Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
July 1, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan President Omer Al-Bashir has instructed his army to continue military operations in the North-South border state of South Kordofan until it is “purged” and the “rebel” Abdel Aziz Adam Al-Hilu – leader of main opposition group in the state – is under arrest.
Following Friday prayers at a mosque in the capital Khartoum, Al-Bashir said he had commanded the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) not to cease its military offensive in South Kordofan until it “purges” the area and “arrests and brings to trial the rebel” Abdul Aziz Adam Al-Hilu for the “crimes of terrorizing civilians and killing of innocent people.”
Al-Hilu is the leader of the SPLM in South Kordofan and the former deputy governor who refused to concede his defeat in the state’s gubernatorial elections to the incumbent governor Ahmad Harun of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).
The veteran SPLM leader and the state’s deputy governor alleged the vote was rigged in favor of Ahmad Harun and thus declared the SPLM’s non-recognition of the result. Independent election observers endorsed the result despite controversial voter registration and constituency demarcation in the run-up to the poll.
Following the contentious elections, fighting erupted in early June between SAF and SPLM forces. It is not clear what ignited the confrontation but the SPLA claimed it was because SAF had attempted to disarm its fighters while SAF alleged that it responded to a raid by SPLA members on a local police station.
The fighting escalated alarmingly as SAF applied the use of heavy artillery and aerial bombardment to put out what the Khartoum government now characterises as an all-out rebellion.
More than 70,000 people have been displaced by the violence, the UN said, amid reports of widespread abuses committed by SAF specifically against the ethnic Nuba population of South Kordofan.
The framework agreement on South Kordofan and the Blue Nile stipulates that the NCP would recognise the right of the SPLM to continue “as a legal political party” in north Sudan.
Also, the NCP and SPLM-North agreed to form a joint political committee to ensure that “the issue of governance in South Kordofan shall be discussed and resolved amicably … within thirty days”.
The agreement further states that the two sides should begin working on a cease-fire and allow humanitarian access into Southern Kordofan.
The accord also stipulates that SPLA fighters in the North “shall be integrated, over a time period and with modalities to be agreed, into the Sudan Armed Forces” and that “any disarmament shall be done in accordance with agreed-upon plans and without resorting to force.”
Meanwhile, the state’s governor Ahmad Harun said that the government was fighting “a legitimate battle of self-defense” in South Kordofan. Addressing supporters on Friday in Kadugli, he said that government forces would not hesitate to use “any kind of weapon to defend the security of citizens.”
Some rights groups accused SAF of using weapons banned under international laws. On 25 June, Amnesty International said it had received reports of “freshly laid” landmines around Kadugli. The organisation warned that these mines pose a threat to civilians returning to the area.
(ST)
LongTweng
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
He can never learns anything, he just want the killing to go on and on anywhere in Sudan.
DeltaBravo
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
I said this all the time that with BASHIR in power nothing will bring freedom to NUBIAN,FUR,FUNJ,BIJA and the rest of Marginalize people of Northern Sudan.
George Bol
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Omer Bashier should be aware for his rhetoric. Cammander Hilu can never faced that arest in the face of SPLM. This time for Darfur to understand why the South , Nuba mountains/south kordufan,and Blue Nile fight the North. The kahrtoum is in tough situation now and that is why Khartoum are dancing up and down like lizard whose tail has been cutoff.
Thondet Manyang
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
I wounder how this Bashir term Adam Abdhala Haziz as criminal. What about him????? I am predicting another genocide in South Kordofan. Killing the people in their soil is the real objective for Bashir’s plannings. Wherr is the trust of the agreement signed????? God help Nubians!!!
DeltaBravo
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
To George
If you been to Jabal Nuba you can tell BASHIR lie. SPLA HQ is located on top of the Mountain like Jabal Boma there are around 60 SPLA Soldeirs outpost within JABAL NUBA. I don’t think they will manage to catch all 40,000 SPLA Fighters from Nuba Mountain.
Bush
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
@LongTweng
Is this because he has got more support from the Chines government that is why he is becoming more and more stubborn?
That will never respect any peace, he is a wounded lioness.
Akech
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
I think Ummer is crazy instead calling him president better to look for other way of name him.Otherwise is just on his way to ICC.
Kuith Dak
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Warmonger the icc should take him soon,
Bashir insensitivity is all out in play in Darfur and Nuba mountains, this man has fought wars in South and has not won, what makes him things he will win this one. getting out of a mosque and announcing presents Islam as violent religion, why de peace loving muslims silent or they are the mujahiideen??.
What we should do:
SPLM should never foresake the Nuba people, help them logistically and any other means possible.
encourage darfur to take thier war to al bashir
provide sanctuary, trainin and sponsor thier travels and peace missions.
South Sudan should apprehend al bashir after the independence celebration and hand him over to the icc.
Kon Ajith Deng
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Nubians,Fuj,fur and Beja must to struggle like Southern for 21 years for their independence,we have been struggle since 1955 years,we have openned their eyes for their rights,what do they want from us to do again?,they have their weapons and every things they need for the war,let them struggle for their freedom,freedom is not easy to get,it will take long years,Al Bashir has right to say that,because they are cancer for the sustainable peace in the North Sudan and also we have our cancer in the South Sudan,for instance;Athor,Gatdet and Johnson Olony.Independence of all those area is not our issues,we have Southern rebels to deal with,our problems is that,how to rein our rebels from the bush,through guns or by negotiations,this is our concern,not to help northern rebels,let Al Bashir deal with them,by any means he sees is good.
jur_likang_a_ likan'g
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
It looks like Bashir has secured military and monetary aid from the his backers Chinese. He seems to be ready to confront international community on his programme of exterminating black race in Sudan. South Sudan should continue to be ready for any eventuality from Mundukurat.
Sam.Eto
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Why dont you idiots mind your own business. What happens in South Kordufan is NON of you buisness. I would worry about upper nile and unity states which are about to be taken over by the rebels.
Bashir is coming to Juba – Kiir will personally salute and escort him off the plane, play the Sudan national anthem and sit next to him. I hope you hateful idiots dont get a heart attack or get too drunk from the depression. Ha Ha Ha Ha
Oh P.s Obama isnt coming – he never was – you’ll be lucky if the special evoy makes it !
Waucity
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Selfish and Empty Bashir…Always demanding things of others, you took two children from Southern Sudan and Now you wouldn’t just leave people of nuba mountains to live in peace…I want to ask you arabs, is it our full time job to fill your empty life for you?…Did we invite you to Sudan? We are here discussing oil to be shared and you are selfishly killing and looting. Just kill them but remember, we will capture you one day..I Swear, we will.
Waucity
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Sam Eto, in your legendary homeland arabia..Nobody care about who and who..YOU see for thousand of years, we Sudanese people went to arabia to assit the weakest..Since you came to our country..YOU are nothing but little people, we feed you, with our oil money, yet no appreciationg or reward to anybody…We intented people of Nuba moutains to live in peace…And as people who have given you billions of dollars, you should there fore leave them alone…But don’t want to leave them alone…I regret slavery, it took our wonderful people away and so that vampires like YOU and BASHIRE can come and eat the rest of us.KILL THEM BUT YOU WILL PAY.
Dani
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Dear Fake Sam.
You are bustard and soon you will learn what South Mean we shall never be a fail State like you do you think those rebels are there because they were angered by South Sudan Gov’t? it was this evil Bashir who incited them to rebelled against GOSS because he thought we gonna fail. Here we reached the end.
Where you expecting Obama to attends oh damn you senseless North, which independent celebration ve ever been attended by US President? don’t be creative. It was wrong report from the journalist. Obama if he wants to visit South Sudan it will be after independence. South Sudan will never be put in terrorists blacklist like you and will never be a fail state as Sudan ranges second in the world failing states. But do you know what? all failing states are Arabs dominant e.g. Somali, Sudan and Chad. South Sudan will never support rebels like you did. Do you remember Kony was in the South during the war in Sudan but immediately after peace we threaten him to leave. furthermore you are the one supporting rebels to fight in the South. why do you like accommodate them?ooh failing nation North Sudan you will never be forgiven. you have to seeks alternatives to the problems you ve in hands.do not be discriminative you ve to everyone rights
Sam.Eto
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
ALL of Sudan in now a failed state because of the figures from South Sudan. Once you separate we will no longer be a failed state. Read all the information now – South Sudan is a failed state before it is even born – even the American admit to it.
I dont know what you people are drinking but for you to think the South is suddenly going to be heaven or a great country in Africa you are MAD or drunk – not even in the next 50 years. 90% of your population can not read or write, produce anything or build an economy, The $10 Billion in oil money and the billions more donated to you was all swallowed by your greedy officials. The total of 4 Billion you will get from oil ( because you have nothing else) is not going to make South Sudan into the Saudi Arabia of Africa. The tribalism in the South will distroy it – Riek Machar is already making his own deals. So i Can say with confidence – YOU ARE A FAILURE.
DeltaBravo
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
To Sam
Sudan has been fail State since. That is why we took up arm to confront the Khartoum Government. mark my word BASHIR will go soon. I hate to see him supporting Gadet, Ayii,Athor meanwhile our Government didnot do payback to him. We should support Abdel Aziz. and i dnt think we will allow China to be our partner in Business.
Bush
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
@Waucity
Don’t waste your valuable time responding to this idiot, son of a slaved woman called Sam.Eto, this guy and those of Khartoum93 and Mohamed Ali aren’t true Arabs, they are children of Slaved women.
They took Beshir as their god, but he will soon go.
Sam.Eto
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
(AP) JUBA, Sudan (AP) — Only six years ago the Sudan People’s Liberation Army was a ragtag group of guerrilla fighters battling a bloody civil war with Sudan’s north. Next weekend, when the south breaks away and becomes the world’s newest country, the SPLA becomes a national army.
The U.S. is investing tens of millions of dollars into this fledgling military, one that is massing troops on the internal north-south border as tensions — and violence — with the north rise. SPLA troops are battling rebel militias in hotspots around the south, and fears of renewed war with the north remain high.
But international rights groups say those soldiers have been responsible for human rights abuses, including killings.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who sponsored a law that prohibits the U.S. from giving assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights, says he is concerned about reports of abuses.
The State Department is giving nearly $100 million in yearly assistance to train and support the SPLA, and it says it is monitoring the behavior of the former guerrilla fighters.
But monitoring the 140,000-plus-member army of a developing nation the size of Texas is a nearly impossible task, opening the way for abuses.
In April, a 700-member battalion of SPLA Commandos — the most highly trained of the SPLA’s fighters — fired indiscriminately on unarmed men, women and children during an attack on a rival ethnic group at a remote Nile River village in Jonglei state, killing or wounding hundreds of civilians, according to witness accounts in a confidential U.N. report.
After an inquiry from Congress, the State Department investigated and found that no U.S. assistance is being given to the two commanders named in the U.N. report or to the commando unit as a whole. The State Department said it would exclude those involved from receiving future assistance until an investigation proves they were not involved in violations.
“The Leahy Law serves a vital purpose in seeking to ensure that U.S. aid does not go to foreign military and police forces who commit heinous crimes,” Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, told The Associated Press. “I am concerned with the reports of abuses by Southern Sudanese troops and expect the law to be applied vigorously and consistently.”
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International on Thursday released a report that urged the new southern government to prosecute and prevent abuses by southern security forces.
The report noted that since the south’s independence vote in January, “soldiers have been responsible for grave human rights abuses, including unlawful killings of civilians and looting and destruction of civilian property.”
“The government needs to demonstrate its commitment to combat a growing culture of impunity for abuses by its security forces,” Daniel Bekele, director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch said. “It should make sure that rank-and-file soldiers and their officers, as well as the police service, know and understand their obligations, and are held accountable for violations.”
Since Sudan’s decades-long civil war ended in 2005 — a war in which some 2 million people died — the U.S. government has given more money than any other to programs aimed at professionalizing the SPLA. According to research by the Open Society Foundations, the Obama administration is requesting nearly $160 million in assistance to the armed forces in Southern Sudan for fiscal year 2012.
Southern Sudan becomes a new country on July 9.
Sudan experts say a responsible and professional southern army will be essential to improving security in the vast and underdeveloped south, where basic principles of rule of law and justice have yet to be upheld and enforced by southern security forces.
Violence is high in the south already. According to the U.N.’s latest statistics, local conflicts such as cattle-raiding and battles between rebel militias and the SPLA have claimed more than 1,800 lives this year.
The U.S. assistance is to help the SPLA develop logistics, engineering abilities, medical, and command and control abilities. A State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told AP by email that the support is intended to “transform” the SPLA “from a guerrilla force into a standing army under civilian control and respectful of international humanitarian law.”
The official, who was not allowed to be quoted according to State Department rules, said that U.S.-funded training “includes a component on respect for human rights and respect for rule of law.”
The official confirmed that a current State Department contract to PAE, an American military contractor, provides provisions, salaries, and limited logistical support for Ethiopian forces who are training southern forces in a remote army training camp called New Kush, nestled in the Imatong Mountains on Southern Sudan’s border with Uganda.
New Kush has proven to be a problem for U.N. human rights investigators, who have sought access to the camp for more than two years to follow up on allegations by community members living near the training camp that southern troops had taken young women from the nearby village as “wives” and that rape and other abuses were occurring inside the site.
Although U.N. staff from the mission’s child protection unit were allowed to visit New Kush in February 2010 as part of a delegation led by the southern army’s own child protection division, no independent investigations of the human rights conditions inside the camp have been conducted since the U.N. mission was established after the civil war ended in 2005.
Since 2006, the New Kush camp has been used for training the SPLA’s special forces — or Commando units, the same forces involved in the Jonglei civilian deaths. Both international trainers, Western contractors and consultants, and Ethiopian troops — all funded through State Department programs — have worked at New Kush.
The State Department official told the AP on Thursday that the “commando training conducted by the Ethiopians focuses on professional military tactics and specialized skills.”
But the SPLA has a lot of growing up to do as the world’s youngest national military. In a report last November by the Small Arms Survey and authored by Richard Rands, whose own British company Burton Rands previously was subcontracted through U.S.-funded PAE contracts, the author concluded that an “overarching strategy” for the long-term transformation of the SPLA from a guerrilla movement to a conventional army “has not yet emerged.”
Rands wrote that “diplomatic pressure and international support and advice” will be needed to urge the army to conduct its own strategic review after independence and then to develop a “coherent defense strategy.”
Sam.Eto
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Stop genocide campaigners at the Enough Project, the New Republic, the New York Times and other institutions have been calling for U.S. intervention or at least for providing aerial bombing capability to the government of the new country of Southern Sudan to counter what they describe as aggression from the northern government of President Omar Al-Bashir.
The Palestine Telegraph reported, however, that the South’s army triggered the North’s occupation of the Abyei region by attacking northern troops. The U.S. introduced a United Nations resolution to deploy U.N. troops to the disputed, oil rich Abyei region to legitimize the dispatch of 4,200 Ethiopian soldiers already on their way.
The interventionists argue that the U.S. can’t be bystanders to what could become another Rwanda and must become instead “upstanders” preventing genocide. Many scholars of the Rwandan Genocide, however, have published evidence that the U.S. was no bystander to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Those who argue that the U.S. was no bystander to the Rwanda Genocide offer evidence that the U.S., to the contrary, backed Gen. Paul Kagame’s invasion of Rwanda from Uganda and that hundreds of thousands of Hutus as well as Tutsis died in the genocidal massacres that ensued. The United States didn’t stand by. It supported Kagame all the way and prevented intervention – actively prevented intervention by the U.N. So the establishment narrative here is completely off the wall. The United States did not stand by.
the evidence from the files of the U.S. government and from the United Nations would suggest otherwise. These are files that have been hidden for the last 15 years. And they show that the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front), the government and military that are now in place, went from being a military force of about 2,500 to 3,000 troops to being a military of between 25,000 and 30,000 well-trained, well-armed troops in a period of two years. And that could only happen through the support that came from the U.S. and U.K. through Uganda, which is where the invasion and the military takeover of Rwanda was organized and supported. Then of course there was the ongoing cover-up of the RPF crimes and the RPF initiation of the military assault to take power, all of which is outlined in U.S. government files that are on the website http://www.RwandaDocumentsProject.net. That evidence is all in the public record.
Professors Erlinder and Herman both said that the U.S. should NOT intervene in Sudan, and Professor Herman said that the U.S. has no moral authority to intervene anywhere for any reason.
Ed Herman: I think this is a complete outrage. We have no business intervening anywhere. We have such dirty hands. We’re intervening all over the world now. We’re the great aggressor nation of the world, and we’re using NATO as our agent. Why can’t we just leave people alone? The Sudanese can settle their own affairs. They don’t need us. And, if we take Rwanda and the Congo as an illustration, the United States intervention there has involved the death of millions of people. And now, with Rwanda, we have a minority dictatorship again. So the whole effect of the U.S. intervention there, not just standing by, but interventions, has been the death of millions.
Ed Herman is professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and co-author, with Noam Chomsky of “Manufacturing Consent,” and with independent researcher and writer David Peterson of “The Politics of Genocide. Peter Erlinder is a William Mitchell Law School professor, former National Lawyers Guild president and international criminal defense attorney
jur_likang_a_ likan'g
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Shut up your mandibles Eto! We Southerners will never rest if rape, murder and injustice continue to prevail in what used to called Sudan. It just a matter of time when you get kicks on your butts.
Machine
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
Stop being a burger Bashir.I can’t just comprehend what kind of a human you are.Every living creature grows wiser as it becomes old but yours is ironical,you are becoming stupider every any additional second of your damn bullshit,stupid,malicious life.Man be thoughtful,Alqaedas are dying,Osama is dead and the next prioritize by God after Fazul is you.So think about it and leave War.
DeltaBravo
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
To SAM
Stop nonsense .SPLA is well train army they are not like SAF who is terrorising Civilian in by killing,Rapping the women and young girls. so please if you are fought by BASHIR to discredit SPLA Soldeirs here on the web. After Independent please pack your laggages and go to your Criminal Husband Bashir.
Sam.Eto
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
I dont know why im arguing with you illiterate fools. Im giving you facts and UN statements, with professional opinions. All you can do is call me names, but guess all going to get from these, alcoholic wasted uneducated lowest life refugees.
Atem
Bashir orders Sudan army to sustain South Kordofan offensive
To Sam,
Your comments are not civil either,it’s difficult to convince us that you’re different from those whom you called fools and illiterates. Laucnhing a vitriolic attack on the internet is not the way forward. I believed that Al Basher is going too far and he should be calm down by his inner circles. This guy is frustrated because i have never seen a president who just shout and declare war on civilians publicly, it’s unusual. Is he really a president?