Sudanese army denies arrest of 15 soldiers by the SPLA
Dec 19, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese army refuted reports on the arrest of 15 soldiers by the former southern rebel SPLA in October for a string of attacks that left at least 38 civilians dead in the south.
The Official Spokesman for the Armed Force has denied reports over the detention of 15 members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in Juba following the incidents that occurred in the area of Gomba, last October.
The Sudanese army official pointed out that following that attack on the area of Gomba by militias of the Lord Resistance Army, fifteen members of the Armed Forces who hail from that area went to check out what had happened to their families there, but upon arriving there they found that the SPLA troops were deployed and were subsequently arrested.
However on the intervention of Lieutenant General Salva Kiir they were released and were taken back to their respective units in the Joint Forces in Juba.
However, the spokesman pointed out that forty eight hours later citizens from Southern Sudan were arrested in the Nimule Magui road while involved in armed robberies and armed thefts and were later charged with committing murder and they are now arrested with the SPLM.
The attacks were initially blamed on a Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has rear bases in southern Sudan. The rebels, who denied they were to blame, were accused of violating a fragile peace agreement with the Ugandan government.
This clarification from the SAF comes after a statement by the SPLM’s acting secretary-general in North Sudan, Yasir Arman, in a seminar organized in Khartoum on Monday said the issue of militias and members of the Sudan armed forces in the Joint Integrated Units who were proven to have been involved in the Juba incidents, had been discussed by the presidency.
Arman, warned against the use of militias as a strategy to weaken the SPLM and put an end to self determination. He said the presence of militias was due to the absence of political will.
“The collapse of security arrangements means the collapse of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The issue of militias must therefore be resolved urgently.” “The militias are entirely reliant on supplies from the SAF,” he said.
(ST)