Militia leader returns to Khartoum after violent standoff

February 25, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The government-sponsored Sudan Media Center reported late today that Maj. Gen. Gabriel Tang Ginya, a southern militia leader, returned to Khartoum following clashes in Malakal town in which SPLA troops sought to capture him.

Annango Agawo, the deputy chairman of the National Congress Party in Upper Nile said Gen. Tang has been moved to Khartoum by the United Nations after a familial visit to Malakal.

But earlier in the morning the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) had issued a statement encouraging Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) to hand over the militia leader to state authorities, who had resolved in an emergency meeting of the Upper Nile State Security Committee to arrest Tang in connection with fighting in the same town in 2006.

The arrest attempt was reportedly endorsed by the governor, who is currently in Khartoum. “We must stress that any attempt to evacuate or protect Tangginyang and his accomplices will constitute a crime of harbouring and aiding criminals,” stated GOSS in its paper signed by Gabriel Changson Chang, minister of Information and Broadcasting.

Yet the government-sponsored news source (SMC) stated that Tang had the permission of the Sudan Armed Forces to visit the town and informed the ceasefire commission in Malakal about his private visit. He was accompanied by two guards wearing civilian clothes, the report underlined, whereas GOSS elaborated that he was received in Malakal by SAF Military Intelligence.

SMC went on that the SPLM/A protested upon his arrival last Monday, adding that the security committee led by Thon Amum, the state minister of information, demanded Tang’s return to Khartoum by the same plane. He refused and UNMIS proposed to return him on Tuesday to Khartoum; he also rejected the offer and went instead to the army barracks in the northern sector to spend the night.

Sources say that fighting broke out the next morning, Tuesday at about 8:00. According to SMC, the SPLA brought troops from its camps outside the town to arrest Tang and that caused the fighting where 20 people were killed among them “ten northern traders.”

The fighting was stopped only after the arrival of Riek Machar (SPLM) and Harun Ahmed Harun (NCP), a high-level delegation sent from Juba.

The report accuses the SPLA of inciting Dinka to commit revenge crimes against the Shilluk on the grounds of incidents this past January. It adds that “armed groups” attacked nearby oil production areas in Melut and Adraeil and Shilluk neighborhoods in the town, saying 20 people were killed. On the other hand, GOSS noted that “the so-called Petroleum Police” clashed with the civilian population in Faloj hours after the incident in Malakal.

SMC’s innocuous explanation for Tang’s visit contrasted starkly with that put forth by the Government of Southern Sudan, which said the militia leader “is being used by SAF as a catalyst to start another civil war in Southern Sudan.”

The southern government insisted that a tense standoff resulted in Tang’s forces opening fire against the SPLA, prompting return fire. “We believe such incidents are intended to divert our attention from the real issues facing the Sudan and divide the people of the Sudan at the time we need to unite our efforts to address these thorny issues,” said the statement from the regional government.

Likewise, the SPLM chapter leaders in the United States declared that the incident is “the National Congress Party tactic of putting Sudan back to war; the track the SPLM doesn’t entertain and as SPLA continued to avoid full scale hostility between SPLA and SAF, each time SAF tries to pull the trigger, we the SPLM Members in the USA don’t want to continue losing lives to such acts.”

SMC said that the situation is still tense in Malakal despite the departure of Tang to Khartoum. So far there is no independent confirmation from UNMIS that Tang has in fact left Malakal.

(ST)