Press Statement

August 28, 2010 (Khartoum) -- Mr Gier Chuang Aluong, the Government of Southern Sudan’s Minister in charge of security, held a press conference on the 26th instant in which he made baseless allegations against SPLM-DC and its Chairman, Dr Lam Akol, in connection with the Sudan Airways Helicopter that was held by the SPLA in Paloc airport early this month. As usual, these Spokesmen of GOSS would never rest until they drag the name of the SPLM-DC into their failures, blunders and inefficiency. But Gier Chuang has gone too far. He is quoted by the official GOSS website to have said the following:

“Critically, the minister explained that the crew and the passengers captured with the plane have given leads on the identities and motive of the sponsors of the operations. For instance, he explained that the crew reported that Dr Lam Akol have in the past contributed to the hiring of the helicopter and paid SDG 200,000 for ten hours’ operation to and from Belewic. (www.goss-online.org).

The minister is unashamedly manufacturing stories. We challenge him to produce the evidence he has on who among the crew said that, evidence of the payment and whether the money was paid for ‘the past’ or the particular flight that in which the helicopter was captured?

The lies of this small minister become more glaring when he is quoted by the same GOSS website as follows:

”Gen Gier explained that the SPLA received a tip from peace-loving members of the national intelligence about the helicopter, its trip and cargo on the 7th August 2010. The information intimated that the helicopter would deliver weapons and food supplies to Gen Athor. The SPLA together with the JIU laid ambush and intercepted the plane on its return trip. The minister explained that the security forces did not intercept the plane on the first leg of the trip to let it pick the passengers who would provide more information and evidence of the motive of the sponsors.” (www.goss-online.org).

You need not lay an ambush and intercept the plane; the route and time of the plane were known a priori and the plane in its forward journey did land in Paloc as scheduled. This is a misuse of the word “ambush” unfit of a General. If the allegation of Gier Chuang that the plane was carrying weapons and food supplies were to be believed, we would like to ask him a simple question: what “would provide more information and evidence of the motive of the sponsors” of the plane, intercepting it on the forward trip with the “weapons and food supplies” on board or seizing “passengers” on its return trip? Commonsense would suggest that it is better to catch the culprit red-handed. But commonsense is not so common to Gier Chuang and his ilk. Do not forget you are addressing intellectuals who will analyse every word you utter. On the incident in Paloc, the SPLA Spokesman, Kuol Deim, was quoted as saying:

“The units of SPLA Military Intelligence in charge of guarding the airport suspected the plane. When it was searched they found that it was carrying weapons, ammunition and nine military leaders of General Athor.” (Al Adath Arabic newspaper, No 1006 dated 12/8/2010 (in Arabic)).

Who do we believe, Gier Chuang or Kuol Deim, or none?

Gier Chuang has no credibility to talk on matters related to SPLM-DC. He was the one who misled the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly last June to lift the immunity of the SPLM-DC members in the Assembly on trumped up charges that they were involved in the horrendous murder of a Shilluk Paramount Chief in Panyikang County. The allegations were found for what they were; baseless. That day in the SSLA was a black spot in the history of Southern Sudan democracy. Up to now, the Assembly has not recovered from the repercussions of this sad episode. Gier Chuang seems to hold a personal grudge against George Athor and some observers think he was a factor in his mutiny.

Gier Chuang should stop besmearing the good name of SPLM-DC. He must present his claims to a credible court of law, otherwise, we will make him do so. It is an irony of fate that the security of South Sudan is in the hands of the likes of Gier Chuang who cannot tell the head from tail in such a complicated enterprise in this age of globalization.

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Abdel-Wahid Nour faction,  has criticized the Sudanese government's new strategy to solve Darfur crisis. Speaking to Radio Miraya, the spokesman of the faction, Ibrahim Al Hilu, said that the new plan does not concentrate on the security issues which represent in disarming of what he called "the Janjaweed militias" and the return of the IDPs to their villages.

The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) has denounced recent statement made by the Governor of Central Bank of Sudan, Saber Mohammed Al Hassan, about the remittance of the oil revenues for the south. GoSS Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said that the Central Bank of Sudan did not remit the oil revenues for the south estimated at US$170 million.

Bordering on Chaos

BY MAGGIE FICK - FP

JUBA, Sudan -- "Nothing can stop this referendum," Nixon Simon told me last week in a restaurant in the fledgling capital of South Sudan. Simon, a forestry engineer, had just come home to Juba after fleeing as a refugee 20 years ago. But his words could have come from any southerner. Just about everyone in the region -- which has become increasingly independent-minded since the end of Sudan's horrific, decades-long civil war cut the country in two -- agrees they can no longer live under the oppressive yoke of the northern government in Khartoum.

Simon is counting down to the referendum slated for next January, when the south is widely expected to vote for secession.

Khartoum, however, may have other plans. In recent weeks, high-level officials have recommended that the contested 1,300-mile border that divides the country into north and south should be given a final demarcation before a vote. It might seem reasonable to request that a country know its own borders before declaring independence -- but from the south's perspective, Khartoum's suggestion is purely a stalling tactic. Demarcating the borders will be a laborious, miserable process that could take years. And angry southerners aren't likely to wait that long for independence, even if it means descending back into violence.

When Sudan's north and south signed the 2005 agreement that ended the civil war, they agreed on the so-called "1/1/1956" border, the one in effect when Sudan became independent from Britain half a century ago. But in the past five years, the central government's National Congress Party (NCP) and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) have found numerous points of contention along the historic boundary. A border-demarcation committee made up of technocrats from both north and south has officially mapped out 80 percent of the border, but at least five areas remain under dispute.

The most perilous disputed border may well be the Abyei region in the center of the country, populated by rival tribes, the Misseriya, seminomadic pastoralists, and the Ngok Dinka, who are sedentary farmers. The Ngok Dinka claim historic rights to the land, which they've lived on for hundreds of years and which the British guaranteed them in 1905. The Misseriya, meanwhile, have grazing rights, but explosive tension over the extent of these rights dates back to the 1960s and the first Sudanese civil war, when the Dinka became allied with the south and the Misseriya with the north. The situation came to a head most recently in May 2008, when 60,000 people fled into the south after the northern Sudanese army razed and looted Abyei's main town, indiscriminately killing at least 18 civilians.

The 2005 peace accord promised the people of Abyei their own separate referendum on whether to join the north or the south following the southern secession vote, regardless of its outcome. But this referendum has been delayed even longer than the southern vote. Locals have taken to the streets repeatedly in the past several months, protesting the current impasse between the NCP and SPLM over the administration of the vote and begging the international community to step in.

Visiting Abyei earlier this month to gauge the tensions, I asked several young people from the southern-allied Ngok Dinka group what they thought of their Misseriya rivals. The response was hardened resentment and flaring tempers. None of the Ngok Dinka said they had friends from the other tribe: "Of course not," one told me.

Internationally led attempts in recent years to reconcile the two groups have borne little fruit. Both sides face existential threats -- the loss of land and livelihood -- depending on the outcome of the vote. Most recently, the SPLM accused Khartoum of paying to build permanent structures for the Misseriya in historically Ngok-Dinka-dominated northern areas of Abyei, possibly in an attempt to stock the area with north-friendly voters and sway the referendum.

With the Abyei issue nowhere near resolution, can the South Sudan referendum proceed? Technically, the answer is a simple yes. On a number of occasions, disputed borders haven't prevented the formation of a new country: Eritrea being carved out of Ethiopia or the breakup of Yugoslavia, for example. (Of course, this didn't work out so well in either case.) Nor is there any international precedent for physically demarcating a border prior to a separation vote, as advisors to the SPLM have been quick to point out. Northern Sudan itself already has an undemarcated and disputed border with its ally Egypt: the Hala'ib Triangle, a border area almost twice the size of Abyei.

But the mere fact of precedent isn't going to hold the north back from blocking the vote, or the south back from a violent uprising -- not least because several of the disputed border areas in Sudan hold huge amounts of known oil reserves and gold deposits. The Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based think tank, has reported that the south currently holds about 82 percent of Sudan's oil fields. If Heglig and Bamboo -- two disputed fields that the south claims should end up on its side of the border -- were counted, that figure could reach up to 95 percent. At the moment, the armies of the NCP and SPLM are gathered close to these disputed areas, poised to see what will happen next.

And back in Juba, many miles away from the broiling borderlands, southerners like Simon are getting angrier and angrier. South Sudan is certainly tired of conflict, and it has good reason to be. But it is even more tired of waiting to vote.

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Abdel-Wahid Nour faction,  has criticized the Sudanese government's new strategy to solve Darfur crisis. Speaking to Radio Miraya, the spokesman of the faction, Ibrahim Al Hilu, said that the new plan does not concentrate on the security issues which represent in disarming of what he called "the Janjaweed militias" and the return of the IDPs to their villages.

The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) has denounced recent statement made by the Governor of Central Bank of Sudan, Saber Mohammed Al Hassan, about the remittance of the oil revenues for the south. GoSS Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said that the Central Bank of Sudan did not remit the oil revenues for the south estimated at US $170 million.

A three-day conference for women legislators of both Southern Sudan Government and Central Equatoria State Legislative Assemblies is taking place in Juba city. The conference aims at developing capacity of female legislators to effectively contribute to good governance in southern Sudan.

Source: AAP

Kenya has adopted a new constitution, but the landmark was overshadowed by an international furore at the presence of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, whom an international court has indicted for genocide and war crimes.