Eastern Sudanese town calm but stalemate continues

Jan 13, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Some 1,200 Sudanese troops are still deployed in the eastern town of Hamesh Koreb, after taking up positions on Wednesday to flush out former southern rebels, an official from the former rebel movement said on Friday.

The standoff is the first test of the Jan 9, 2005 peace accord between the Sudanese government and the Southern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) ending Africa’s longest civil war.

Government soldiers rolled into the town with four tanks on Wednesday threatening to expel the SPLM and setting up positions just 200 metres from SPLM forces, the former rebels said.

Hamesh Koreb is a stronghold of eastern rebels, who like rebels in the western region of Darfur, have yet to make peace.

During the north-south civil war, SPLM fighters fought alongside the eastern rebels in the province of Hamesh Koreb, which borders Eritrea.

Eastern rebels who clashed with the troops as they entered Hamesh Koreb had said on Thursday the army had left the town.

But members of a joint U.N.-SPLM-Sudanese army team who arrived there on Friday to investigate the standoff said though the troops had moved back they were still inside the town.

“There are approximately two battalions (1,200) troops on the other side of town from the SPLM position,” said SPLM officer Benjamin Wol, part of the joint investigation team. “The situation is calm,” he told Reuters.

U.N. sources said the team was inside SPLM headquarters and had requested a meeting with the government commander. The government said the forces were a local militia rather than regular army troops.

“The town is split in two. The government forces/militia are on the other side of the town,” a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity. “No one knows whether they are actually government or militia yet.”

Under the southern peace deal, which set up a power-sharing coalition government, the SPLM were supposed to redeploy their forces back south within a year. But they said this week they had been delayed for logistical reasons.

Foreign Minister Lam Akol, who is from the SPLM, said under the accord the government was to take over SPLM positions once they withdrew. But eastern rebels said the government would have to fight to take control of their areas.

“If they want to replace the SPLM they will have to fight and expel the eastern troops first,” said Eastern Front spokesman Ali el-Safi. The Eastern Front includes both eastern rebel groups and the main political parties.

The Eastern Front has about 2,000 fighters, according to the International Crisis Group. It says the departure of the SPLM from the east would leave a power vacuum which could spark another war in the region.

The SPLM are estimated to have between 3,500 to 5,500 troops in the east but only a small contingent in Hamesh Koreb town.

The east is economically important, containing Sudan’s only port, the main oil pipeline carrying crude exports and the country’s largest gold mine. But it remains critically poor, prompting rebels to accuse the central government of neglect.

(Reuters)