Khartoum again accused of bombing civilians

The nongovernmental organisation Christian Solidarity International (CSI), with which the government of Sudan has a history of antipathy, on Saturday criticised it for allegedly bombarding two villages in Aweil East, Northern Bahr al-Ghazal last week. Three people died in Kuei Wiir as a high-altitude Antonov aircraft dropped seven bombs on it, according to Civil Commissioner of Aweil East, Victor Akok, cited by CSI. There were no details of casualties from the village of Pariang, which was also bombed, it added, referring to the alleged incidents as part of Khartoum's "jihad [holy war] terrorism" in southern Sudan. Government-aligned militia had also killed five people, captured 30 and stolen about 8,000 cows during a raid on Sunday 11 November on Malek Alel, some 38 km south of Aweil town, according to the agency. The people abducted (including 10 women and 20 children) were believed to be in Aweil town, a government garrison, it said. Aweil-based militias reportedly killed 111 people and enslaved 198 in attacks on 18 villages in the Aweil area between 23 October and 2 November, at a time when the government's Khartoum-Wau military train was in the area to strengthen and supply the garrison, according to CSI. The organisation alleged on Saturday that "acts of terror against civilians in southern Sudan have increased markedly since the decision of the UN Security Council on 28 September to lift sanctions imposed on Sudan in 1995." It said there was an urgent need to act on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson's call last year for the disarmament of militias who abducted people for enslavement in Sudan, and said it would be encouraging US envoy John (Jack) Danforth, appointed in September, to hold it as a high priority. The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) had on Friday condemned the Sudanese government for allegedly bombing civilians at Malwal Kon, a major relief centre, in Northern Bahr al-Ghazal and a camp for internally-displaced people (IDPs) at Pariang in western Upper Nile last week. SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje said the government had not halted its aerial bombardment of civilian populations in the south, as Danforth had requested during his recent visit to Sudan. The adviser to the Sudanese president on peace affairs, Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, on Sunday denied the SPLM/A allegation that the government was bombing civilians. "This is an incorrect report, and is a ploy by the rebel movement to undermine the peace process," AFP quoted him as saying. In a press statement on Friday, Kwaje also reiterated the movement's claim that government forces had raided Kumo village, 10 km from Kauda (Kawdah), in the Nuba (Nubah) Mountains, Southern Kordofan, killing a prominent judge, Augustino al-Nur Shimela, among other civilians. This was a direct violation of its commitment to a period of tranquility to allow humanitarian assistance in the area, he added. The government and SPLM/A confirmed early this month that they had agreed to a four-week period of uninterrupted tranquility in the Nuba Mountains to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance - particularly for an immunisation campaign and food intervention but also to allow the delivery of medicines and other non-food items. Though it is intended to deliver 2,000 mt of food to the Nuba Mountains in over 200 airdrops between 14 November and mid-December, diplomatic sources have emphasised that the operation was not being seen as a one-off but as a lever with which to try and broaden humanitarian access generally in Sudan. Danforth elaborated on this on 17 November when he presented four "specific, action-oriented and verifiable" proposals in an effort to secure tangible gains for the civilian population, while building trust and confidence between the government and SPLM/A. These included: - Access to the Nuba Mountains, not just for four weeks but for the indefinite future, and a cessation of hostilities in the Nuba to make available food and medicine; - A cessation of bombing, artillery attacks and so on - helicopter gunship attacks - on innocent people, on civilians; - Zones of tranquillity and times of tranquillity - the notion being to create places and times in which humanitarian assistance can be offered, especially immunisations, without people being the targets of military hostility; and, - An end to the taking of slaves. "We do not mind extending the truce period beyond four weeks," the independent Al-Sahafi Al-Dawli daily newspaper on Saturday quoted Sulaf al-Din Salih of the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) as saying. However, Salih urged the United States to send humanitarian aid to areas under government control, as it does to those held by the SPLM/A, which has been at war with Khartoum since 1983. In a statement released in Khartoum on Saturday, al-Din Salih stressed that the government was not seeking an end to US aid for rebel-held zones, but rather equal treatment, EFE news agency (Cairo) reported on Saturday. Meanwhile, presidential peace adviser Al-Atabani told journalists in Khartoum on Sunday that Danforth's proposals constituted pressure on the government but not the SPLM/A, according to AFP news agency. "The US says the proposals are a test of the positions of both parties, but they are a test of the government only," it quoted him as saying. The presidential peace adviser said Khartoum would, therefore, subject the proposals to "further consideration and consultation" before communicating its response to Washington before Danforth's planned return to Sudan in January. The Washington Post newspaper last week cited American officials as saying that Khartoum had responded "cooly" to the US proposals. Danforth stressed that while Washington was interested in doing whatever it could to be a catalyst for peace, it would depend ultimately on the interest and sincerity of the two sides. The US envoy said he was not so much interested in what the parties said but in what they did between now and January, when he would report to Washington on whether the US could be "a catalyst for peace" in Sudan or had no longer a useful role to play.