Sudan Monthly Report - August 2000

[Africanews <ramalkandy@iol.it>]

Sudan Monthly Report
August 15, 2000

Content

1. Chronology
2. Government takes war to the people
3. Clergy initiate 40-day prayer period


+---------------------------------------------------------------+
1. Chronology


July 16: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that 
it has
withdrawn its representatives from a clinic in a southern Sudan village 
after one
of its planes was damaged by a bomber. Juan Martinez, spokesman for the 
ICRC, said
he was unable to confirm allegations that the bomber belonged to the 
Sudanese
military or that the Red Cross clinic nearby was severely damaged.

16: Sudan has been selected to represent Africa as a non-permanent 
member of the
UN Security Council, amid strong opposition from Washington. The 53 African
nations picked Sudan over Mauritius and Uganda, to succeed Namibia on 
the Council
for a two-year term beginning January.

17: Sudanese and Ugandan delegations are expected to hold 
reconciliation talks in
the US city of Atlanta under the auspices of former US president Jimmy 
Carter,
foreign ministry officials said. The Sudanese delegation led by Junior 
Foreign
Minister Ali Abdel Rahman Nimeiri left for Atlanta in the southern state of
Georgia, Carter's home state, they added.

17: President Hosni Mubarak has received a message from his Sudanese 
counterpart
Omar el-Bashir on the present situation in Sudan especially in the 
eastern and
southern regions, said Sudanese foreign minister Dr Mustafa Uthman Ismail
following his meeting with the president. President Mubarak asserted the
importance of promoting bilateral relations and of good preparations 
for the joint
ministerial committee meeting to be held in September.

17: SPLA leader John Garang says the Sudan government is "in a crisis" 
after
failure of a three-month offensive against rebels in the south and part 
of the
north. In a telephone interview from southern Sudan, Garang said the 
crisis in the
government had led to the dismissal of two key ministers and prevented 
President
Bashir from travelling to an OAU summit in Togo.

18: Thousands of Sudanese are fleeing into neighbouring Uganda to 
escape fighting
in their country's civil war, the UN refugee agency said. Since 
mid-June, when
fighting intensified in the 17-year conflict, the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees has registered at least 5,0000 refugees from Africa's largest 
nation,
said Ms Bushra Jofar , the agency's spokeswoman in Kampala.

19: President Bashir has met top security and defence officials to launch a
stronger government response to recent attacks by southern rebels, a 
newspaper
said. The daily Al-Anbaa said Bashir chaired a joint meeting of the 
security and
national defence councils to raise the level of mobilisation around the 
country
following gains by the SPLA.

19: The government in Khartoum has "concrete evidence" that Eritrea is 
helping
Sudanese rebels plan an offensive in eastern Sudan, a Sudanese official 
charged in
remarks published in Khartoum. The Eritrean government "is involved in 
a military
plan targeting east Sudan" in reprisal for Khartoum's alleged support 
for Ethiopia
in its war with Eritrea, eastern Sudan's Kassala State governor Ibrahim 
Mahmud
Hamid said.

19: Intermediate Technology Development Group's (ITDG) Shambob Brick 
Producers
Co-operative Society (SBPCOOP) of Kassala, Sudan, has been selected as 
one of the
winners of this year's Dubai International Award for Best Practices. 
The award is
given to successful programmes and projects that have made positive 
contribution
to improvement to the quality of life in cities and communities around 
the world.

24: President Bashir has accused aid organisations of helping southern 
rebels and
has threatened to end their operations, newspapers reported. "The Sudanese
government is to reconsider the operations of the Lifeline programme 
and all the
international organisations working in the field of relief in the south 
and to
close Sudan's airspace to relief planes specialising in providing 
support for the
rebel movement," he was quoted as saying.

24: China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp. 
(CNPC), has
completed oil exploration and construction projects valued at USD 1.5 
billion in
the Sudan, which is the largest ever oil projects constructed outside 
China by
China, an official with CNPC, confirmed. The oil projects in the Sudan 
include oil
exploration projects, construction of oilfield infrastructure and 
refinery, and
building pipeline for crude oil transmission.

26: Sudanese rebels have said the government had stepped up bomb attacks on
rebel-held areas of the south after a limited cease-fire accord came to 
and end.
The main rebel group, SPLA, said government bombers had raided a string 
of towns
and villages in the southern province of Bahr el-Ghazal, where a 
two-year-old
truce expired.

26: The Sudanese government has made it mandatory on planes working for 
relief
organisations and agencies and the Operation Lifeline Sudan to obtain 
clearance
from the government to allow them transport relief supplies to the 
affected people
in the south. The move is seen as a measure that would step up the 
surveillance of
relief organisations and settle the issue of how the government should 
relate to
them.

26: Sudanese finance and national economy minister Dr Muhammad Khayr 
al-Zubayr
left for Washington to take part in the meetings of the board of 
directors of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) from July 28-31. He will also attend the
meetings of the executive directors of the fund. Dr Zubayr pointed out 
that the
meetings of the board of directors would look into the issue of 
restoring the
membership of Sudan.

27: The foreign minister of Sudan, Mustafa Ismail, and his Vatican 
counterpart
Jean-Louis Tauran have discussed the peace process in the African 
country, a
Vatican spokesman said. Democratisation and the introduction of a 
multi-party
system were also on the two leaders' agenda, said spokesman Joaquin 
Navarro Valls.

27: The Sudanese government has decided to immediately begin contacts 
with all
international organisations and donor countries with a view to 
discussing the
violations and lack of commitment to the agreed upon conventions governing
humanitarian operations which have had the negative effects of 
prolonging the war
and undermining confidence in humanitarian operations in Sudan. In an 
important
meeting held at the Republican Palace, the government decided to 
implement several
special measures to correct the overall course of relief and humanitarian
operations in Sudan in the future.

27: The SPLA has accused Khartoum of murdering dozens of civilians in
oil-producing regions of southern Sudan as part of a policy of "ethnic 
cleansing."
An SPLA statement received in Cairo said government forces had taken 
control of
the Nayal Dio region, "killing tens of civilian residents and looting a 
large
number of cattle."

28: The repatriation of the first of more than 90,000 Eritreans who 
fled to Sudan
during recent fighting with Ethiopia began with 574 refugees going 
home. The UN
refugee agency said that the next year it would look at the possibility of
returning up to 160,000 more Eritrean refugees in Sudan, whose 
repatriation was
suspended when Eritrea went back to war in May.

30: One person was injured in an attack by SPLA on a Unicef boat in 
southern
Sudan, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. "A group of 
infiltrating
rebel elements attacked a boat belonging to Unicef at Nagotar on the 
Sobat River,
some 40 km south-east of Malakal," the official Humanitarian Aid 
Commission said
in a statement released to SUNA.

August 2: Sudan has accused aid groups of providing funds and supplies 
to rebels
fighting the Khartoum government and said it had asked the UN to move 
its relief
operations from Kenya to southern Sudan. The independent al-Ayam newspaper
reported that Mr. Gutbi al-Mahdi, minister of social planning, had 
"notified the
UN representative in Khartoum on the government's wish to transfer the 
activities
of the southern sector of OLS which is launched from Lokichoggio 
airstrip in Kenya
to within Sudan".

5: The SPLA has captured the strategic southern Sudanese railway town 
of Maker in
the Bahr el-Ghazal region, SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje said. Mr. Kwaje 
said that
Maker, a strategic garrison railway town north of Aweil near the 
Southern Kordofan
region, fell to SPLA forces on August 3, 2000.

5: Two Sudanese army officers were killed in fighting with SPLA, the 
SPLA said in
a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Cairo. The SPLA said its 
fighters
repulsed a government attack on the rebel-held town of Mabaan near the 
Ethiopian
border when it ambushed an army column.

7: Sudanese foreign minister Mustapha Ismail has reaffirmed both the 
government's
opposition to any eventual secession by the southern part of the 
country and its
determination to retain a unified federal system. "The government 
strongly opposes
the secession of the southern part of the country and is determined to 
keep Sudan
a united state based on federal system and a just distribution of 
wealth and
power," Mr. Ismail told reporters.

7: Uganda has accused Sudan of undermining the December 8, 1999 Nairobi 
peace
accord, and charged that its neighbour had handed over its own 
nationals disguised
as Ugandan children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels 
of Joseph
Kony. "These people who were released by Sudan and whom we received 
with fanfare
were mostly Sudanese and they are now living in Sudanese camps," said 
Mr. Amama
Mbabazi, the minister of state for regional cooperation.

7: An influx of displaced people into Bentiu, the capital of Unity state in
war-torn southern Sudan, has greatly strained humanitarian and food aid 
in the
town, government and aid officials said. World Food Programme (WFP) 
official
Makena Walker told Reuters about 20,000 people displaced by recent 
fighting had
reached Bentiu in the last three weeks with thousands of cattle.

7: A Sudanese businessman who has been linked by the American CIA to 
the world's
most wanted terrorist is the leading shareholder in a company that provides
security systems to the Houses of Parliament.
Salah Idris, 48, whose pharmaceutical factory in Sudan was flattened by 
American
cruise missiles after it was linked to Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi 
terrorist, owns
25% of IES, a company specialising in high-technology surveillance and 
security
management.

7: Since 1994 the Sudan-backed LRA has abducted more than 12,600 
children in its
guerrilla war against Uganda's government. While half of those children 
are now
free, more than 6,000 remain unaccounted for, according to the United 
Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF). Four thousand are presumed dead, and reports from
returning abductees lead officials to believe 2,000 children remain 
with the LRA.

8: In recognition of Sudan's progress since 1997 in implementing 
appropriate
macroeconomic and structural policies under staff-monitored programmes, 
and in
making payments to the IMF, the IMF's executive board has lifted the 
suspension of
Sudan's voting and related rights in the IMF, which had been in place 
since August
9, 1993. The executive board's decision is the second step in the 
process of
de-escalation of the remedial measures that were applied earlier to Sudan.

8: China's state oil giant China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is 
expected to
more than double its overseas oil output to around 120,000 barrels per 
day (bpd)
this year, Chinese industry sources said. CNPC produced about 2.5 
million tonnes
of crude oil in 1999, or 51,000 bpd, up one third from the previous 
year. Overseas
production increases this year would come primarily from the company's 
operations
in Sudan where it is expected to reach 60,000 bpd, from Kazakhstan at 
30,000 bpd,
and Venezuela at 24,000 bpd, the sources said.

9: Sudanese government warplanes have bombed two rebel-held towns in 
the south of
the country, killing at least seven civilians and narrowly missing a UN 
relief
plane. Russian-built Antonov bombers circled over the towns of Tonj and 
Mapel in
Bahr el Ghazal province and dropped more than a dozen bombs on each 
location, said
Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the SPLA.

9: Sudan, which became a crude oil exporter last year, has begun 
exporting natural
gas, the official Suna reported. It quoted Hassan Ali al-tom, 
under-secretary at
the ministry of energy and mining, as saying the first consignment of 
the 2,600
tonnes left Port Sudan, the country's main sea outlet, for the 
international
market.

9: The UN announced it had suspended relief flights in southern Sudan, 
where
humanitarian agencies accused the government of stepping up bombing 
raids on
civilian targets. In a statement through its spokesman, UN secretary 
general Kofi
Annan said he was "deeply concerned over the security of humanitarian 
personnel
and facilities belonging to OLS.

10: Khartoum has urged UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to intervene for the
resumption of UN relief flights to southern Sudan. Minister of state 
for social
affairs Chuol Deng warned that the UN's decision to suspend relief 
flights would
"add to the suffering'' in the south, where a 17-year civil war is 
being waged.

10: A statement released by the US Committee for Refugees
condemned the US government for failing to speak out against the government
bombing campaign in southern Sudan. It said that the US government had 
been silent
over the bombings because it was working towards increasing diplomatic 
relations
with the Sudan government.

10: The US intelligence community fears new reports may indicate Iraq 
is financing
construction of a Scud missile assembly plant in Sudan, enlisting North 
Korea's
help, ABCNEWS has learned. Sources say North Korean personnel would 
build and run
the plant, with the assembled Scuds to be held in Sudan for Iraq's 
future use - a
prospect that worries US officials.

10: Canadian foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy and minister for
international co-operation Maria Minna have condemned the recent 
escalation of the
conflict in Sudan as evidenced by the Government of Sudan's aerial 
bombing of
civilian targets, including aid operations, and the breaking of a 
humanitarian
cease-fire in Bahr el Ghazal by the SPLA.

11: Churches in southern Sudan have strongly condemned Khartoum 
government's
bombardments of civilian targets describing the acts as a "direct 
violation of
international law". A statement issued jointly by the New Sudan Council of
Churches (NSCC) and the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference 
(SCBRC) in
Nairobi said they firmly supported the latest condemnation of the 
Government of
Sudan (GOS) by the UN.

11: Sudanese rebels accused the government of launching "terrorist" 
campaign
against civilians in the rebel-held south and said this could cause a 
humanitarian
disaster. The repeated bombing of civilian targets by government 
warplanes over
the last few weeks has forced aid agencies to suspend their operations 
in southern
Sudan.

11: The WFP accused the Sudanese government of deliberately bombing relief
facilities in the rebel-held south and said two fresh attacks were 
carried on
August 9. A spokesman for WFP headquarters in Rome said low-flying 
aircraft had
attacked relief facilities at Mapel twice during the day, dropping nine 
bombs the
first time and 11 in the second raid.

13: President Bashir is due to lead Sudan delegation for the Millennium 
Summit of
the UN General Assembly, which is scheduled to be held in New York during
September 6 - 8. Sudan permanent envoy to the UN, Al-Fatih Errwa, said in a
statement to SUNA that the Millennium Summit, in which more than 120 
world leaders
are expected to take part, would focus on the report of the UN 
Secretary General
concerning the international organisation's role in the 21st century, 
challenges
facing the international community such as the globalisation issue, 
environment
and combating poverty as well as modernisation of the United Nations.

15: Efforts to provide relief to Sudan will continue despite the 
suspension of UN
flights to the region, Catholic Relief Services said. "Because the 
areas in which
we work can all be reached by road from Kenya and Uganda, CRS can still 
meet 100
per cent of our programming needs without air support," said Mr. Thomas 
Wimber,
acting country representative for the group's Sudan office based in Nairobi


+---------------------------------------------------------------+
2. Government takes war to the people

The 17-year-old civil conflict in Sudan is assuming an extremely dangerous
dimension. The Sudan government has taken the war to the defenceless 
civilians and
there seems to be no room for escape.

Since the beginning of the year, almost innumerable bombs have been 
dropped in the
vast territory held by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in 
southern Sudan
and the Nuba Mountains, killing and maiming defenceless people in their 
droves and
causing massive destruction to property in an environment where 
deprivation reigns
supreme.

Those who have so far been lucky to escape unscathed, have nevertheless 
had their
lives turned upside with their full time engagement now being agonising 
over the
possible next target and how best to dodge the shrapnel-laden monsters.

As you read this, there are thousands of children, women, men and the aged
Sudanese who cannot do anything but keep their ears and eyes wide open 
for the
slightest sound of the now very familiar Antonov aircrafts synomous 
with the
crudely-assembled but nevertheless very lethal military hardware. 
Cultivation,
schooling and virtually everything that would pass for a productive 
engagement in
modern day life have ground to a halt- a sure recipe for a severe 
famine in the
months to come.

Domestic animals, dogs, cats and chickens caught in this human tragedy 
of our
century, are equally terrified by the Anotonov and always lead the way 
to the
bunker (specially dug underground bomb shelters) at the critical moment.

Southern Sudanese in exile, and they are in legions, now more than ever 
before,
have to religiously monitor every bit of information filtering from their
motherland to be up to date on the latest places to be hit and the 
casualties.

In the face of all this, the reaction from the rest of the world, and in
particular those powerful nations often adept at playing self-appointed 
prefect
role, has been lukewarm, to put it mildly.

In the month of July alone at least 250 bombs were dropped on at least 
33 separate
attacks on defenceless civilians. Villages, churches, market places, 
hospitals and
schools have all had more than their fair share of the bombs. Not even the
compounds hosting the international and indigenous Non-Governmental 
Organisation
(NGOs) have been spared. Perhaps a message by Khartoum to all and 
sundry that "we
are killing our people and you have no business poking your nose".

Can a military government that has been fighting this war for more than 
a decade
be so consistent in inaccuracy as to keep dropping bombs on the wrong 
targets?  Is
it a question of misdirected revenge against a series of humiliating 
defeats that
the government has suffered on the ground? The loss of strategic town 
of Gogrial
in Bahr el-Ghazal region, on June 24, 2000 was a particularly bitter 
experience to
the military regime. It not only reduced the government's territory but 
also left
Wau, the southernmost town with a railway connection with Khartoum, 
hopeless
exposed to the SPLA. Aweil, about 40 kilometres north of Wau, is equally
vulnerable now, causing Khartoum sleepless nights.

Could it also be matter of a government trying to divert attention from 
internal
wrangles now threatening its very existence? The ruling clique, led by 
President
Hassan el-Bashir, has since last December been at war with their mentor and
Sudan's kingmaker and Islamic ideologue Mohammed Hassan al-Turabi. The 
wrangles
have seen the latter form his own political party, greatly weakening 
the ruling
National Islamic Front. Government's friendly overtures to the 
opposition in the
north seem to have done little to strengthen the government's position.

How about the NGO compounds and aircrafts on humanitarian missions? 
Have they been
hit by accident or by design? On at least four occasions in July, 
planes on purely
humanitarian mission were caught in the crossfire with bombs landing 
either while
they were on the airstrip or just as they were taking off.

Even the most daring pilots are now forced to think twice before 
venturing into
the SPLA territory. Equally apprehensive are the owners of the airlines 
that have
sustained relief operations in the isolated region. The inherent risks 
on any
flight far outweigh the potential gains.

One aircraft was on July 15, 2000 damaged on the ground at Chelkou. An 
aerial
attack on Billing on July 27, 2000 took place when an aircraft on 
humanitarian
mission was on the ground. A day later, a bomb landed 75m from another 
aircraft
that was taking off at Malualkon. In the incident at Billing on July 
27, 2000, a
pilot jumped off the wing of the aircraft he was refuelling in panic as 
the bombs
dropped. He broke his ankle.

Khartoum has never hidden its discomfort with the humanitarian missions and
churches launching their operations from the neutral Kenya ground. However,
perhaps apprehensive of the likely world reaction, the government has 
learned to
tolerate them rather than slap a blanket ban on their activities. The 
government
now seem to have found a way out…instilling great fear on any outsiders 
intending
to assist the victims of the war in the south.

The month of August began on a "bombardment" note with Tonj being hit 
thrice in as
many days between  August 7-9. At least five lives were claimed in the 
raids on
Tonj. Mapel in the neighbourhood of Tonj has also been hit and so have 
Lunyaker
and Wicok Mankien and Buoth in the Upper Nile region.

Is the world totally helpless before a rogue government out to decimate 
its own
people? Has the world become so used to the Sudanese war that even the most
heinous acts in it no longer make any difference? Or is it that those of us
charged with the responsibility of informing the world are not shouting 
loud
enough?

For those who may not be aware, Africa's most expansive state has borne 
the brunt
of different phases of a civil war since her independence from the 
British in
1956. The current phase alone, dating back to 1983, has claimed an 
estimated 2
million lives, more lives than the Rwanda and Bosnia tragedies 
combined. Thousands
have been dispatched into exile as refugees while an estimated 4 
million others
eke out a living in their motherland as internally displaced population 
(IDPs).

-Charles Omondi


+---------------------------------------------------------------+
3. Clergy initiate 40-day prayer period

The head of the USA-based National Black Catholic Clergy has initiated 
a 40-day
period of prayer for the African slaves and victims of genocide in Sudan.

Franciscan Father James Goode, who is also the President of the 
National Black
Catholic Clergy Caucus, called on all people of good will to join his 
prayer
service for revival in Sudan which began on August 6 and will end on 
September 14.
The dates correspond to the Feast of the Transfiguration and the Feast 
of the
Triumph of the Cross on the Catholic calendar.

Fr. Goode said in an e-mail message to the Sudan Catholic Information 
Office in
Nairobi: "Our sisters and brothers in Sudan are hurting, oppressed, 
dying. Many
are slaves ...and they are crying out for our help and assistance.  We 
as African
American Clergy and Religious and will not remain silent."

Sudan, Africa's most expansive state, remains the scene of a brutal 
civil war that
has claimed two million lives and has witnessed the rekindling of the 
black slave
trade. A minority regime in Khartoum has been for years trying to 
Arabise and
Islamise the Africans in Sudan who are Christians, moderate Muslims, and
practitioners of traditional faiths. As part of its war effort, 
Khartoum's forces
storm African villages, kill the men and take women and children as 
slaves. The
boys tend cattle; the women and girls are raped. Slaves are typically 
forced to
become Muslims.

In July, Father Goode met with Bishop Macram Gassis whose diocese in 
the Nuba
Mountains has been the scene of slave raids and bombings. He read the 
Bishop's
prayer for Sudan to gatherings of the National Black Sisters' 
Conference and the
National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, who joined his effort. Fr. Goode 
adopted
the idea of a 40-day prayer from a Christian movement for Sudan in 
South Africa.

Fr. Goode is the founder and president of the National Black Catholic 
Apostolate
for Life. He serves on the board of The Sudan Campaign, a national 
coalition of
rights and religious groups - including the Salvation Army, the Family 
Research
Council, and chapters of the Urban League and the American Jewish 
Committee. He is
also a Board Member of the
American Anti-Slavery Group, which has been credited with placing 
slavery in Sudan
on the national agenda.

On September 9, Fr. Goode will address a gathering at the UN organised 
by New York
City churches and rights groups in memory of those who have perished in 
Sudan and
to protest the West's silence on the genocide of Africans there.




+---------------------------------------------------------------+
  For further information, please contact:
  Fr. Kizito, SCIO, tel +254.2.577595 - fax +254.2.577327 -
  e-mail: SCIO@MAF.Org

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
SUDAN CATHOLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
Bethany House, P. O. Box 21102, Nairobi, Kenya
tel. +254.2.577595 or 577949, fax 577327
e-mail:scio@maf.org
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

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