Family of detained Nuba general urges Sudan to secure his release
January 5, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The family of a Sudanese general detained in South Sudan has called on the Government of Khartoum to seek his release.
Kuku is a former general in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the former southern rebel group in Sudan and now the official army of the newly independent state of South Sudan.
He has been detained without charges by SPLA authorities in Juba since May 2009. SPLA officials gave no clear answer as to why their former general is incarcerated. An SPLA spokesman previously said that Kuku’s detention is not political and he is held for committing military violations.
Sudan’s state minister for foreign affairs, Salah Wansi, said in a meeting with Kuku’s family on Thursday’s afternoon that the government would spare no efforts and do everything in its power to release him.
According to the minister, who was quoted by Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA, Kuku is a Sudanese citizen and his case has a humanitarian dimension.
On the other hand, the representative of Kuku’s family, Ibrahim Adlan, said that his continued detention was “unjustified” following the secession of South Sudan.
He pointed out that they had exerted great efforts to secure his release and submitted in this regard two memos to the UN which promised to contact South Sudan’s government but no response was received yet.
According to Kuku’s lawyer, Mohamed Nasir, his client was accused of amassing arms and 600 Nuba fighters in order to stage a coup against the Government of South Sudan. He added that Kuku did nothing except expressing views that the Nuba did not get what they deserve for fighting alongside the south in the two-decade (1983-2005) war against the north.
Many Nuba, in what was Sudan’s north-south border of South Kordofan, fought alongside southerners in the war against Khartoum, which ended in 2005 with a peace deal that gave southerners a vote on independence while only granting their Nuba allies with vague ‘popular consultations’ on whether the implementation of the deal satisfied them.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July last year but cases of detention without charge are common in the new country.
According to International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, during April’s 2010 elections, South Sudanese security forces “harassed, arrested, and detained people thought to be opposed to the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, including journalists and party members.”
(ST)