Sudan accuses UNMIS of complicity in South Kordofan turmoil
June 15, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – An official of north Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has accused the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) of fomenting ongoing violence in South Kordofan State, warning that any resolution by the UN Security Council to renew the mission’s mandate beyond 9 July would be considered a “declaration of war.”
Speaking to the subtly pro-government satellite TV channel Al-Shurug on Wednesday evening, the NCP’s secretary for Kordofan, Hagu Gasim al-Said, said that Sudan’s enemies were plotting to intervene in South Kordofan and extend UNMIS mandate on the pretext of insecurity.
“U.S envoy to the UN Security Council Susan Rice assured leaders of the SPLM [South Sudan’s ruling party] that the NCP is their first enemy in the area and will seek to topple it,” the NCP official claimed.
He went on to say that the Sudanese government was in possession of documents proving the involvement of some UN agencies in South Kordofan’s violent incidents which, according to him, were instigated by the SPLM in South Kordofan and its capital Kadugli.
“We have found in possession of some organizations landmines some of which were planted in front of houses of NCP officials,” he alleged.
North Sudan army has been battling elements aligned with South Sudan’s army, Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), in the north-south border state of South Kordofan, home to the Nuba population which largely sided with the south during its civil war with the north.
According to UN figures, more than 60,000 citizens have so far been displaced by the violence which erupted nearly two weeks ago in the state’s capital of Kadugli and its close vicinity.
The NCP official stressed that the north would not accept the presence of any SPLA troops in South Kordofan after 9 July.
(ST)