Sudan Monthly Report - March 2001

[Enrico Marcandalli <ramalkandy at iol.it>]

Sudan Monthly Report

A monthly production by the Sudan Catholic Information Office 
(SCIO)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />



March 15, 2001



Content

1. Chronology

2. Shepherd s desperate cry for starving flock

3. Stay Committed in Sudan


1. Chronology

February 16:  With 10,000 signatures and a dusty 250-kilometre 
(155-mile) trek behind them, two young Swedes hope to teach the world 
how the people of southern Sudan are crying out for peace after 17 
years of war. In the latest stage of an awareness-raising campaign, 
Adreas Zetterlund, 25, and Tommy Larsson, 29, both lay evangelical 
preachers, walked from Rumbek to Kotobe, in southern Sudan's 
Bahr-el-Ghazal province from January 29 to February 10

17: The Sudanese minister of livestock minister Abdullah Muhammad Sayed 
Ahmad has announced the consent of both Syria and Lebanon to import the 
Sudanese meat after they leant about the assurances on health and 
quarantine measures pursued in Sudan. In a statement to the Sudanese 
daily al-Anbaa the Sudanese minister added that his ministry is seeking 
in its 2001 plan to open new markets also in the countries of West Africa.

17: The Sudanese daily al-Anbaa unveiled that the forces of the 
rebellion Mushar had killed Veter Kouj, the former governor of the 
Sudanese Mayout provinces who was kidnapped by the Southern Sudanese 
rebellion movement in 2000. Well-informed sources said the paper added 
that the killing of governor Kouj came as a result of his rejection to 
co-operate with Mushar forces and the forces of the SPLA.

18:  Sudan has released two leading human rights lawyers detained for 
criticising the arrest of opposition figures, their families said. 
Ghazi Suleiman and Ali Mahmoud Hassanein were released, 72 days after 
their December arrest for speaking out against the arrest of seven 
opposition politicians detained during a meeting with US political 
officer Glenn Warren. Warren was expelled, but the seven are to stand 
trial on charges of spying and undermining the constitution.

18:  Sudan's foreign minister said Khartoum hopes better ties with its 
neighbours and increased aid to the south will deprive rebels of 
cross-border bases and speed the end of the 18-year-old civil war. "The 
more relations with neighbouring countries improve, the more this 
positively reflects on their relationship to the southern issue," 
Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters.

19: Some 680 Sudanese refugees have arrived in the northwestern Ugandan 
district of Yumbe and  been transported to the Imvepi Refugee 
Settlement, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
(UNHCR). The process of registration is still in progress and the total 
number of recognised refugees will be available only at the completion 
of the process, said the document.

21: Leading Islamist leader and former speaker of the Sudanese 
parliament, Hassan al-Turabi, has been arrested. Armed men picked him 
up at his Khartoum home, party officials said. There has been no 
official confirmation of the incident yet, but the arrest follows an 
understanding struck by his party and the main southern rebel group.

23:  The United Nations has warned that starvation threatens over half 
a million people in Sudan. According to a statement from the UN Office 
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 600,000 Sudanese are 
threatened with starvation in the extremely drought- and 
conflict-affected country. The total number of people in need of some 
food assistance is three million.

23:  The United States should organize a peace initiative for Sudan 
because efforts by the African nation's neighbours to end an 
18-year-old war there ``hold no promise,'' says a report compiled with 
State Department and UN participation. The time has come for the United 
States, in league with others, to make a strong push to end Sudan's 
war,'' said the report by the Centre for Strategic and International 
Studies.

24: Warning of an "impending catastrophe" in Sudan, where 600,000 
people are at
immediate risk of starvation, the United Nations Emergency 
Relief  Coordinator has expressed deep concern about the "very poor 
response" of donors to the country's deteriorating humanitarian 
situation. Kenzo Oshima noted that in addition to the pressing survival 
needs of several million displaced and vulnerable people affected by 
war and conflict, widespread drought was now threatening hundreds of 
thousands of others.

24:  The editor and publisher of an independent Sudanese newspaper were 
arrested and held by police at their office for seven hours before 
being released on bail, the paper's managing editor said. Albino Okeny, 
editor-in-chief of the daily Khartoum Monitor, and publisher Alfred 
Taban, ``were arrested because of an article published in the paper on 
December 5 by Taban,'' said managing editor Nhial Bol. It was not clear 
what charges the two faced.

23: More than 7,000 people have fled fighting near southern Sudan's oil 
fields in the past 14 months, bringing the total to 36,500, a UN 
official said. "The oil-rich area of Sudan has seen a great deal of 
population displacement and in fact is currently one of the most 
insecure areas in Sudan," Nicholas Siwingwa, deputy country director of 
the World Food Programme (WFP), said in a statement.

24: Media reports of the arrest of Hassan al-Turabi, considered by many 
the world's leading Islamic militant, failed to mention Turabi's ties 
to Osama Bin Laden or the whole vast, sinister world of Islamic 
terrorism. Yet if the Islamic terrorist movement can be said to have a 
single mastermind, a single centralising and directing intelligence, it 
would belong to al-Turabi. The "real signal of change" took place late 
last year when Bashir suddenly made lightning raids and arrested 
opposition leaders, not close to Turabi, on charges that they had been 
conducting secret talks with "a foreign power," the United States. 
Bashir forced the US diplomatic representative in
Khartoum to withdraw.

24: President Bashir has reshuffled key cabinet ministers while 
continuing to crack down on an opposition group run by a former  aide. 
The president, who was re-elected in December for a second, and last, 
five-year term, dismissed finance minister Mohammed Khari al-Zubeir and 
replaced him with Abdel Rahim Hamdi, a former finance minister, in a 
decree published by the government-owned al-Anbaa newspaper.

26: The Sudanese army and Muslim scholars came out in support of 
president Bashir s crackdown on a jailed Islamic theologian and former 
parliament speaker whose group signed an agreement with the SPLA. 
Senior army officers called on Bashir to deal firmly with Turabi, his 
former ally, who was arrested after his Popular Congress Party signed a 
memorandum of understanding with the SPLA to jointly force the 
government into stepping down.

26:  Turabi is being held in solitary confinement in a rat-infested 
prison cell with no access to newspapers or writing material, his wife 
has said. Wisal al-Mehdi told Saudi Arabia's al-Watan newspaper that 
her husband was being held in a prison cell "full of rats" and that he 
was in solitary confinement with no access to "newspapers, magazines, 
papers and pens".

27:  Sudan's president has called former ally Turabi a liar and 
criticised his agreement with a rebel group in his first comments about 
the Islamic thinker since his arrest. ``Don't let him lie to you,'' 
President Bashir told a unit of the Popular Defence Forces, a 
pro-government militia, before they headed to the front line in Sudan's 
18-year-old civil war, which pits the government and the Muslim north 
against the rebels in the mostly Christian and traditionalist south.

28: the UN Children s Fund (UNICEF) has airlifted More than 2,500 
former child soldiers from volatile areas of southern Sudan to 
rehabilitation centres in a unique operation, the agency said. The 
boys, who have been demobilised from the SPLA in the southwestern Bahr 
el-Ghazal region, had gathered near airstrips to board transport planes 
operated by the UN World Food Programme.

28: The US state department found human rights gains in Nigeria and 
Ghana last year amid a number of rights setback in Africa including 
Sudan where  the government s record was rated as extremely poor . In 
its annual report on rights conditions worldwide, the state department 
said the Sudanese government continued to commit numerous serious  abuses .

March 1: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has underscored the need 
for strong
economic ties with Sudan, arguing that this would enhance bilateral 
cooperation between the two neighbours. Meles, the Ethiopian News 
Agency reported, launched his appeal while receiving a 25-strong 
Sudanese business delegation at in Addis Ababa. He said economic ties 
between the two countries had gained momentum since the recent signing 
of trade agreements that led improved road and rail links between the 
Ethiopia and Sudan.

1: Visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has denied that his 
country was in turmoil, saying trouble was localised, a Sudanese daily 
reported. "I cannot deny that there are problems in parts of the 
country, but it is a large country and problems in one part do not mean 
that the whole of Indonesia is in turmoil," the independent al-Ayam 
newspaper quoted him as telling a joint news conference with president 
Bashir.

2: Sudan has criticised the Unicef for secretly airlifting from civil 
war frontlines more than 2,800 child soldiers who had been serving with 
SPLA, a newspaper said. Announcing the evacuation, Unicef said SPLA had 
handed over the children, aged eight to 18, and Unicef would now try to 
trace  their families.

3:  The factional fighting in southern Sudan could widen into a 
devastating famine unless the US intervenes diplomatically with rebel 
forces and others, Human Rights Watch said. In a March 1 letter to US 
Secretary of State Colin Powell, Human Rights Watch called on the Bush 
administration to use its influence with the southern factions to stave 
off the potential crisis.

4:  President Bashir has stressed, before his departure of the Libyan 
Sirte town after participation in the extraordinarily African summit, 
that the African union has become a reality. He said, in a press 
statement that the number of the member states in the proposed union 
has increased to 36 countries.

5: Talisman Energy Inc. had been considering selling its oil operations 
in Sudan amid controversy pressuring its stock price, but signals from 
the new US administration about possibly loosening sanctions has given 
it reason to hang on, Talisman's chief executive said. Talisman CEO Jim 
Buckee, speaking after a presentation to an energy conference in New 
York, did not dispute recent speculation that a few select rival oil 
companies had taken a look at its stake in the Sudan project's 
operating consortium.

6: Sudan s minister of energy and mining Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz has 
described the decision of Talisman to continue its oil investment in 
Sudan as evidence on prevalence of security and appropriate investment 
climate in the country. He said in press statements that Sudan is open 
for whoever desires to invest in it, and that it is secured for whoever 
wants to stay or work in it, pointing out that Sudan is rich of 
unlimited resources.

10: The US government is turning a spotlight on one of the world s most 
sorrowful conflicts-the grinding 18-year-old war in Sudan. Secretary of 
State Colin Powell has met with senior State Department officials to 
talk about crafting a US policy for ending a war long accompanied by 
starvation, disease the taking of slaves and human rights abuses by 
both sides.

12: The new man appointed by the United Nations to investigate human 
rights in
Sudan, Gerhart Baum, has begun his first mission in the country. Mr. 
Baum met the prominent human rights activist, Ghazi Suleiman, of the 
Sudanese Group for Human Rights. Mr. Baum replaces Leonardo Franco, who 
resigned after submitting a report last year to the UN detailing 
allegations of gross human rights violations in the country.

12: Dozens of gunmen looted and attacked an aid agency compound in 
southern Sudan, kidnapping four aid workers and killing two people, an 
official said. Two Kenyans and two Sudanese, working for the US-based 
Adventist Development and Relief Agency, were taken hostage after the 
attack, said Nick Trent, programme director for ADRA's southern Sudan 
operations. A woman and 12-year-old girl were killed.

13:  The wife of detained Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi 
said in remarks published that she planned to discuss her husband's 
plight with the U.N. special human rights envoy in Sudan. Turabi was 
arrested along with close aides in February for signing a controversial 
agreement with the main rebel group in Sudan's 18-year-old civil war.

15: "There is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the Earth today 
than the tragedy that is unfolding in the Sudan," Secretary of State 
Colin Powell told the House International Relations Committee. Powell 
was referring to the campaign of genocide the Sudanese government is 
conducting on its ethnic and Christian minorities, and dismissed that 
Sudan would be a priority under the Bush administration.  The 
Washington Post highlighted the tragedy in Sudan, urging the new 
administration to take action before the situation worsens.

15: The Sudanese and Russian governments have concluded a deal, 
estimated to be worth more than $600m, which will see Sudan 
manufacturing Russian battle tanks in exchange for oil concessions for 
Russia. It is understood that Sudan will pay the Russians for the 
rights to assemble TU-72 tanks and that the Russians have undertaken to 
invest all the proceeds in oil exploration and development. Russian oil 
companies have already been given the green light to prospect in 
Eastern Sudan.

2. Shepherd s desperate cry for starving flock

The Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Rumbek (DOR), southern Sudan, Caesar 
Mazzolari, has appealed for urgent intervention to save an estimated 1 
million Sudanese from starving to death.



Reporting from Malwalkon, northern Bhar el Ghazal, on March 2, 2001, 
Bishop Mazzolari said: One million people in a sash of Sudan 200 km 
deep (north to south) and 300 km wide from Mayen Abun to Nyamlell (east 
to west) are in the irrevocable grip of hunger and thirst that quickly 
deteriorates and will soon claim the lives of hundreds as the days pass.



He said that clashes between the Murahiliins (Khartoum-sponsored Arab 
militias) and the SPLA had displaced thousands of people who lost all 
their possessions in the process.  Their homes, food and property were 
burned in the military attacks, the Murahiliins raided their cattle and 
they now live far from any source of water, in utter poverty and 
isolation.



Further, said the Comboni clergy, the massive military confrontation 
around the area north west of Malwalkon early last month caused the 
death of many Murahiliins plus their horses and several SPLA 
combatants. The corpses of both soldiers and horses are still being 
buried hurriedly in shallow graves and with the coming of the rainy 
season, these corpses will become exposed causing serious contamination 
and the spread of epidemics.



In the face of the worsening humanitarian situation, said the Bishop, 
international intervention, has remained minimal. I travelled in the 
vast area around Malwalkon and saw only one NGO camp (MSF-France) in 
Adwemko with a distribution centre, a small feeding point set up and a 
buffalo cargo plane off-loading some food items, he said.



World Food Progamme, he added, has been dropping food in Malwalkon and 
near the camp of Akwemko. Much of the food is entrusted to Sudan Relief 
and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA) for distribution. SRRA is SPLA s 
humanitarian wing



  Otherwise people are camped in deserted areas in small pyramidal 
grass structures, one and a half metre tall and one metre in diameter, 
crowded with mothers and children.



In addition to food and water, the Bishop said, the displaced people 
desperately need blankets and mosquito nets to protect themselves 
against mosquitoes as the long rains are expected in a month s time.



The Diocese of Rumbek has in the meantime dispatched a team of priests 
and one Brother of the Apostles of Jesus to Malwalkon. They are 
assessing the needs and observing the most vulnerable and marginalised.



DOR, Bishop Mazzolari said, is willing to complement efforts of any 
organisations that are willing to intervene in the Sudan situation. The 
Diocese is making arrangements for the erection of semi-permanent 
structures and stores (pre-fab.), and for the completion of the 
Hospital premises in Malwalkon-Gordhim.



The SPLA has also sent a similar appeal. A statement issued in Nairobi 
by the SPLA s official spokesman, Dr Samson Kwaje, put the affected 
population at 2.36 million people. Dr Kwaje urged the international 
community to act promptly to avert a catastrophe of 1998 proportion. 
In  1998, at least 200,000 Sudanese perished in a famine caused by war 
and drought.




3. Stay Committed in Sudan

None of the civil conflicts that continue to rage around the world has 
exacted as high a human toll as the cruel war in southern Sudan, where 
more than 2 million people have died and 4 million have been displaced.


Former president Bill Clinton, in whose administration I served, said 
on Human Rights Observance Day, December 6 2000, that America must 
speak out when the most basic human rights are under threat, and cited 
among other offences "the scourge of slavery in Sudan." When the 
Sudanese foreign minister then challenged me to travel to southern 
Sudan and see for myself that there was no slavery, I couldn't refuse.


It was a challenge he shouldn't have made: My trip confirmed for me 
that the slave trade flourishes in southern Sudan and remains an 
intolerable blight on the world's conscience.

Our delegation boarded two light UN Cessna airplanes in northern Kenya 
and flew into the remote towns of Marial Bai, Rumbek and Lui in 
southern Sudan, which have been targeted by either militias or 
high-altitude bombers of the government in Khartoum.


In Marial Bai, we were outraged to see and hear firsthand testimonials 
of women and children who had been captured, enslaved, beaten, tortured 
and raped by the PDF -- Popular Defence Forces --operating at the 
behest and with the support of the Sudanese government.

In Lui, we met with civilians victimised by the Sudanese government's 
aerial bombardments, people who had barely survived their wounds but 
were brave enough to tell their stories. We saw the craters and the 
shrapnel from these bombings.


We visited the US nongovernmental organisation -- Samaritan's Purse 
hospital -- whose courageous staff is doing a remarkable job providing 
desperately needed medical care to thousands of people. We saw how the 
hospital workers and patients lived in fear of the next bombing.

I was especially outraged to learn that even as we arrived in Lui, 
these bombings were continuing. Just down the winding dirt road only 20 
miles from us, four people had been killed the day before in a vicious 
bombing. Later we saw a child, 3 or 4 years old, whose and arm had been 
destroyed by one of the bombs. His mother had died on the way to the 
hospital. The same day, in Yei, which is only 50 miles away, an even 
more despicable bombing attack took place in a market, killing 19 
civilians and wounding scores more.


The government of Sudan must stop these heinous, senseless bombings of 
civilian targets. There is no excuse for them, and no reason, except to 
terrify innocent civilians. The government must also stop the 
outrageous practice of slavery by cutting off support for the PDF and 
prosecuting those responsible for these actions. Our European allies 
also have an obligation to press Sudan to end this practice. I call on 
them to join us.


The Sudanese government has said on many occasions that it is changing 
its behaviour, reforming its policies and improving its human rights 
record. But I'm afraid I saw precious little evidence of that claim 
during my visit.


This is not to say that the forces of the Southern People's Liberation 
Army in the South are devoid of any responsibility for human rights 
violations; they are not. But the preponderance of evidence, not only 
from my trip but also from the UN and major human rights organisations, 
places most of the blame squarely on the Khartoum regime.


US policy on Sudan has been consistent, principled and clear: a 
commitment to help achieve a just and lasting peace and a resolve to 
keep international pressure on the regime to change its abusive 
behaviour. The United States has maintained comprehensive economic 
sanctions on Sudan and, of course, limited UN Security Council 
sanctions remain. We also joined with more than 100 other countries to 
express our opposition to Sudan's holding a seat on the Security Council.


The United States remains the largest humanitarian donor to the people 
of Sudan, having contributed more than a $1 billion in the past 10 
years. Its commitment to the people of Sudan -- of all of Sudan -- 
needs to remain strong and enduring.


Sudan is not a partisan issue in the US. There is broad, deep support 
for seeing the abuses there stopped and the war ended on a just basis. 
The new administration should maintain this commitment.- (Article by 
Susan Rice, former US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, 
was first published in the Washington Post)



For inquiries, contact

The editor

Charles Omondi

Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO)

<mailto:SCIO at maf.or.ke>SCIO at maf.or.ke

Tel. 254-2-577949/ 577616/ 577595

Fax 254-2-577327