Clashes in southern Sudan forces more than 50,000 to flee their homes

By ANDREW ENGLAND, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 18, 2004 (AP) — At least 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in recent weeks because of attacks by militia and fighting between Sudanese government and rebel forces in southern Sudan, the United Nations said Sunday.

The clashes between government troops and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, or SPLA, have occurred despite a cease-fire between the warring parties and a 21-month-old peace process that is inching toward its conclusion.

The cease-fire was signed in October 2002 and is meant to be in place as long as peace talks to end a 21-year civil war continue.

Since early March, the United Nations has received reports of villages, schools and health clinic being destroyed and looted, as well as incidents of rape in Shilluk Kingdom, in northern Upper Nile region, the office of U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan said in a statement.

Most of the attacks have been carried out by militia which is opposed to the SPLA, said Ben Parker, a U.N. spokesman.

“The most serious fighting that has effected civilians have been from militia targeting civilian settlements. Fighting between government troops and SPLA is a much smaller element in the conflict as far as we know,” Parker said by telephone from Sudan.

U.N. agencies and aid groups have been forced to suspend operations in the area because of the violence, the U.N. statement said.

SPLA spokesman Yasir Arman said the militia carrying out the attacks are supported by the government.

He said the area is a stronghold of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-United, or SPLM-United, a southern group that is allied to the SPLA, the main rebel movement.

The SPLM-United joined forces with the SPLA late last year after its leader, Lam Akol, defected from the government.

“The SPLM-United joined the SPLA and they are the sons and daughters of the area … so the government … is insisting on dislodging them, taking them out of their own area,” Arman said.

But Ad’Dirdeiry M. Hamed, Sudan’s deputy ambassador to Kenya, said no government troops were involved in the fighting.

Hamed said the clashes were between rival factions of the SPLM-United, the majority of whose members, he added, were still allied to the government.

He blamed the violence on Lam Akol’s refusal to leave the area after he joined the SPLA, saying that under the cease-fire agreement, the Shilluk Kingdom should remain under government control for the duration of the peace talks.

“This does not augur very well … if anybody wants to change sides at this point, this should not have any impact on the ground. If a commander wants to defect he should not stay in the area,” Hamed said. “The SPLM-United is a government ally. We are entitled to support them, but we haven’t given them any support over the previous few months.”

The civil war erupted in 1983 when rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Muslim and Arab north.

More than 2 million people have perished, mainly through war-induced famine in Africa’s longest-running conflict, but fighting has reduced since the warring parties began peace talks in July 2002.

The negotiations, which are taking place in Kenya, are nearing their conclusion but are currently deadlocked on key outstanding issues. These include whether Khartoum, the capital, should be governed under Islamic law and the details of power-sharing for two disputed areas in central Sudan.