but for someone like Makuei, should go back and study Law very well again because right now he is spoiling the Legal Professional Internationally.

Since the crisis occurred last December 2013 in Juba, Comrade Makuei have been in forefront propagating and telling lies to the huge audiences across the globe.

Makuei incited the crisis by speaking words that does not carry meaning, moreover meaningless in the sense. He had been abusing western diplomats and government without good approaches, he always talk any how without proper communication skills and techniques. Makuei made a very big crime when he was trying to go to Jonglei state UNIMISS compound early this year, therefore; he deserve punishment after the war end, because what he did was really unacceptable and unbelievable in the human history Internationally. All the messes he advocated for, shows he is a number one criminal in Kiir regime in Juba and deserve to be given individual sanction and indictment in the Hague for the War Crimes against humanity.

International Communities especially the United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNIMISS) should question Makuei for the incident that had happened in the Jonglei State Capital Bor. Innocent Civilians were killed resulted from Makuei Lueth influence and you will justify my statement due to the fact that, early this year he (Makuei) attempted to enter to UNIMISS Compound in Bor with guns but he was denied the chance to do what he was suppose to do at that time by United Nation soldiers those were in Bor.

The President of South Sudan General Salva Kiir Mayardit, should dismiss, Makuei Lueth , if he really want to be in the leadership or gain a momentum from western diplomats, otherwise this is the very person who have destroyed and will remove Mayardit from the leadership that he (Kiir) was suppose to enjoy for some times.

In conclusion, I will end with the quotation which says” A 'civilization' that makes such a ridiculous fuss about alleged 'war crimes' - acts of violence against the actual or potential enemies of one's cause - and tolerates slaughterhouses and vivisection laboratories, and circuses and the fur industry (infliction of pain upon creatures that can never be for or against any cause), does not deserve to live.” ? Savitri Devi

Author is the Independent Journalist and Columnist who had written extensively on the issues of Democratization and Human Rights in South Sudan. You can follow him on twitter@Peter Gai Manyuon or petergai2006@gmail.com

April 21, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudanese rebels allied to the former vice president, Riek Machar, have officially launched the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA) “armed resistance” and called for restructuring of all public sectors in the state of South Sudan to conform to the federal system of governance.

South Sudan's former vice-president Riek Machar (AFP/Getty)

The leadership of SPLM/SPLA and representatives of other political parties, faith based groups, civil society organizations, youth and women groups, traditional leaders, church leaders and eminent personalities, met from April 15th-18th, 2014 in Nasir, Upper Nile State, South Sudan, in a consultative conference which resolved on various matters in the newly launched armed struggle.

The conference “resolved to establish in South Sudan a democratic, just, transparent and people-driven political system-Federalism,” reads one of its resolutions.

The conference further agreed that a future interim government shall be based on a comprehensive peace agreement which shall address the structuring of the state on the basis of an interim federal constitution.

It also resolved to transform and sensitise the regular forces as well as ensure the transformation of the volunteer fighters into discipline soldiers under the SPLA command and control.

The conference also endorsed the former vice president, Riek Machar, as the chairperson and commander-in-chief of the new movement.

It also declared president Salva Kiir as "an illegitimate leader given his deeds" that have dragged the country into the current political, security and humanitarian crisis, and further called on the international community to do the same.

The rebel movement formed a provisional leadership structure with eight specialised committees, each to be headed by a chairperson. He or she will be deputised by a deputy and secretary, three of whom shall be appointed by the chairperson of the movement from able and competent members of the movement.

Each committee shall comprise of 15 members and assisted by a secretariat.

The conference resolved that such committees shall include peace and national reconciliation committee; political mobilisation committee; foreign affairs committees; justice and human rights committee; finance and resources mobilization committee; information and public relations committee; humanitarian and social services committee; and women and youth empowerment committee.

The conference reiterated the call for withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country, such as the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) that are fighting alongside Salva Kiir's government.

It also renewed commitment to the peace processes mediated by the regional bloc –IGAD, but warned of intensifying the war into Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal regions to remove Kiir from power should the government in Juba not talk peace in good faith.

(ST)