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Sudan: Recent Documents
Sudan: Recent Documents
Date distributed (ymd): 990327
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: East Africa
Issue Areas: +security/peace+ +US policy focus+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains several recent documents on Sudan,
including press releases from Human Rights Watch, Sudan
Infonet, and U.S. Committee for Refugees. For more details,
and related documents, see the web sites cited below.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Human Rights Watch
Sudan Famine Could Recur
Militias Must Be Restrained and Cease-fire Extended
Human Rights Watch,
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor,
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA.
TEL: 1-212-290-4700, FAX: 1-212-736-1300
E-mail: [email protected]; Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org
[To subscribe to press releases on Africa from Human Rights
Watch, write to <[email protected]> with the following command
in the body of your email message: subscribe hrw-news-africa.
If you have questions about the hrw-news-africa list, send
email to <[email protected]>.]
(New York, March 18, 1999) - Human Rights Watch today blamed
the warring parties in Sudan's fifteen-year civil war for the
country's devastating famine, which killed thousands of people
in 1998 and affected more than 2.6 million in a country of
about 27 million. Famine threatens to recur in 1999.
The report charges that the government's abusive tactics, and
the predatory practices of rebel forces and
government-sponsored tribal militia, have turned this famine
into a disaster requiring the largest emergency relief
operation in the world in 1998, and the largest airlift
operation since the Berlin airlift. The government spends
about one million dollars a day on the war, roughly the same
amount the international community spent on relief at the
height of the famine. A cease-fire among the warring parties
in the worst-hit famine area of the south, Bahr El Ghazal, has
not been strictly enforced and will expire on April 15, 1999.
"If the cease-fire is not extended, the disaster of last year
will be repeated in southern Sudan," said Jemera Rone, author
of the report and the Sudan researcher for Human Rights Watch.
"The tribal militias who looted and burned, and killed and
captured so many civilians last year, are not obeying the
cease-fire now. They are armed and backed by the government,
and it must restrain them." Rone urged the international
community to bring all possible pressure to bear on the
Sudanese government and rebels to end attacks on civilians and
looting of civilian foodstuffs, including cattle.
The 200-page report, "Famine in Sudan, 1998: The Human Rights
Causes," urges the warring parties to end looting and attacks
on civilians, as well as the diversion of civilian relief aid.
It calls on the Sudan government and rebel authorities to
punish those guilty of such abuses. And it asks that the
international community actively support U.N. human rights
monitors for Sudan, either inside the country or on its
borders, who would be tasked to promptly inform the world of
human rights abuses, especially those that might lead to
another famine. Finally, the report calls on the government
of Sudan to honor the promise it made to the U.N.
Secretary-General in 1998, to provide humanitarian access to
rebel areas of the Nuba Mountains which have been besieged for
ten years by the government.
Most of the famine victims were in the southern third of the
country, where the rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is strongest. The southern Dinka
population in Bahr El Ghazal, which is suspected of supporting
the rebel cause, has been the worst hit by famine. For years,
government counterinsurgency strategy has used army and tribal
militia to attack civilians and displace or kill them, looting
their cattle and grain, and burning their villages. Some women
and children have been abducted for use as domestic slaves.
"The famine is over for the time being," said Rone. "But the
'hunger gap' between last year's slim harvest and this year's
harvest could last from April to August, or even September.
Without international assistance, many people will not make it
through the 'gap' -- and if there is fighting again, and the
tribal militias are not stopped from killing and looting, the
situation will get even worse." Rone noted that the looting of
tens of thousands of milk-producing cows in 1998 had made this
year's "hunger gap" even worse.
A key turning point in the 1998 famine involved Kerubino
Kuanyin Bol, a Dinka warlord who had been armed and supplied
for years by the government to attack Dinka villages. Kerubino
defected from the government side to the SPLA in January 1998,
and tried and failed to capture Wau, the second largest town
in the south, and two other government towns. Some 100,000
Dinka and Jur in those towns fled in fear of retaliation,
heading straight into a rural area where some 250,000 people
were already at risk of famine because of drought and
continual raiding. Hundreds of civilians who did not flee Wau
were massacred by government forces in the days following the
fighting.
Immediately after this exodus, the government placed a ban on
all relief flights into Bahr El Ghazal that lasted practically
two months, in an attempt to punish the civilian population.
The population at risk of starvation climbed to one million.
When the ban was finally lifted as a result of international
pressure, and relief supplies began to arrive, the SPLA began
diverting the relief food for its own soldiers, and local
chiefs redistributed relief as well. This, plus continued
raids and U.N. logistics problems, drove perhaps 90,000
civilians to government garrison towns in search of relief
food; the death rate in those locations shot up. A cease-fire
on July 15, 1998 (later extended to April 15, 1999) ended the
famine-provoking raids for several months and brought better
delivery of relief food. The death toll began to drop,
although the food shortage is projected to continue until late
1999. Two factors make the future very uncertain: the
re-defection of the mercurial Dinka warlord Kerubino from the
SPLA and his negotiations with the government to resume his
career as a government militia leader; and renewed raiding by
tribal militias in early 1999, as the military supply train to
Wau transported them and their horses into Bahr El Ghazal from
the north.
Another seriously stricken area was Western Upper Nile,
belonging to the southern Nuer tribe. It suffered because two
pro-government Nuer forces were fighting each other over
political and military control of this territory, where a
government-organized international consortium is drilling for
oil to be piped north. The government directly armed both
sides, one the ex-rebel forces with whom it signed a peace
agreement in 1997, and the other the Nuer warlord Paulino
Matiep, who undertook scorched earth campaigns, killing,
burning, looting, and destroying Nuer villages and meager
health and educational structures. As a result, some 150,000
civilians, most of them displaced by the fighting, were at
risk, but the U.N. relief operation was unable to reach them
because of the unstable military situation. Not
coincidentally, the Dinka warlord Kerubino is related by
marriage to the Nuer warlord Paulino, who is currently
providing Kerubino with safe harbor.
In the SPLA-held areas of the central Nuba Mountains, some
20,000 people at risk were not even included in the U.N.'s
relief operations or statistics. The government's strategy in
the mountains is to starve civilians into leaving the rebel
areas, so it bans all U.N. access to them. Away from the eyes
of the international community, the government's army and
militia loot or destroy food, and capture civilians for
internment in government "peace camps," where abuse and dismal
conditions prevail despite international food relief flowing
to the government side of the Nuba Mountains. In May 1998 the
government promised the U.N. humanitarian access, but as of
February 1999 this promise was not honored.
NSCC Dinka-Nuer Press Release #4
13 March 1999
Nairobi, Kenya
Distributed by Sudan Infonet
An Information Service of the Sudan Working Group--USA
[email protected]
Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/~SudanInfonet/
MORE THAN 300 DINKA AND NUER LEADERS SIGN
A COVENANT OF PEACE
WITH FAR REACHING COMMITMENTS
NAIROBI: The Dinka-Nuer West Bank Peace and Reconciliation
Conference held in Bahr el Ghazal in southern Sudan has
resulted in a bold commitment for peace that could have
national implications. The Conference, facilitated by the New
Sudan Council of Churches, resulted in a peace agreement
called the Wunlit Dinka-Nuer Covenant. The Covenant and its
Resolutions were signed by more than 300 Dinka and Nuer
chiefs, community and church leaders, women and youth. It
boldly promises an end to seven and half years of conflict
between the Dinka and Nuer people on the West Bank of the Nile
and declares a permanent ceasefire with immediate effect.
Amnesty is granted for offences prior to 1/1/99, freedom of
movement across the lines of conflict is affirmed, and
resolutions with far-reaching effects were adopted in a
consensus style of decision making.
The Conference was opened with the sacrificing of a large
White Bull, traditional spiritual leaders of both peoples
calling for an end to the conflict, and the warning that any
who violate this Covenant will go the way of the White Bull.
Christian church leaders conducted daily prayers and the final
Covenant was sealed both in Christian worship and in
traditional sacrifice of another bull, dancing and
festivities.
Resolutions addressed in detail issues such as:
- Missing persons and Marriages of Abductees: including the
identification of people who are missing or were abducted, the
issue of marriages, and the return of persons to their
families and home areas;
- Reclaiming the Land and Rebuilding Relationships: including
a provisional list of more than 400 villages and settlements
that have been abandoned, an encouragement for people to move
back home, and the development of shared activities between
Dinka and Nuer such as schools, livestock markets, healthcare,
etc.
**Institutional Arrangements and Monitoring the Border:
including police stations, border courts, appeal processes,
radio stations to build communications across the borders,
joint policing of the grazing and fishing areas during the dry
season, and forming a Peace Council to implement the
Resolutions.
**Dealing with those Outside the Peace Process: including
invitations to commanders who have continued to fight and must
be brought into the peace process; and
**Extending the Peace: including Dinka-Nuer peace on the East
Bank of the Nile and spreading the peace to other Nilotic
peoples, the peoples of Equatoria, and all the people of South
Sudan.
A Rapporteur Team of six members continued after the Wunlit
conference to meet in Loki, Kenya to gather the documentation
together. The documents are available through Sudan Infonet
on its Internet Web Site. The address is:
http://members.tripod.com/~SudanInfonet/
The full text of the WUNLIT DINKA-NUER COVENANT follows at the
end of this Press Release.
Signed:
William O. Lowrey, Ph.D.
NSCC Dinka-Nuer Peace Facilitator
WUNLIT DINKA-NUER COVENANT
Dinka-Nuer West Bank Peace and Reconciliation Conference
27 February - 8 March 1999
Wunlit, Bahr el Ghazal, Sudan
Dinka and Nuer Chiefs, church, civil and community leaders,
elders, women and youth have met in a peace and reconciliation
meeting in Wunlit, Bahr el Ghazal, Sudan under the auspices of
the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC). We have established
this Covenant of peace and reconciliation and declare an end
to seven and a half years of intense conflict.
We the participants hereby make and adopt the following
Covenant and pledge ourselves to observe and implement it
scrupulously and conscientiously in keeping with the solemn
vows of peace, reconciliation and familial co-existence. We
initiated our Conference with the sacrifice of the White Bull
(Mabior Thon / Tu-bor) and have sealed the Covenant in
Christian worship and traditional sacrifice.
We declare the following:
- All hostile acts shall cease between Dinka and Nuer
whether between their respective military forces or armed
civilians. A permanent cease-fire is hereby declared between
the Dinka and Nuer people with immediate effect.
- Amnesty is hereby declared for all offences against
people and property committed prior to 1/1/99 involving Dinka
and Nuer on the West Bank of the Nile River.
- Freedom of movement is affirmed and inter-communal
commerce, trade, development and services are encouraged.
- Local cross-border agreements and arrangements are
encouraged and shall be respected.
- It is hereby declared that border grazing lands and
fishing grounds shall be available immediately as shared
resources.
- Displaced communities are encouraged to return to
their original homes and rebuild relationships with their
neighbours.
- The spirit of peace and reconciliation this Covenant
represents must be extended to all of southern Sudan.
All Resolutions adopted by the Conference are hereby
incorporated into this Covenant. We appeal to the SPLM/A and
the UDSF/SSDF to endorse, embrace and assist in implementation
of this Covenant and its Resolutions.
We appeal to the International Community to endorse, embrace
and assist in implementation of this Covenant and its
Resolutions.
Official version: 10th March 1999
U.S. Committee for Refugees Press Release
March 3, 1999
Contact: Jeff Drumtra / Gabrielle Bushman
202-347-3507
UN SHOULD SET BINDING REFERENDUM
TO END 15-YEAR WAR IN
SOUTHERN SUDAN
To resolve permanently the world's longest uninterrupted
civil war, in southern Sudan, the United Nations Security
Council should act decisively to schedule a specific date for
the people of southern Sudan to vote within three years on
their own political independence, the U.S. Committee for
Refugees (USCR) urged today.
"After 15 years of civil war and an estimated 1.9 million
war-related deaths-more deaths than in any war since World War
II-it is time to implement the one solution to which all
parties of the Sudan conflict agree: hold a binding public
referendum of political self-determination for the 5 million
people of southern Sudan," said Roger Winter, director of the
U.S. Committee for Refugees, speaking at a congressional
briefing today.
"It is clear that, under current circumstances, no side can
win a clear military victory in Sudan's war. Yet the war
drags on, causing an average of 5,000 deaths per month. This
is unacceptable," Winter said. "All sides have publicly stated
that a referendum of political self-determination for the
people of southern Sudan is an acceptable solution. So why
wait? Schedule a referendum by the year 2001, and make it
happen."
The Sudan government agreed during stalled peace negotiations
in 1997 to the principle of self-determination for southern
Sudanese. The main southern rebel group, the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM), has long supported the right of
self-determination. The main opposition political groups in
northern Sudan have also endorsed the notion of a referendum
in the south. The time has come for decisive U.S. and UN
action to help Sudan move toward the obvious solution, USCR
stated.
Also at today's briefing, USCR unveiled its new report,
Follow the Women and the Cows: Personal Stories of Sudan's
Uprooted People, which draws upon the words of southern
Sudanese residents to document the human devastation in
southern Sudan. The report profiles two-dozen southern
Sudanese individuals and families who have been uprooted by
their country's war and have suffered constant rounds of
famine, slave raids, bombings, and attacks.
"The people of southern Sudan have fled their homes in larger
numbers than in any other country on earth-4 million are
internally displaced within the country, and 350,000 are
refugees in neighboring countries," the report states. "What
is happening [in Sudan] certainly qualifies as 'news' by any
measure."
The Sudan government's "scorched-earth" military tactics and
blockage of international relief aid last year triggered a
famine that killed 100,000 or more people, according to one
unofficial estimate. A massive international food airlift
curtailed the famine late last year, but the health situation
remains precarious in 1999. Deadly raids by
government-supported militia against villages in the south are
on the increase again in recent weeks, threatening to disrupt
aid efforts.
Copies of the USCR report, Follow the Women and the Cows:
Personal Stories of Sudan's Uprooted People, are available
from USCR by phoning Gabrielle Bushman (media) or Raci Say
(general public) at 202-347-3507.
Excerpts and current news on Sudan are available at:
http://www.refugees.org/news/crisis/sudan.htm
The U.S. Committee for Refugees is a nonprofit, humanitarian
organization that works for the protection and assistance of
refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people around the
world. For more information, see USCR's website
(http://www.refugees.org).
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's primary
objective is to widen the policy debate in the United States
around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa, by
concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant
information and analysis usable by a wide range of groups and
individuals.
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