Rebel JEM says Sudan army and militia behind Darfur attack
October 5, 2007 (Reuters) — Sudanese government forces and militia groups razed a town in central Darfur where African Union soldiers were attacked, rebel leaders said on Friday, adding the troops were also threatening to raid a nearby town.
Sudan’s army and Darfur rebel movements blame each other for last week’s assault on the AU base in Haskanita in which 10 African Union soldiers were killed — the worst attack on AU troops since they deployed in Sudan.
On Friday rebel leaders said at least 100 people have been killed and thousands displaced in Haskanita since Wednesday by the Sudanese army and pro-government Janjaweed militia forces.
The figures could not be verified and Sudanese military spokesmen could not be reached for comment. AU forces have evacuated the area.
“They have burned down the whole village, not leaving a single hut,” Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, commander of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told Reuters by telephone. “Not less than 100 have been killed.”
As of Friday morning, government forces were still burning and looting parts of Haskanita, said Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, leader of a breakaway faction of JEM.
About 800 government and Janjaweed militia soldiers were moving toward the town of Andrav, 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from Haskanita, Ashr said.
“They are on their way to attack Andrav and they could reach it by evening,” he said.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in Darfur with 2.5 million driven from their homes. Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.
Washington calls the conflict genocide, a term Khartoum rejects and European governments are reluctant to use. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
The ongoing violence is likely to cast a shadow over U.N.-AU mediated peace talks due to start on October 27 in Libya.
A joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force with 26,000 police and soldiers is due to deploy next year to absorb the AU’s 7,000 peacekeepers.
(Reuters)
Toposa Boy southerner
Rebel JEM says Sudan army and militia behind Darfur attack
Govt officials supporting training of young radicals
highly confidential intelligence brief availed to Sudan Mirror disclosed the training of a batch of 30 recruits from Greater Equatoria in Hantoub Gezira last June under the command of three senior security officers of national security. The training ran through June 10-21 this year and was attended by “carefully selected and chosen”recruits. The recruits “have special files about the backgrounds in the organization in Khartoum”. According to the intelligence brief, the courses were designed “to build a special force loyal and dedicated to carry out jihad in the South and to implement tough orders given to them”. Equatoria was chosen for the training base because of comparative advantages, the report noted. “Most of the Southerners who are in charge of security in the South and some who are integrated in the high security position in the North after the CPA are of less education and knowledge about security matters”. During the opening session of the Hantoub course, a top adviser to the GONU told the recruits that because of the comparative advantages “the penetration of military installations and government institutions plus eliminating the key leaders in the South as esay targets”. Intelligence reports also disclosed that similar training of students from other parts of Sudan have taken place in Kassala, a development that sources in GoSS say confirms the determination of the North to dilute the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. According to intelligence reports, Sudan’s Second Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha was accompanied by high ranking government and security officials during the opening of the training program at Hantoub Gezira. The government and security officials present were identified. The report noted that hate speech directed at the non-Muslims characterized that opening session. In addition, there was a posthumous slur on Dr John Garang as well as denouncement of Muslims working closely with GoSS. The reports quote Vice President Taha as having called on the Muslims in the South to take up arms as he “was ready to put the oil revenue in Sudan to support the war in South Sudan to liberate the South from the infidels backed by the Israelites”. He declared that time had come for the people of Sudan to united against the “infidels”. He remarked that the war in the South Sudan took 21 years but that the new crusade to liberate the South would only take 21 days. The Vice President further disowned the CPA, saying they signed the agreement under international pressure and that the North should not have done so. He announced that plans for other similar Muslim youth training programmes covering the ten southern states especially in Equatoria were underway. According to GoSS intelligence reports, the Muslim youth training had been organized the Islamic elites in Khartoum. The programmes include training on the use of explosives and explosive belts as well as recitations of the spirit of terrorism in Jihad war. The other subjects are aptly titled: “How to exploit the churches” and “The spirit to die in the name of God”. The learning is complemented by video shows for 10 hours a day on jihad suicide operations and handling explosives in public places. The reports say the recruits do not return to their universities at the end of the training but are assigned special tasks in Khartoum to monitor the movements of members of the military and politicians from the South.