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| June 30, 2011 |
| June 27, 2011 |
Chidren have enough. Lots of crying, lots of questions.
"Why?"-
We colected some remains - Full of nails. UNMIS did not come. "They never come!" "They are useless!" "They are locked in their heawy guarded compound near airstrip. "They are here only to take money of international taxpayers". "The only ones who have mandate of international community are not doing nothing to protect the civilians. They work togheter with sudan government!" -
Kauda is nearly empty. Most -left for the mountain caves. -
NO MORE FLYING OVER US!
"WE WANT NO FLY ZONE NOW!"
| June 24, 2011 |
"Making Haroun, an indicted war criminal wanted for genocide, the governor was a clear message to the people of South Kordofan.
" in the first week of June, Bashir's forces started an operation to "remove" any local people who had sided with the opposition during the recent elections. There was an enormous build-up of troops, artillery, tanks, and machine gun carriers. And now they've started ground attacks with strong air support. All access is cut off, official statements that any United Nations planes will be shot down, no commodities, going in or out, no humanitarian access, roads mined, large numbers of militias armed.
"With the invasion of troops in Kadugli, people began to run. Before Nuba became completely cut off we, were bombed by Antonovs and strafed by MiGs. Heavy shelling was never far away. It seems that there is an overt operation to completely "neutralise" (either by killing or by terrifying) any likelihood of opposition. There are very brutal and aggressive attacks with new weapons. We heard stories (we are not sure) of what sounded like phosphorous bombs that cause fires that never go out and horrible burning. People are terrified. There are many civilian casualties already and I fear it is going to get much worse.
"What can only be called ethnic cleansing, when an ethnic group is targeted for extermination, started in Kadugli and Dilling while we were there. Door to door executions of completely innocent and defenseless civilians, often by throat cutting, by special internal security forces. We don't know how many yet; hundreds seems for sure, but could be much worse. Terrible accounts of civilians - friends - attempting to find safety in the UNMIS (United Nations Missions of Sudan) compound being pulled out of vehicles and executed immediately. And now we hear that all the displaced who had been seeking some form of security alongside the perimeter fence of UNMIS are being forced to move by the government authorities. What will happen to them? Probably over 100,000 already displaced and more coming.
"But of course, as always, the real heroes are all the Nuba civilians trying to respond to the terrible humanitarian crisis and the targeted attacks. They are risking their lives in doing so.
"All phone networks there have been switched off by Khartoum (the day before it all started), so communication was very limited. And at the same time the spirit and bravery of the Nuba just continue to soar above the horror of it all and makes me start crying again as I write.
"So you know, this is not a war about south versus north, nor Christian against Muslim, or black against Arab. There are as many Muslim Nuba as Christian (and a healthy percentage of traditional spirituality), they see their future in the north, they are intermarried and have been living along side Arab nomadic groups and northern communities for centuries. There are nomadic Arab communities in southern Kordofan who also voted for the SPLM (Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement) and many of the Misseriya and Hawazma groups remain as marginalised as the Nuba, and as vulnerable to the policies of the center. The Nuba SPLM are not the same as the southern SPLM/A. They are fighting to resist a regime that refuses them basic rights and a voice - access to justice and even basic social and economic rights. This is so important because the Nuba offer a vision for Sudan that builds on religious tolerance and a local understanding of democracy - relevant for so many areas of the world right now.
"The UN "peace-keeping" forces are not only totally ineffective (summary executions going in front of blue berets in Kadugli) but may even add to the problem.
" The diplomatic efforts are too often driven by ill-informed strategies or self-serving policies more related to economic gain for us rather than any sense of humanity or justice. This return of a horrific war needn't have happened if only there had been much stronger international support for the planned political process. There was never enough international pressure to promote a genuine chance for a just peace.
"How can you help? Not sure at this stage. Any effort to demand of your government representatives a much greater attention to what is happening in South Kordofan would help. Not peace at any price, the Nuba despite their horror at the return to war can see no future unless there is a change of regime in Khartoum now.
" The key in the end is probably Arabic speaking media to help inform and activate all the very good Sudanese who live in the North and would be horrified by what their Government is doing but have no idea at what is actually happening. Anything that can raise the profile of what is happening can only help. Any of you who have contacts who are good at using internet to put out information (Facebook, YouTube, etc.) could also help. And pray to whatever goddesses and gods you're in touch with to sow a seed of doubt and hesitation and change the minds of those in power in the government who are responsible for all this, and to help the Nuba and others there in South.___________________________________
The Sudanese Army's move into Southern Kordofan comes just weeks after it seized control of Abyei, a border region that, unlike Southern Kordofan, is disputed territory between north and south. Khartoum says its actions were provoked by an ambush on its forces by the south, a claim southern officials deny.
| June 21, 2011 |
By MIA FARROW AND JULIE FLINT
Soon after the Nuba Mountains region of central Sudan exploded in war two weeks ago, a patrol from the United Nations peacekeeping force was detained by Sudanese government soldiers and subjected to a mock firing squad in the soldiers' divisional headquarters.
First the peacekeepers were lined up. Then an officer cocked his AK-47 and pointed it at them. He demanded that they leave South Kordofan state, the ancestral home of the Nuba people, and warned: "We will kill you if you come back here."
The U.N. mission in South Kordofan is the only international protection for the Nuba people, the forgotten victims of Sudan's 22-year civil war. South Sudan will finally earn freedom from the Khartoum regime when the South becomes independent on July 9. But the Nuba, trapped along the North-South border, will remain within Khartoum's reach.
The peacekeepers meant to protect the Nuba cannot even protect themselves. They are out-gunned and out-numbered by Sudanese government forces who have dropped 500-pound bombs less than 2,500 feet from U.N. mission headquarters in the state capital, Kadugli. On Monday, Sudanese forces threatened to shoot down any U.N. flights over South Kordofan.
Now, the peacekeeping force is under orders from Khartoum to leave South Kordofan by July 9, the day South Sudan becomes independent. If it is pushed out, who will remain in South Kordofan to bear witness to the atrocities that are already unfolding? International staff working for non-U.N. agencies have already left Kadugli -every last one of them.
The U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman, has said there is not yet evidence that the new Nuba war amounts to "ethnic cleansing." But confidential U.N. reports that we've seen speak of "wide-scale exactions against unarmed civilians with specific targeting of African tribes," and of people targeted "along racial/ethnic lines."
The U.N. mission in South Kordofan is the only international protection for the Nuba people.
The Nuba live on the southern edge of Sudan's Arabized north. As black Africans, they have always been regarded as second-class citizens by Sudan's northern elites. Many fought alongside the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the civil war from 1985 until a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains in 2002, hoping to end their marginalization and preserve their unique culture.
Long before the Khartoum regime launched its war on Darfur, it attempted to destroy life in the rural Nuba Mountains and resettle the entire population of insurgent areas in camps where Nuba identity would be eradicated. Community leaders and intellectuals were killed; villages were burned to the ground.
Despite the Nuba people's immense suffering, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 did not satisfy their aspirations - including their demand for self-determination. What little the peace agreement did offer was neglected as Darfur monopolized international attention.
Today the international community is making another mistake. It is failing to understand that this is not a conflict that can be resolved by North-South negotiations. This is a North-North conflict. The so-called Three Areas along the North-South divide -Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile -are regions with particular histories and problems that remain largely unaddressed. Without urgent attention to South Kordofan, next month's partition may well ignite a new civil war.
Hundreds of thousands of Nuba are already on the move, fleeing from tanks, artillery and aerial bombardment. Humanitarian access has been shut down. A week ago, U.N. peacekeepers warned of a humanitarian crisis that they are "not sufficiently prepared to counter."
Apart from a couple of statements in the U.N. Security Council, the international community has failed to put the plight of the Nuba people on its agenda. President Obama must understand that the conflagration in South Kordofan has the potential to bring down the whole edifice built by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The Nuba Mountains require an immediate ceasefire with unconditional humanitarian access, followed by a robust monitoring mission on the ground and resolution of the grievances that caused conflict in the first place.
The Nuba Mountains were killing fields a decade before Darfur. Are they doomed to be again?
Ms. Farrow, an actor and advocate, has traveled to South Sudan 16 times. Ms. Flint has reported from the Nuba Mountains for 20 years.
Breathing is unbearable due to rotten corpses lying everywhere."
By El-Tahir El-Faki
June 20, 2011 - During the height of the Darfur crisis the Islamic regime of President Bashir lead massive ethnic and genocide campaigns against the indigenous Africans to replace them with Arabs from countries such as Chad, Central Africa, Niger, Mauretania and Mali. While the international community was concentrating on the Darfur crisis, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) was reminding all concerned that the issue was national requiring holistic solutions. Furthermore it stressed that it would only be a matter of time before Bashir would repeat the same scenario in Kordofan. The indicators were clear and copious. The Nuba of Kordofan are indigenous multi-religious Africans who are mostly supporters of the SPLM and perceived by Islamic regime of Bashir as infidels whose rich and fertile lands must be evacuated and given to the Arabs. -A period of relative peace and stability ensued until the recent events on the 5th of June 2011.
-. On the 5th of June 2011 war suddenly erupted in Kadugli, the capital city of South Kordofan, between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the SPLA units under the command of General Abdel Aziz Al-hilu. The incident took place when the SAF went to disarm the SPLA units with fatal confrontations. GoS accused SPLM northern sector of instigating the tragic events in collusion with foreign agents to muster discord in bid for regime change. Now Kordofan has exploded and thousands of Nuba have already perished at the hands of Bashir's troops. Reports from the region estimated that hundreds of thousands including women, children and the elderly have by now joined the uncountable millions of the internally displaced in Sudan.
Following the incidents on the 19th of May 2011 in Abyei tensions ran high leading to massive build up of heavy military presence in South Kordofan. The rising tensions spiralled when the SPLM Northern Sector accused the NCP of rigging the gubernatorial elections in favour of the indicted and ICC wanted war criminal Ahmed Haroun and refused to participate in his government.
Fighting rapidly erupted and has involved the entire Nuba Mountains. The SAF resorted to its indiscriminate old tactics in Darfur. MIG-29 jetfighters and Antanov aerial-bombardments preceded the artillery shelling to pave the way for ground forces, popular defence and allied militias to pillage and burn the Nuba villages down. The cities of Kadugli, Dilling, Kouda, and Taloudi witnessed extensive air raids killing civilians and destroying their properties. The bombing terrorised civilians in Kalimo in Kadugli, Taferah, Kaiga Al-Khayil, Hajar al-Nar, Abugeibaiha, Miri, Dilling, Lagawa and Kouda and drove them into displacement. The livestock on which the population depend did not escape the assault and thousands perished as result. 'Nuba Survival Foundation' estimated that more than 40,000 inhabitants fled the city of Kadugli in fear for their lives. Hundreds of thousands of people including children, women and the elderly left their mountain dwellings into uninhabitable situations. It is painful to describe the appalling living conditions they are now experiencing. Mines have been planted in and around Kadugli while dead bodies litter the streets and remained scattered in the centre - strong reminder to the Nuba of what awaits them. - SAF, popular and Arab militias are hunting down supporters of the SPLA and Nuba in house to house search. Those found were subjected to brutal executions and their homes looted or burnt down. Families and individuals who fled the area and managed to reach El-Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan, were subjected to inhumane interrogations or sent back.
GoS resorted to usage of food as weapon of war by refusing to allow access for independent observers or international NGOs to assess the needs of the population and deliver humanitarian aid. Reports are rife that Arab militias have been allowed to apprehend and kill Nuba or destroy their homes and villages. The incidents in south Kordofan increasingly emulate the systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide campaigns in Darfur orchestrated by Ahmed Haroun while he was Interior State Minister. He is the same thug who years back in 1990s committed serious human rights abuses in the Nuba Mountains before he was assigned to Darfur to conduct a campaign of genocide. Undoubtedly most areas of South Kordofan are facing major humanitarian crisis. The Nuba describe it as 'Rwanda genocide revisited' in their Mountains. Tenth of thousands of children, women and the elderly people are left in appalling conditions where the heavy rains make access to food extremely difficult.
- The Islamic Regime has supplied the Arab tribes in the region with sophisticated weapons. Recently it deployed more than 200 tanks to South Kordofan, to quell what it alleges as armed mutiny and insurgency. These are the same sequels that led to the Darfur crisis. The government agenda towards the Nuba people are beyond doubt clear. The appointment of the war criminal Ahmed Haroun as Governor is a strong testimony to the genocide intentions of Bashir against the Nuba people. It is the starting process of Darfurising the Nuba of Kordofan. He is the same person who in 1990s was behind the ethnic cleansing of the Nuba. In a nutshell having orchestrated the Darfur genocide, Haroun is the right choice for GoS to complete the unfinished job to ethnically cleanse the Nuba People and bring in Arabs to occupy their lands.--
The Nuba of Kordofan have experienced painful historical discrimination and marginalisation in all aspects.
And finally Nuba civilians deserve protection. The continuous air attacks by the Sudanese Air Forces must be neutralised. A no-fly-zone in the Nuba Mountains has become a necessity. The evidence of civilian sufferings has surfaced and has become media-clear. The obligation for the International Community to protect the Nuba requires urgent intervention.
http://www.sudantribune.com/Plight-of-the-Nuba-of-Kordofan,39278
| June 19, 2011 |
NUBA MOUNTAINS: REFUGEES IN CAVES, FEARING CHEMICAL BOMBARDMENT. pictures were taken today
Great piece by Julie Flint
The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), which monitors Sudan, said new imagery from Friday showed north Sudanese military massing in the Southern Kordofan border state. The images show 'artillery, light vehicles and heavy transports used to carry tanks, troops, and munitions.' The Khartoum regime headed by Omar al Bashir is also responsible for genocide that is on-going in the Darfur region.
| June 18, 2011 |
| June 17, 2011 |
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Dear my fellow tribesmen and women, this is a call of hope and prayers. I am stuck in the middle of the heavy shooting and bombardments at the UNMIS Camp in Kadugli. We are about 26 South Sudanese.
All lives are at risk, all are accused to be Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) supporters. We have almost no food, no water, no proper security, and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Popular Defense Forces (PDF) are planning to attack the camp and take us by force. International staff members have already evacuated, leaving us behind in a very harmful act as they did in Somalia, Rwanda and elsewhere. The United Nations head of office leader made it clear that they don't have any capacity to ensure our security and protection. Moreover, one local U.N. staff member was killed at the main gate. The Egyptian army was unable to protect him.
This is a call of hope and solidarity, please advocate and mobilize the world so that we are released or at least our security is granted by the U.N. and the Government of Southern Sudan or the Government of National Unity. As you know we are humanitarian workers and have no affiliation to political parties, so please move the possible resources to alleviate this suffering, and please post this to all media over the globe.
| June 14, 2011 |
Ambassador to Sudan, Nicholas Kay, reported that he witnessed bombs loaded into the back of Antonov airplanes in Khartoum- and MIG war planes returning from action Sources on the
ground confirm to TIME aerial bombing campaigns across the state upon civilian areas. The U.N. has confirmed bombings in 11 of the state's 19 districts.
| June 12, 2011 |
KHARTOUM (AFP) Militiamen
backed by the Sudanese army
executed 16 members of the Zaghawa tribe in North Darfur after they tried to rescue their stolen livestock, in what could amount to a war crime, a rights groups said on Thursday. Around 100 militiamen raided four ethnic Zaghawa villages near Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur early on June 1, looting property and livestock, human rights group the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) said in a report.
A group of residents who managed to trap the militia and recover some of their stolen herds was apprehended by Sudanese troops in army uniform and militiamen supported by military aircraft as they returned to their villages, the report added. Nineteen of the Zaghawa group were then arrested and taken to another village nearby, where 16 them were executed by firing squad- The bodies were left exposed in open areas-
of murdered civilians. It should be clear to everybody now that this is not simply a case of fighting between SAF ( Khartoum's armies) and SPLA,( southern Forces) nor is it collateral damage; this is a deliberate policy by the Khartoum regime to kill its own citizens. It is ethnic cleansing, and it is not new -this has been done by the current Khartoum regime in the Nuba Mountains before (1990s) and more recently in Darfur. The
international community should stop trying to fudge this- and recognise it for what it is - the deliberate
killing of civilians by their own government. The killing needs to be stopped, and this is the first priority.
Friday June 10 2011. Escalating violence against civilians in Sudan's
South Kordofan state is a major humanitarian catastrophe in the making, with an estimated 300,000 people besieged, cut off from relief aid, and unable to escape fighting.
The United Nations estimates that up to 40,000 people have fled fighting between Sudanese government troops, Sudan Armed Forces (SAF),and members of the former southern rebel group, the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), in Kadugli, the capital of Sudan's oil-producing border state of South Kordofan. Antonov planes have been seen carrying out aerial bombardment in areas with a significant civilian population. Furthermore, low-flying MIG fighter planes have been used to terrify the displaced people seeking shelter around the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) compound just north of Kadugli.
For the last five days, people have locked themselves in their homes without food or water, for fear of being killed. Others have fled to the Nuba mountains, where they are being hunted down like animals by helicopter gunships, says the Sudan Council of Churches, an umbrella organisation representing all Sudanese churches.
SUdan's Ecumenical Forum co-chair Eberhard Hitzler says urgent action is needed. "A humanitarian crisis on an enormous scale is unfolding in South
Kordofan state. We appeal to the world leaders and governments to pay
attention to this situation and urgently protect people."
Two eyewitnesses saw people, perceived to be SPLA(Southern) sympathisers, dragged out of the
UNMIS compound in Kadugli and executed in front of UNMIS personnel, who did not intervene.
UNMIS - has apparently lost credibility with locals. This is affecting the quality of UN information, as many people are unwilling to speak to UN staff.
Individual churches in the region, have contacted SEF pleading for urgent assistance in bringing the world's attention to the killings.
"The international community, led by the UN Security Council, with the explicit and unwavering support from particularly China, USA, the African Union, the Arab League and the European Union, must urgently take all measures to stop hostilities, protect civilians and allow humanitarian access to all parts of South Kordofan, as a first step to re-engaging the opposing political and military parties in the search for a negotiated solution".
Only such urgent international efforts can halt what is threatening to become a repeat of the mass atrocities, war crimes and protracted humanitarian crisis the world witnessed in neighbouring Darfur over the past decade, in Abyei in recent weeks and during the previous war in the Nuba Mountains in the early 1990s.
Eberhard Hitzler
Co-chair Sudan Ecumenical Forum
| June 10, 2011 |
According to UNHCR, one hundred thousand people, the entire Ngok Dinka population of the Abyei area was forced to flee when Khartoum invaded and destroyed Abyei town. The exodus of the residents was followed by the massive, orchestrated influx of a northern, Arab tribe, the Misseryia. All evidence to the contrary, Ban Ki Moon inexplicably declared it is "far too early to claim that ethnic cleansing is taking place."
As Ban now seeks another tenure as SG of the United Nations, let the record show that he has been shamefully spineless and obliging in his interactions with war criminal, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and his cabal. Ban's lack of a response to genocide in Darfur will be his legacy
| June 9, 2011 |
United Nations News Centre:
Sudan's President Omar Al Bashir continues to commit crimes against humanity and carry out genocide against residents of Darfur in defiance of the United Nations, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the Security Council today.
"President al-Bashir has learned how to continue to commit crimes challenging the authority of the UN Security Council, and ignoring Resolution 1593, as well as other resolutions," Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said as he presented his 13th report to the Council.
Mr. Bashir and his supporters "continue denying the crimes, attributing them to other factors (such as inter-tribal clashes), diverting attention by publicizing ceasefire agreements that are violated as soon as they are announced, and finally proposing the creation of special courts to conduct investigations that will never start," he said.
"The challenge to the Security Council's authority is further evidence that the extermination of the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa, as well as any tribe deemed disloyal to the regime, is a policy defined by the top leadership of the Government of the Sudan.
"It is calculated to ensure that the armed forces, their associated militia and other security bodies will continue committing new crimes, with the same modus operandi, wherever and whenever they are instructed to do so."
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said Mr. Bashir had threatened the international community with retaliation and more crimes as a result of his indictment. "This tactic is not new; it is the documented practice of massive criminals - denial, cover-up, and threat of repetition."
He urged the Council to use the information exposed by the ICC to stop the crimes in Darfur, adding that the "prosecution, fulfilling its mandate, is willing to assist."
"Arrest warrants are not going away. Bashir is destined to face justice. The problem is the time [it will take] for the victims," said Mr. Moreno-Ocampo.
He also told that the Council another Sudanese war crimes suspect indicted by the ICC for atrocities in Darfur, Ahmad Harun, has continued his illegal actions with impunity as a senior Government official.
"The record of Ahmad Harun provides a clear demonstration of the risk of impunity and ignoring information about crimes," said Mr. Moreno-Ocampo.
"In my seventh report to this Council...three years ago, I expressed concern about Harun having been dispatched to Abyei to 'address disputes' between the Misseriya and the SPLM/A [Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army]. Following his dispatch, as I reported, Abyei was burned down, with 50,000 civilians displaced.
"In my ninth report, presented on 5 June 2009, two years ago, I expressed concern about Harun's appointment...as Governor of South Kordofan. He is presenting himself as an efficient operator and is dubbed by the some members of the international community as the man to talk to to get things done."