Report on a tour of the SPLM-N secretary-general in the Nuba Mountains
Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N)
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Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan
March 30, 2016
· The SPLM-N is for peace, but the Addis Ababa Agreement will co-opt the opposition into the status quo of the government’s national dialogue and it will deny democratic transformation.
· The Secretary General, from the Nuba Mountains on the outskirts of Kadugli, says resistance against the regime is witnessing a remarkable development in the Nuba Mountains and reaching the stage of the popular resistance and the people’s armed uprising
· He announces to the fighters on the front lines, “the movement with its allies has decided not to sign the Addis Ababa roadmap agreement and the people will triumph.”
· We are here with the people in the liberated areas and battlefronts on a political campaign to support the popular resistance against the regime’s massive dry season offensive and human rights violations and war crimes.
· In Kauda, he says, “the only prayer for Al-Bashir and his regime over the 27 years is the killing of innocent people.”
· Bashir used a militia from South Sudan to fight alongside with him in the Two Areas while treating South Sudanese as foreigners in Sudan!
· The link on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JswuTyRR6bw
The Secretary General of the SPLM-N continued his tour to the battlefronts, liberated areas, service centers, and political and military training centers in a political campaign to support the popular resistance against the regime 72 hours after the meeting of the Addis Ababa consultations failed, while another delegation went to the Blue Nile, led by Abdullah Ogalan, the Secretary General of the SPLM-N for the region. He was accompanied to the Nuba Mountains by SPLM-N peace file spokesperson, Mubarak Ardol.
He was received by the Secretary-General of the SPLM-N in the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan, Amar Amun, and the acting Provincial Governor, Suleiman Gabuna, and his Administration, the Chief of Army Staff, General Jagut Mekwar, and his Deputies, General Izzat Kuku, Brigadier Jacob Osman Kaloka, and Brigadier General Carlo Trilla. The SG was greeted in several counties and he inspected the honor guard and the revolutionary resistance songs, some of which were about glory of the martyred leaders, John Garang de Mabior and Yousif Kuwa Mekki, the Founders of the SPLM.
The tour started with Tubo County (Alburam) where he held a rally for the people and the SPLA-N forces stationed in the White Lake area attended by Lieutenant-Colonel Habeel Stafanosem, Commander of the Base. Then he held, on March 25th, a major public rally in Taroji Town, which was destroyed earlier by a Sudan government air raid and despite that, the people insisted to carry on with their lives. He paid tribute to their heroism and talked with them about the movement’s vision, the issues of peace, change and war, what happened in Addis Ababa, and that the SPLM-N is for a just peace that respects fundamental human rights and brings equal citizenship and democracy and that the Addis Ababa agreement will co-opt the opposition into the status quo of the government’s national dialogue and it will deny democratic transformation. The rally was attended by large crowds. Then he visited the SPLA-N forces on the front lines of Angolo Area, where he met with Commander Kuku Idris, Lieutenant Colonel Mjak Kaffi and with officers and soldiers of the Mobile Taskforce, which participated in the battle of Shat the next morning and contributed to defeating the government force’s aggression in the Al Tees and Shat areas, where they seized a T-72 tank and four loaded Land Cruisers. The Secretary-General emphasized that we are here without permission from the Bashir regime to hold our rallies whenever we like, and he salutes the courage and steadfastness of Angolo’s people against the aerial bombing of the government.
He spent the evening at the base of the martyr Yousif Kuwa Mekki, founded by Commander Abdalaziz Adam alHilu, and was received by General Jagod Mekouar, the Chief of Staff, and the Commander of the Base Brigadier, Kawa Kori.
On the morning of March 26, the Secretary-General and Chief of Staff addressed the officers in advanced courses at the Faculty of War Sciences in Albrum Province and gave a lecture on the New Sudan vision and the current political issues and he stressed that the revolution in the rural areas and the urban areas of Sudan will prevail. Bashir’s regime will go as the Sudanese people have sacrificed a lot through the armed struggle in the rural areas and through popular uprising in the urban areas. Arman talked about the internal, regional and international factors that effect change issues positively and negatively and how to deal with it. He stressed that the struggle of the Nuba Mountains people and the peoples of South Kordofan can’t be separated from the struggles of the marginalized people in the dams areas (Kajbar, Dal, Shereik), Darfur, the Blue Nile, and the struggles of women and students, which are well linked to the issues of the poverty and freedoms in Sudan. The Nuba people are the frontline of change and revolution. The Nuba Mountains people after Yousif Kuwa Mekki are the people of equal citizenship without discrimination and they are never going to be a second class citizen again. He added, the Nuba and Nubians in northern Sudan are one group historically, advancing the ranks of the struggle now in unity of the inseparable and intertwined relationship between the people, the land and history. The Chief of Staff, General Jagod Mekouar, add that the summer dry season government offensive will end with the full victory of the SPLA-N.
The Secretary General and the Chief of Staff went to the front lines, just ten kilometers from Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state in Alkarkarya area and Alatamor, where they inspected the axis of the east Kadugli, led by Brig. Gen. Abboud Andrewas who stressed that Kadugli’s governor is within our artillery range. The Secretary-General said that the murder of civilians and war crimes committed by the government will not elapse through time. He called on the Sudanese to start a campaign to stop the aerial bombardment against civilians especially that on the night of his arrival, the government bombing killed a woman who left behind her four children and a child of six years old could not be saved by the doctor because he does not have adequate equipment.
The delegation documented the bombing, which included mosques, churches, schools and water resources and burned citizens’ crops, which are war crimes in international humanitarian law. The Secretary-General watched hundreds of citizens of Om Doreen carrying light firearms to support the SPLA-N on the battlefield and tens of women carrying food and water to the soldiers in light of the continuing government aerial bombardment. People are challenging the government’s bombing by continuing with their lives without looking at the instruments of death coming from the air, which the regime brings including cluster bombs.
The Secretary-General said that the war is witnessing a remarkable development and fighting the government aggression is taking a revolutionary turn after the failure of the regime to neutralize the civilian population, to push them outside of Sudan and to grab their land, and to isolate the SPLA-N from the citizens. Even the children have remained in their land and with their people and their culture. The SG was deeply touched when they were passing to the front lines, and the children at the age of ten, asked them to stop moving to avoid the government warplane bombers that they were watching. The entire journey, crowds of women, youth, children and the elderly came out to greet them, chanting slogans and calling for the long-life of the SPLM-N and the SPLA-N, and added that the revolution in the Nuba Mountains is reaching the stage of popular resistance and popular armed uprising.
Arman has appealed to the Sudanese medical doctors to carry out their duties towards the people of Southern Kordofan and the Nuba Mountains and to contribute to the treatment of the wounded and sick civilians who were targeted by Al Bashir’s regime. He called upon the medical doctors who work overseas and their organizations to take this issue seriously as a humanitarian issue and as a relevant issue of nation building and the unity of Sudan. He stressed that the Nuba people played a unifying role in the modern national movement of Sudan from Adam Um Dbalo to Ali Abdullatif from Miri. Arman is confident that the summer dry season offensive of the government in the Nuba Mountains will be defeated, adding the Nuba Mountains will be the graveyard for the Rapid Support Forces, the Janjaweed, political Islam and the aggression against the marginalized people. He said the regime will be defeated.
The delegation moved from the front lines and spent the night at the headquarters of the General Staff of the SPLM-N, where he inspected the Guard of Honour and the National Squad for the headquarters of the General Staff of the SPLA-N and played the revolutionary songs of the SPLM-N and the SPLA-N. He then addressed the large crowd of people of Um Doreen, where they were welcomed by the head of the General Staff Headquarters, Brigadier Hamza al-Jamri. They left on the morning of March 27 to visit Lowera area and saluted the shrine of the martyr and freedom fighter Yousif Kuwa Mekki, on the eve of the 15th anniversary of his departure. The Secretary-General asked the members of the SPLM-N at home and abroad to commemorate Yousif Kuwa Mekki, this national leader who came on the footsteps of Ali Almiraoi and Ali Abdul Latif who belong to the same area. In the presence of the spirit of Yousif Kuwa Mekki and at his tomb, the Secretary-General said, “Commander Yousif Kuwa Mekki, the objectives and the flag raised by you is still flying. We will not fall and we will achieve the Sudan that provides food, peace, democracy and citizenship without discrimination.” At Kuwa’s tomb, which is a shrine of the revolution, he was received by the Acting Governor of the Nuba Mountains, Suleiman Jabuna, and Tao Kenjala, the Director of the Police, Hebel Katan, Public Security, Stephenos Nasser, and Secretary-General of the SPLM-N in the region, Amar Amon, and senior officers, including Brigadier General Ibrahim Almelfah, Brigadier General Mohammad Ahmed Alhabob and Brigadier Tahir Mohammed Idris (Abu Jagado).
The Secretary-General briefed the members of the Secretariat of the territory in the government buildings in Kauda. He said to pray in Kauda is possible without indulging in the blood of innocent people as General Bashir wants, and that the people of the regime, headed by Bashir, can’t pray without killing innocent people. The killing of innocent people is the only prayer throughout the 27 years. This was in reference to General Bashir’s statement every year that he will recapture Kauda and pray in its mosques. He saluted the brave people of Kauda and the citizens of Heiban province in rural and urban areas, and then he visited the wounded and the patients in the hospital outside of the city.
The Secretary-General also met with a gathering of civil society organizations in Kauda who gave him a memorandum about the humanitarian situation. He stressed the importance of the separation of political issues from humanitarian issues and called on civil society organizations to participate in the comprehensive peaceful solution.
He went to Al Rahma’s famous hospital and met with Dr. Tom Catena, a US citizen who has dedicated himself to treat victims of the government bombing and patients in the marginalized and forgotten areas of Sudan. The hospital was bombed more than once which is a war crime. Arman asked the crowd to salute Dr. Tom Catena and asked them to cheer for his life. He said, “You offer life and General Al Bashir offers death and destruction to the citizens of this region and for the people of Sudan and this is the difference between you and him.” Arman was invited by Dr. Tom Catena to attend his marriage of a girl from the Nuba Mountains. She is a girl from Altaira and the wedding will be held soon. Arman visited the wounded and the patients, wishing them a full recovery and then addressed the huge public crowd at Lowera area. The people sang and danced against the war, the criminals and against the Antonov and against the public Order Act as is the case in Khartoum. The SG called for the liberation and emancipation of women in all of Sudan and the respect for the diversity of cultures. He talked about the political situation and the negotiation and he confirmed that the head of SPLM-N, Malik Agarm and Vice Chairperson, Abdalaziz Adam alHilu, came to Addis Ababa after the end of the negotiation and met with some leaders of political forces who are in Addis and called for unity of the opposition and refusal to relinquish the demands of the people. The SPLM-N will continue to work for complete unity of the political forces that attended the Addis Ababa meeting, especially Sadiq al-Mahdi, Minni Arko Minawi, Dr. Jibreel Ibrahim, Omar Aldigeer, Ibrahim Sheikh, Osama Saeed and Al Hadi Nugdallah.
The Secretary-General confirmed that the SPLM-N leadership, in the presence of the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, has made a decision not to sign the document of Addis Ababa which is a government document, and that mediation has called for consultations. Consultations by nature do not lead to an agreement. We will not sign it.
The talks by the government say that the Secretary-General is not from the Two Areas and therefore he should not lead the SPLM-N to the peace talks. This is coming from a regime that does not believe in equal citizenship. Al Bashir himself is not from the Two Areas, let alone Ibrahim Mahmud, Kamal Obeid and Ibrahim Ghandour. We are working to build a new country without discrimination, based on equal citizenship and that brings us together. What brings us together is the Sudan. It is not geographical or of ethnic origin or religious affiliation. Such talk led to the secession of South Sudan.
On the morning of March 28, the Secretary General graduated page (19) in the Political and Leaders Training Institute of the SPLM-N. He praised the graduation of tens of thousands of citizens in the political training institutes and stressed that the SPLM-N exists where the masses exist. There are consultations now taking place within the leadership of the SPLM-N to do a comprehensive development of the institutions of the movement after the defeat of the dry season offensive, including rebranding the movement and its vision, restoring full consideration to the project of the New Sudan as the best contemporary project to build a citizenship state without discrimination and to achieve social justice and democracy. The New Sudan project needs to review the entire past experience to respond to questions and new challenges, to develop the institutions of the movement and give a greater role for women and youth, to discuss the issues of the national project that it faced after the secession of the south and the national project re-definition, and to address the subject of national dialogue and nation building as a long process to get to the answer about how to govern Sudan and build a state of citizenship, without discrimination. The new Sudan project should be linked to the concerns of ordinary people, and for justice and fairness and to end all forms of exploitation and to provide food, peace, education, health, clean water, housing, employment and freedoms, which is the essence of the idea of the New Sudan, the inspiration of the two martyrs and leaders, John Garang de Mabior and Yousif Kuwa Mekki, founding fathers of the project of the New Sudan. It is still alive.
After the graduation of page (19), the SG asked them to use their newly acquired awareness and knowledge in the interest of the masses and the poor to build a new life. He said that one of the biggest successes in this war are the bridges built between the Nuba, the Misseriya and Hawazma Arab tribes and others which defeated the divide and rule policy by the government, and he called for further work in this direction and confirmed the presence of officers and soldiers of the Misseriya and Hawazma in the SPLA-N is a seed which must be preserved and cultivated in order to build a new society and a prosperous future for South Kordofan and Sudan. He stressed the commitment of the leadership of the SPLM-N on citizenship issues without discrimination and on autonomy of the Two Areas and the restructuring of Sudan and the presence of the SPLA-N in the transitional period in order to achieve its objectives and in building a new national professional army for all Sudanese to protect Sudan and not to fight wars against its peoples.
It is worth mentioning that the Khartoum regime in the regions of Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan uses southern militias to fight with them, and we found the bodies of many of them on the battlefield. In Khartoum, the regime treats South Sudanese as foreigners and at the same time it uses them in its war without batting an eyelash, meanwhile exploiting its oil and mistreating its people.
We will provide you with more details, images and videos of this political campaign to support the popular resistance.