Sudanese army withdraws from eastern rebel-held town

Jan 14, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan withdrew some 1,000 troops from an eastern rebel-held town, defusing a stand off between the Sudanese army and former southern guerrillas in the first test of a year-old peace deal, ex-rebels said on Saturday.

The troops entered Hamesh Koreb town on Wednesday, threatened to expel the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and set up positions just 200 metres (yards) from SPLM trenches. They later withdrew when a U.N. investigation team arrived, the SPLM said.

“I am now seeing approximately two battalions about 500 metres from the town,” SPLM officer Benjamin Wol, a member of the joint U.N.-Sudan army-SPLM team, told Reuters from Hamesh Koreb, which borders Eritrea.

The SPLM fought alongside separate eastern rebel groups in Hamesh Koreb province during the north-south civil war — Africa’s longest. A peace deal last January ended that war, set up a new coalition government and created separate armies for north and south.

U.N. envoy Jan Pronk confirmed there had been skirmishes on Wednesday between eastern rebels and the army troops in Hamesh Koreb, but the SPLM was not involved in that fighting.

The SPLM said now the government had mostly withdrawn, with a few dozen troops left in the town, the tensions had been reduced.

“The Sudanese armed forces have withdrawn their forces, and this is what we had requested from them so this is good,” said acting SPLM military spokesman Elias Waya Nyipuocs. “The joint U.N. team has remained there and I don’t think the army will go back in,” he added.

U.N. sources said there were only about 20-30 troops in Hamesh Koreb on Saturday, adding they seemed to be from a pro-government militia rather than regular troops.

Sudan has often armed local tribes to fight regional conflicts because of the toll the long southern civil war took on the regular armed forces. In Darfur, the militia took on the name “Janjaweed”, whose campaign of rape, killing and looting is under investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Under the southern deal, the SPLM were supposed to have redeployed from the east to the south within a year, but they said this week they were unable to meet that deadline because of logistical reasons.

Pronk said slow withdrawal was a major problem to the peace deal. On Friday he said: “This is creating a void with a potential for new armed conflict.”

The Sudanese army is supposed to occupy SPLM positions once they have withdrawn. But eastern rebels, also in the same areas, say the government will have to fight them first.

“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 contains both eastern rebel groups and the main political parties.

Libyan-mediated east Sudan peace talks were due to start after Jan. 17, the rebel said. Safi said the government entered Hamesh Koreb because they wanted a military solution rather than negotiated talks.

(Reuters)