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RELIEF WORK: Almost a year after the Sudanese government banned the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan from using large cargo planes to deliver aid to the war torn South, the World Food Programme began airdrops of food from Hercules planes to villages in the South at the end of July. Harvest comes at the end of August, and last year's food supplies are depleted. Many cultivators are forced to flee fighting, and many soldiers from the rival armies use crop burning and livestock rustling as a tactic of war, exacerbating an already precarious food situation. Reports from the South say that some Dinka tribespeople have been slaughtering their cattle, a sign of desperation for a people whose cows are a central symbol of tribal life. The government had come under a great deal of pressure to allow the flights - they banned them because of the suspicion that the large aircraft carried rebel guns into the country, and also claimed that it was cheaper to use river and land transport. The food situation was not as bad as the UN agencies claimed, said Khartoum. [However, when the UN Security Council was debating the imposition of flight sanctions on Sudan in August, the aviation minister said any sanctions would devastate the aid effort in the South - see Resolution 1070 below].
Flights to some areas of fighting remain forbidden, but the UN managed in August to persuade the government to permit food drops to Pochalla, a flood stricken area near Sudan's border with Ethiopia. 25,000 people are reportedly badly affected by floods in the area, and food reserves and crops are largely destroyed. 30% of homes were swept away. Operation Lifeline Sudan was set up in the 1980's in a bid to limit the ability of Khartoum governments to manage and control relief supplies in South Sudan, where famine is used by all parties as a weapon of war. Its southern operations are based in Kenya. (AP 22/7/96; Reuter 22/7/96, 7/8/96; Sudan News 1/8/96; OLS 9/8/96)
MISSIONARIES HELD: Six Catholic missionaries were held prisoner by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army for 11 days at the end of August. The six, who included a 73 year old Australian nun and a 26 year old Italian brother, ran a mission station and school at Mapourdit near Akot. They were arrested by the local SPLA authorities, apparently for hindering SPLA recruitment. The US and Australian governments as well as Catholic officials led protests to a clearly embarrassed SPLA leadership in Nairobi, and John Garang intervened personally to free them.
Msgr Caesar Mazzolari, Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Rumbek, was told by local SPLA officials that the missionaries were involved in espionage and even spreading Islam, but these fanciful charges were later dropped. The missionaries ran a school for 1,500 children, and one of the priests had forcefully opposed attempts by the SPLA to recruit pupils into the rebel army ranks. The soldiers looted the missionary compound. Five of the freed missionaries flew into Nairobi on 30/8/96, they had been physically maltreated but not tortured, and were in good health. But Fr Raphael Riel, a Sudanese, chose to stay in Mapourdit to keep the mission open. (Sudan Catholic Information Office 26/8/96, 31/8/96; AP 27/8/96; Reuter 27/8/96; Voice of America 28/8/96)
BOY SOLDIERS: The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army is often accused of forcibly recruiting minors into its ranks - in June Human Rights Watch-Africa called on them to stop the practice. There have been several instances of large groups of unaccompanied minors roaming around Sudan and neighbouring countries, fleeing fighting and looking for education. These boys are sometimes prey to SPLA press-gangs. However, the SPLA has joined with UNICEF and a Swedish aid agency to re-unite boys in its care with their families. 168 boys from the SPLA's New Cush camp in Kenya were sent home with clothing and cooking kits in September - 1,200 have been reunited since 1992. The boys from New Cush had spent two years wandering through Uganda and Kenya. UNICEF is trying to secure schooling for them in Sudan, to prevent recurrence of such movements. One 15 year said: "I want to attend school. If there is a nice school, I will stay until the highest grade. I will refuse to go into the army. I can't fight. I'm too young. Even the gun is too heavy for me because I'm still small."
A new report from Africa Watch entitled Contemporary Warfare in Africa notes the widespread use of child soldiers in the continent's conflicts. Children are inexpensive and recklessly ferocious soldiers, says the report's author; they can be used in modern wars because of the development of light weight lethal weapons. The SPLA denies that it recruits school pupils into its ranks, saying that there are plenty of young people not receiving education who could join. (Reuter 29/8/96; OLS 13/9/96; Voice of America 13/9/96)
FLOODS: Two days of heavy rain destroyed over 300 homes in Gitena, Gezira, in the middle of August. Egyptian hydrologists in Sudan warned that heavy rains in Ethiopia at the end of August would flood Sudan and fill Egypt's Aswan dam to overflowing. A week later 15 people died and 1,000 houses were destroyed at al-Jeili, a village 50 km north of Khartoum. On 12/9/96 torrential rains and floods destroyed over 2,000 houses at Jebel Awlia, just south of the capital, and on 15/9/96 floodwaters surged through the Khartoum shanty of Mayo, possibly killing dozens. (Reuter 28/8/96, 3/9/96, 13/9/96; AP 16/9/96)
WAR NEWS
BOMBS: Government warplanes bombed Maridi village on 31/7/96, killing one girl; helicopter gunships attacked the village of Kotobi, near Mundri, at the end of August. The SPLA said that government forces had attacked its positions in Western White Nile in a bid to free the river for the transport of petroleum from its newly functioning oil wells in the South. Aid agencies continue to report instability in different locations across the South. (Reuter 30/7/96;OLS 6/8/96; 27/8/96)
EAST SUDAN: The Beja territories on the border with Eritrea are the scene of escalating instability. The Beja are a Muslim, non-Arab tribe whose tolerant view of Islam has earned them the hostility of the regime. In turn, the opposition Beja Congress supports the Sudan Alliance Forces, a dissident army based in Eritrea. At the beginning of September, the SAF attacked a position near Kassala, killing 15 government troops. The local governor later confirmed this, saying that three had died. (Reuter 6/9/96, 12/9/96)
GOVERNMENT ADVANCES: the government claimed on 24/8/96 that 225 rebels surrendered at Kapoeta in Eastern Equatoria. The rebels, from the Toposa tribe, had fought alongside the Sudan People's Liberation Army but decided to join the peace process which brings together the regime and some dissident rebel commanders. On 11/9/96 the army said it had captured Lui [phonetic] in the SPLA's stronghold of Western Equatoria. (Reuter 24/8/96; al-Sharq al-Awsat 12/9/96)
ECONOMIC NEWS
ACADEMIC SHORTAGE: There are 300 staff vacancies at Khartoum University, the most prestigious college in Sudan. A head of department now earns $31 per month, barely enough to live, and staff are leaving because of low pay. The university is considering the admission of students who have failed to meet its standards but can pay hard currency. (Reuter 12/8/96; Sudan Catholic Information Office 15/8/96)
BASHIR REFUSES PAY INCREASE: President al-Bashir met the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions who demanded that the minimum wage, currently LS15,000 [$10] monthly, be increased to LS27,000. Sudanese families spend LS18,000 a month on bread alone. Sudan's trade unions are government sponsored and denied the right to strike, but the union leader, Taj al-Sir Abdoun, said there was a threat of strikes or demonstrations, but Bashir told him that government food subsidies would cover the shortfall. (Reuter 12/8/96; PANA 25/8/96)
The professor's view: Muhammed Hashim Awad, professor of economics at Khartoum University and a member of the National Islamic Front, the party from which all Sudan's leaders are drawn, told PANA last month that "95% of Sudanese are living below the poverty line after the implementation of the free market economy," and that 86% could barely secure their means of living. A national conference held shortly after the present regime took power decided to follow the free market path. (PANA 25/8/96)
NEWSPAPERS FOR RENT: Entrepreneurs in Khartoum are hiring out copies of newspapers for LS50 to eager readers who cannot afford the cover price of LS250.
CROP SHORTAGES: Jacques Diuf, director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation warned of a sharp drop in African food production this year, during a visit to Khartoum. 70% of the continent's people work the land but there are still shortages. (SUNA 29/8/96)
DILALA: This is the name Sudanese give to a new sight in their country - shops which sell the second-hand goods of families who need to sell their belongings to eat. (al-Sharq al-Awsat 12/9/96)
WIDESPREAD PROTESTS
DOCTORS STRIKE: On 14/8/96 doctors at Khartoum Teaching Hospital went on strike after one of their number was assaulted at his work by a member of the security forces. The doctors demanded that security units be removed from the hospital, Sudan's largest. Some sources said that 10 doctors were detained later in August. (al-Hayat 16/8/96)
UNIVERSITY CLOSED: Omdurman Ahlia university was closed indefinitely by the authorities at the end of August after weeks of clashes over the timing of student elections.
AUGUST PROTESTS: Opposition sources claimed that 50 people were injured and hundreds arrested in the course of demonstrations in Wad Medani, a city 100 km south of Khartoum. The demonstrators were protesting against the increase in the price of bread. al-Hayat 18/8/96
September protests: The first few days of September saw a spate of protests in Khartoum and Omdurman against bread shortages. The government had ordered bakeries to increase the weight of each loaf, but bakers said that wheat prices made that impossible. Two people were killed and seven wounded in the first day's clashes, which began when Khartoum University students spilled out on to the streets to blast their compatriots for accepting humiliation and degradation at the hands of the government. A second outbreak on 3/9/96 led to no casualties. 35 people were sentenced to be flogged for their part in the riots. (Reuter 1/9/96, 3/9/96; UPI 2/9/96)
FOREIGN NEWS
RESOLUTION 1070: Sudan stands accused by the UN Security Council of harbouring three men suspected of involvement in the attempted assassination of President Mubarak of Egypt last year. Diplomatic sanctions against the regime came into force in May, but Sudan has failed to make any great effort to find or extradite the men. On 16th August the Security Council passed resolution 1070 which will ban international flights by Sudanese aviation. This will come into effect in November. Although Egypt's ruler was the intended victim of the original crime, the Egyptian government had been trying to moderate the sanctions against Khartoum in the hope of keeping its influence in Sudan. However, the volatile relationship between the two states took a turn for the worse last month, and Egypt let the sanctions pass. (al-Hayat 18/8/96 Reuter 23/8/96; Sudan Democratic Gazette 9/96)
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi officials shut down the Riyadh office of Sudan's opposition National Democratic Alliance at the end of July, in what was interpreted as a quid pro quo for Sudan's expulsion of a billionaire Saudi dissident linked to recent bomb attacks in the kingdom. At the beginning of September the Saudis arrested 40 Sudanese supporters of the Khartoum regime, to coincide with the visit of a Sudanese junior minister. The 40 were said to be engaged in extremist political activity. (Reuter 27/8/96; UPI 4/9/46)
UGANDA: Iran's President Rafsanjani visited Africa at the beginning of September, to build trade links. On his way from Uganda to Sudan he managed to mediate between the two governments, which support rebel armies operating in each other's territories. The Ugandan deputy premier arrived in Khartoum with President Rafsanjani, and the two countries agreed to stop rebel activities on the common border. Diplomatic relations will not be resumed, however. Northern Uganda has suffered terribly from attacks by the fundamentalist Christian Lord's Resistance Army - in one town alone 100 primary school children have been murdered since July. A multi million dollar security programme has failed to curb the threat, and this may have driven Uganda to the deal, although it bears scant good will towards Khartoum. (Reuter 8/9/96, 9/9/96, 15/9/96; Africanews 9/96)
HIJACK: On August 26th, a Sudanair flight with 199 people on board was hijacked by 7 Iraqis who boarded the plane in Khartoum and who feared to return to their homeland. Using knives and fake explosives they gained control of the plane after some scuffles, and directed the plane to Cyprus and then to London where they surrendered to British police. They requested political asylum, but this cannot be considered until criminal proceedings against them have run their course. (UPI 26/8/96, Times 29/8/96)
HUMAN RIGHTS
BIRO VISITS: Dr Gaspar Biro, specially appointed by the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate human rights in Sudan, was banned from Sudan for two years after pointing out that some of the Islamic punishments authorised in its criminal laws contravened the provisions of human rights treaties which Sudan had signed - the government said he had insulted Islam. He was allowed back in at the beginning of August. He made no public statements during his trip, but the state controlled media claimed he had denied the existence of slavery in Sudan. One paper said that he had described the country's Islamic law as "brutal and inhumane". A statement from Dr Biro's Geneva office said that he continued to receive reports of slavery from Sudan, and had never attacked Sudan's Islamic laws in those terms. (Reuter 9/8/96; Sudan Democratic Gazette 9/96)
PROTEST: On 12/9/96, Human Rights Watch protested against the ongoing secret trial, held at army headquarters, of thirty-one persons accused of crimes that carry the death penalty, citing allegations that the defendants had been tortured into making confessions. Human Rights Watch, which opposes the death penalty, has asked to send observers to this trial of Col. Awad al Karim Omar Ibrahim Elnagar and others, who were arrested in February. The thirty-one defendants are accused of waging war on the state and mutiny - two defendants are civilians.
COUP PLOTS: The Sudanese government has in the past arrested what it described as coup plotters and executed them after hasty trials - some observers believe that these are no more than concealed purges of suspected opponents in the military. The latest "coup plot" was foiled in Port Sudan with the arrest of 65 soldiers and civilians on 15/8/96. Opposition sources in Cairo said on 22/8/96 11 of the detainees had been executed, but an army statement two days later denied this and said that less than 25 people had been arrested. (Reuter 22/8/96; 24/8/96; Amnesty International 23/8/96; HRW 12/9/96)
CAMP CLOSED: A Swiss-based human rights group announced this month that a camp near Khartoum which held 840 children in arbitrary detention in squalid conditions has been closed. UNICEF had been campaigning for its closure for 18 months, and is trying to re-unite the children with families, while offering education and health care. Street children in hartoum are sometimes rounded up and taken to these desert camps - the treatment is harsh and they may be conscripted into the army at the end of it. This policy has met with strong criticism from human rights groups. (OMCT/SOS Torture 13/9/96)
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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Scottish Churches Sudan Group
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Scotland, UK
Tel: +44-0131 228 3158
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Distributed by:
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Bill Lowrey, 73124.367@compuserve.com
10/14/96 7:24 PM