SUDAN - Government, SPLA Accused Of Human Rights Violations - Eng.

["Nadia & Giovanni" <nadia.joe@tiscalinet.it>]

Government, SPLA Accused Of Human Rights Violations

News Article by ACIS posted on January 16, 2001 at 01:33:15: EST (-5 GMT)

Government, SPLA Accused Of Human Rights Violations


African Church Information Service (Nairobi)
January 15, 2001
Charles Omondi
Nairobi

Gains from oil exports are fuelling the 18-year-old civil war in Sudan, the
latest report by the Human Rights Watch says. The report further paints a
gloomy picture of efforts to end the current phase of the civil war that
began nearly two decades ago. The bombardment of civilian targets by the
government, that marked most of last year, is variously referred to in the
report.

The annual report of the Human Rights Watch further reveals that both the
government of Sudan and the rebel groups in the vast African country
remained gross human rights abusers in a war that has defied numerous peace
initiatives.

A gloomy picture is also painted of efforts to end the current phase of the
civil war that began in 1983. "Negotiations to end the war appeared
fruitless, whatever the forum or venue. The parties remained stalled on the
issues of the relation of religion to the state and self determination," the
Human Rights Watch Report says.

Sudan, ranked among the world's poorest nations, began exporting oil in
August 1999, following the successful completion of 1,650 kilometres
pipeline from Bentiu in the south to Port Sudan. Beginning with an average
of 150,000 barrels daily, the output quickly rose to 200,000 barrels per day
and raked in huge profits for the military regime.

The oil exports helped boost GDP growth to an estimated 7.2 percent last
calendar year against a targeted six percent, according to Sudanese Finance
Minister Mohamed Khair al-Zubair. He put oil income at $1.327 billion in
2000, up from $530 million the previous year.

Analysts had from the onset of the oil exportation expressed their
apprehension that the abundant revenue accrued from trade would mean that
Khartoum had lost any incentive whatsoever for a peaceful solution to the
conflict.

"Why would a brutal junta, which has violated virtually every human right in
the book, make peace with its adversary if it has the resources to be
victorious and impose its final solution?" posed Mel Middleton, the director
of Canadian NGO Freedom Quest International.

The government, however, put up a strong defence insisting that the wealth
was what she needed to initiate equitable development that would pacify the
war-ravaged Sudanese society.

"In the seemingly endless 17-year civil war, the government stepped up its
brutal expulsions of southern villagers from the oil production areas and
trumpeted its resolve to use the oil income for more weapons," says the
report.

It adds: "Under the leadership of President (Lt Gen) Omar El Bashir, the
government intensified its bombing of civilian targets in the war, denied
relief food to needy civilians, and abused children's rights, particularly
through its military and logistical support for the Ugandan rebel Lord's
Resistance Army LRA, which held an estimated 6,000 Ugandan children captive
on government-controlled Sudanese territory".

Other evidence on the use of oil incomes for war purposes included
Khartoum's announcement that the gains, constituting 20 percent of its 2000
revenue, would be used for defence, including an arms factory near Khartoum.
Defence spending in US dollars increased 96 percent from 1998 to 2000.

"Not coincidentally, the government's use of air power and bombing
increased. When SPLA violations of the cease-fire in Bahr El Ghazal
temporarily halted the movement of the government's military train, the
government counter-attacked by bombing not only the cease-fire area, but
also the rest of the south, the Nuba Mountains, and the eastern front".

The Human Rights Watch account is another devastating indictment of Canadian
Talisman Energy Incorp, the lead company in Sudan's oil exploration
business. Other well-known partners to the Sudanese government in the oil
industry are Malaysian and Chinese companies.

Talisman, asserted Amnesty International in its report on Sudan and oil
development (May 2000), is complicit in massive human rights violations. "It
is also responsible for sending revenues to Khartoum for huge military
expenditures, expenditures which end up taking an increasingly horrific toll
on civilians in the South," the report said.

The report points out that Sudan's human rights record of gross abuses was
one factor that denied her a Security Council seat at the UN General
Assembly vote last October. Sudan was the Organisation of African Unity's
OAU preferred candidate but concerted opposition by United States and Uganda
saw the seat go to Madagascar.

Not surprisingly, the bombardment of civilian targets by the government,
that marked most of last year, is mentioned more than once in the report.
"In July, 250 bombs hit civilians and their infrastructure in the attacks,
which set a new high according to conservative calculations based on UN
relief reports. Among areas targeted for attack were relief, health and
school facilities".

Khartoum is further accused of arming tribal militias from the Arab Baggara
tribes (the muraheleen of Western Sudan) for use as proxy fighting forces
against the Dinka civilians in the Bahr El Ghazal region.

"Although slave-taking became their trademark, the muraheleen conducted few
successful slave raids in 2000 because the SPLA deployed forces in the
northern Bahr El Ghazal and armed the Dinka boys guarding the cattle camps".

The muraheleen were also used to guard the military train to the southern
town of Wau, from which they attacked and plundered the neighbouring
villagers.

Like is the case almost everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, conditions in
Sudanese prisons remained shocking. The Omdurman Women's Prison is singled
out for mention for chronic overcrowding, lack of sanitation, disease and
death from epidemics among children who lived with their mothers.

Says the report: "The government annually pardoned women, temporarily easing
overcrowding before bringing in the next batch of prisoners". Last year,
Khartoum pardoned over 700 women majority of whom were poverty-stricken
Southerners convicted of brewing and selling alcohol for their survival.

"As for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army SPLM/A, "the principal
armed movement of the south and of all Sudan," the Human Rights Watch Report
says, "its forces continued to loot food (including relief provisions) from
the population, sometimes with civilian casualties, recruit child soldiers,
and commit rape".

The SPLA is further accused of failing to act decisively to calm ethnic
tension in some parts of their territory. Despite the Church's "peacemaking
efforts between the Didinga of Chukudum in Eastern Equatoria, and the Bor
Dinka who dominated the SPLA garrison in Chukudum, hostilities continued".

"Sometime after the August 1999 cease-fire, the SPLA assigned commanders of
local origin to the garrison, but the local population remained reluctant to
return to their homes and fields because of the landmines that the SPLA
promised to remove but did not," the report added.

The writer, Charles Omondi, is attached to the Sudan Catholic Information
Office in Nairobi.




_______________________
Perciò, ecco, la attirerò a me,
la condurrò nel deserto
e parlerò al suo cuore.
Le renderò le sue vigne
e trasformerò la valle di Acòr
in porta di speranza.
Là canterà
come nei giorni della sua giovinezza,
come quando uscì dal paese d'Egitto.
 - Osea 2,16.17 -