Former member of Salvation coup missed in S. Sudan

Sept 20, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — The National Labour Party (NLP) has announced that its chairman, Maj-Gen (retd) Dominic Kassiano, had disappeared under mysterious circumstances while visiting the south.

Kassiano is also a member of the former Salvation Revolutionary Command Council of the June 30th, 1989 coup d’Etat.

Party Secretary-General, James Andaria, told Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) that there has been no communication with Kassiano since 5 September. He pointed that the party’s chairman had gone to the Yambio region, southwestern Sudan, to inaugurate a party branch.

Andaria said that according to his last telephone conversation with Kassiano, he was to head to Juba town to meet the first vice-president and president of southern Sudan, Lt-Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit, and discuss the issue of the NLP’s participation in the southern government. However, he never arrived.

Andaria said that his party was going to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the disappearance of its chairman, pointing out that they had made a number of calls to party officials in Juba town to find out the truth. He reiterated that Kassiano never reached the town despite having left Yambio.

Andrea said that the safety of the Maj-Gen Kassiano was the responsibility of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) considering the fact that he disappeared in the south.

He urged the government to intervene investigate the issue.

(ST)