Sudan Monthly Report May 2000

[Africanews <ramalkandy@iol.it>]

Sudan Monthly Report
May 15, 2000

Content

1. Chronology
2. Churches state stand on oil
3. It's joy as new priest is ordained


1. Chronology

April 20: The Sudan has announced that it was immediately suspending
air raids against southern rebel positions, apparently to allow
international relief flights to the region, the official news agency
reported. But president Omar el-Bashir, who ordered the halt of air
bombardment, warned that the government warplanes would strike back if
they were shot at by the SPLA.

22: The ICRC has signed a new agreement with the Sudanese ministries
of defence and social planning, to extend support, by three years, to
the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics in Khartoum. Work
started in 1998 to upgrade the Centre's facilities to increase
assistance to mine victims and other war amputees. 28: Nearly two
million Sudanese could face starvation if food stocks are not
replenished by June, WFP warned in a statement released from Khartoum.
The statement said there was an urgent need for pledges of food aid to
avert a crisis. It warned existing stocks would run out in June.

29: The opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA) group
said it had captured the government's military headquarters, Osman
Dakna camp, north of Kassala, AFP reported.  According to an NDA news
release, the coalition said it captured five soldiers and repelled an
attack by government forces.

29: The Sudanese government has urged SPLA John Garang, to participate
in Egypt and Libya's efforts to reconcile Sudan's feuding parties.
Foreign minister Mustafa Ismail told a press conference in Khartoum
that the SPLA should "stop vetoing" the Egyptian-Libyan initiative
within the opposition NDA, news organisations reported.

30: A tripartite commission set up to facilitate the voluntary
repatriation of Eritrean refugees in Sudan, formed by Sudan, Eritrea
and UNHCR, held its first meeting in the Eritrean capital, Asmara,
Eritrean radio reported. Eritrean commissioner Werku Tesfamikael of
the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission thanked Sudan for its
hospitality to refugees, and said in an opening speech that Eritreans
had become refugees in Sudan because of atrocities by Ethiopian
regimes.

May 1: The spiritual leader of Anglican Christians preached for peace
during a visit to southern Sudan to swear in a new arch-bishop for
Sudan. "I do not believe there is any reason either here in Sudan or
anywhere else in the world for Christians and Muslims to commit
violence against one another," Arch-bishop of Cantebury George Carey
said in his sermon in the southern city of Juba.

2: Archbishop Carey has called for an end to the country's 17-year-old
civil war. "Fighting does not solve problems of Sudan," Dr Carey told
a huge congregation gathered for the enthronement of a new Anglican
Archbishop of Juba Joseph Marona.

3: The Sudanese government has denied that it discriminated against
its Christian minority, saying some Muslim groups have criticised it
for being too tolerant. "Any talk about religious oppression in Sudan
is actually far away from the reality experienced in our communities,"
said Abdel-Jabir Osman Mara'ie, the head of the churches department in
the ministry of social affairs.

3: The pipeline carrying Sudan's crude oil to a Red Sea port has been
blown up, state television reported. The secretary-general of the
ministry of energy and mining was quoted as saying the export pipeline
at Singat, about 345 km east of Khartoum, had been "subjected to a
limited act of sabotage". State television said exports would not be
delayed because of the volumes of oil stored at Port Bashir, on the
Red Sea.

3: UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has welcomed an announcement by the
Sudanese government of a humanitarian ceasefire until July 15 this
year. In a statement, the secretary-general said he also acknowledged
the decision on April 19 "to suspend air bombings in Southern Sudan to
protect civilian lives and facilitate the continuing delivery of
humanitarian assistance".

4: government media quoted Sudanese minister of agriculture Dr Al-Hajj
Adam as saying the food situation in Sudan was "satisfactory". He said
Sudan did not suffer a food gap, and that available food met domestic
consumption. The comments follow a warning by WFP that aid supplies in
Sudan would run out by June, leaving about 2 million people in danger
of starvation.

5: Col. Garang has described the halt to air strikes announced by the
government a "public-relations exercise aimed at improving
international relations". The London-based newspaper 'Al-Sharq
al-Awsat" said in a telephone interview from the field that, Garang
rejected national elections scheduled for October, and also dismissed
as "illegitimate" an internationally supported conference of southern
forces, scheduled to be held in Geneva in mid-May.

5: An exiled spokesman for Massaleit civilians in western Sudan
claimed in a statement issued from Egypt that government-supported
Arab militia had caused death and displacement in escalating attacks
over the last two years.  The statement said that in February more
than 50 people from the Massaleit village of Geriko, on the
Sudan-Central African Republic border, were killed by attackers on
horseback carrying automatic weapons.

6: The Sudanese government has urged Col. Garang, to participate in
Egypt and Libya's efforts to reconcile Sudan's feuding parties.
Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail told a press conference in Khartoum
that the SPLA should "stop vetoing" the Egyptian-Libyan initiative
within the opposition National Democratic Alliance, news organisations
reported.

6: A tripartite commission set up to facilitate the voluntary
repatriation of Eritrean refugees in Sudan, formed by Sudan, Eritrea
and UNHCR, held its first meeting in the Eritrean capital, Asmara,
Eritrean radio reported. Eritrean commissioner Werku Tesfamikael of
the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission thanked Sudan for its
hospitality to refugees, and said in an opening speech that Eritreans
had become refugees in Sudan because of atrocities by Ethiopian
regimes.

6: President Omar el-Bashir has accused his former ally-turned-rival
Hassan al-Turabi of plotting against the government and vowed to act
decisively against the party's secretary-general. General Bashir was
speaking during a meeting of leaders of the ruling Islamist party ,
the National Congress, in Khartoum.

9: The SPLA has suspended its participation in peace talks aimed at
ending a 17-year civil war in protest at what it called reckless
bombing of civilian targets by the government.  The SPLA said in a
statement issued in Nairobi that the government had flouted its own
moratorium on aerial bombardments and had bombed several civilian
targets in rebel-held areas over the last week.

11: Supporters of Al-Turabi have expelled president Bashir from the
ruling National Congress Party, a newspaper reported. The report of
the expulsion, the latest move in a power struggle between the two
men, was dismissed by government officials as meaningless.

14: The United States has again named Sudan as one of seven countries
allegedly sponsoring international terrorism despite US
acknowledgement of the Khartoum regime's "efforts to distance itself
publicly from terrorism".  In a new report on "Patterns of Global
Terrorism" in 1999, the State Department says Sudan serves as a
"central hub" for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda (The Base).

15: Sudan faces an Aids disaster on the scale afflicting its
neighbours without swift action to combat the deadly virus, United
Nations officials say. "Sudan today is like the data for Uganda 10
years ago," said Abdalla Ismail, national country programme adviser to
UNAdis, a UN group charged with fighting the disease.



2. CHURCHES STATE STAND ON OIL

The Sudanese Churches believe that the oil, found in the Southern
Sudan (Bentiu, Pariang, Melut, Jonglei etc) is a national resource
that should be used to develop all the people of the Sudan.

Since it started the exploitation of the oil last year, the government
of the Sudan has, however, not used the revenues from the resource for
the development of the people of Sudan and in particular those in the
oil areas who, throughout history, were neglected in terms of
equitable allocation of the national resources. Instead, the oil
revenues have been used for the purchase of military wares used for
killing and displacing people in these oil areas. The government has
assumed that it can end the conflict militarily.

Further, the government is using the roads and airstrips of the
multi-national oil companies engaged in the production of oil in the
Sudan, for military purposes, carrying out aerial bombardment on
civilian targets (hospitals, schools, markets, churches etc) in the
Southern Sudan, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile.

In the past, the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) has issued a
statement with its partners calling for establishment of a Trust Fund
to receive the oil revenues for the Sudan government.  It was proposed
that these revenues be apportioned fairly in accordance with an
agreement to be developed by the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development. Such an arrangement has proven unworkable.

As the shepherds of the population in the Sudan and eye witnesses to
the ongoing genocide in the above-mentioned areas, we call upon peace
loving people and the international community to take immediate
actions to STOP the ongoing genocide in the Sudan.

This includes the withdrawal of the oil companies helping the
government of the Sudan to confidently pursue the war and a call for
No-fly zone for military aircraft's over the Southern Sudan, Nuba
Mountains and South Blue Nile, which should be monitored. This is to
reinforce our call for the same through FECCLAHA forum in Limuru
(Kenya) on March 23, 2000.

Signed:

Rev. David Demey - Chairman: Sudan Council of Churches (SCC)
Rev. John Okumu - Chairman:  New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC)
Rev. Enock Tombe Stephen - Executive Secretary SCC
Rev. Dr. Haruun L. Ruun - Executive Secretary NSCC



3. Its joy as new priest is ordained

Thousands of Sudanese and guests from outside the country on May 6,
2000 gathered at Rumbek, in the Bahr al-Ghazal region to witness the
ordination of a new catholic priest.

The colourful ordination of Andrea Osman Okello, the first one in
Rumbek in two decades, was presided over by the Bishop of the Diocese
of Rumbek, Caesar Mazzolari. It was conducted in the open outside the
town's cathedral destroyed by war. Accompanying the bishop were 15
priests of different nationalities, among them the Secretary General
of Southern Sudan Catholic Bishop's Regional Conference (SCBRC), Fr.
Damian Adugu. The SCBRC brings together the six bishops working in the
rebel-controlled territory.

Bishop Mazzolari commended the new priest's parents, both of whom have
died, for giving him an education in a very difficult environment.
Southern Sudan, at war for now 17 years, has seen education grind to a
halt, thus condemning thousands of young people to a slavery of
ignorance. Some have been forced to become refugees outside their
motherland in desperate search for education.

The parents of Fr. Andrea, as the new priest is popularly known, died
in 1998 with the father passing away exactly two years from the day of
his ordination.

"God broke you off from war and violence and enabled you to pursue
your priestly vocation," said Bishop Mazzolari, who advised the new
priest to bless God's people without any distinction. "Teach the
people with conviction that you believe in what you are teaching them.
Denounce what is evil but be gentle on those who go astray- be a
minister of reconciliation,'' said the Bishop.

A member of a small ethnic group called Thuri or Shatt, Fr. Andrea was
born on January 1, 1959 near Wau in western Bahr el Ghazal. He
attained his elementary education in his birthplace and the
surrounding areas before taking up a job as a sound technician in the
department of culture and information in Wau from 1983-86.

Andrea often took his time off to instruct young people at the town's
Christian Education Centre. His determination to become a priest saw
him pursue further studies in Khartoum, Egypt, Italy and Kenya.

Acknowledging that the task ahead was not an easy one, Fr. Andrea
asked all Christians and his compatriots in particular to pray for him
to enable him serve God's people in the best way possible.

Charles Omondi


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  For further information, please contact:
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  e-mail: SCIO@MAF.Org

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SUDAN CATHOLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
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