China is “frightened” of what might happen if Southern Sudan secedes and must strengthen its ties with the region’s leaders to protect its oil assets, said a Southern Sudan official.

News wires  20 August 2010 17:40 GMT

By Mabior Philip  www.borglobe.com

Juba (Borglobe)...the Sudan People’s Liberation Army is in a hot pursuit of the rebel leader George Athor, who is cowardly in hiding, the army spokesperson Kuol Deim Kuol said, in a bid to bring security under control as the independence vote nears.

In a press conference yesterday at the Minister of Information’s regular press forum, Kuol disclosed that the army attacked the infamous rebel hideouts at Payakyak in Jonglei’s Khorfulus County mid this month, killing 39 rebel soldiers. The rebels, however, managed to kill 2 army soldiers in the shoot-out.

“I can tell you, we want to arrest him alive or kill [George Athor]”, he stressed, as he described the military’s might as enough to deter off aggression against the January, 2011 vote. “We are pursuing them and the problem is that the area is becoming swampy”.

George Athor rebelled against the Government of Southern Sudan after losing Jonglei state gubernatorial seat in the last April’s general elections, unlawfully claiming that the vote was rigged.

The Undersecretary, Bior Ajang of the Ministry of SPLA Affairs, which is charged with designing the SPLA policies and handling administrative issues, said Athor will be tackled militarily in protecting the referendum.

“Fighting him to either get hold of him or kill him is what can help the people of southern Sudan ”, Bior said during the briefing. “I am opposing the idea of not fighting him to allow people go for the referendum”, he added.

Recently, a white plane was arrested in Falouj in Khorfulus County in Jonglei state, where George Athor is twisting his life in the thick bushes. Athor’s third in command, the former commissioner of Pigi County , was captured in the plane. The plane belonged to the Sudan Armed Forces. The SPLA said it was the evidence that some circles in the north were arming criminals in the south to disrupt regional peace.

In a related development, Kuol said the army attacked the hideout of Kul Chaar, another leader of rebelling armed men in Unity, killing five of his soldiers and capturing some guns. He is now running towards Heglig north of the state, where they are always accommodated by the SAF, he said.

Gatluak Deng, according to the official military statement, is under treatment in Khartoum , after running from the SPLA for his life on foot, which caused his feet to swell. Duop Gatluak, also leading armed gangs, was wounded by the SPLA and he is now in hiding, according to the army spokesperson. “With unity of the SPLA and security organs, we are tracking down these criminals”, Kuol said.

BEIJING: South Africa has defended China’s surging investment in Africa, saying Beijing is not pursuing a neocolonial policy and its growing interest in the continent is positive, a report said Wednesday.

China has been criticised over its support for unsavoury governments in places such as Sudan and Zimbabwe and its willingness to ignore governance, human rights and the environment in its pursuit of natural resources.South African President Jacob Zuma, who is leading a delegation of 350 business executives and a number of key ministers, on Wednesday reiterated that China is a “key strategic partner for South Africa”, which is the continent’s biggest economy. afp

Sabotaging the political process now under way will prolong the suffering

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the international criminal court prosecutor, claims that the "genocide is not over" in Sudan (Now end this Darfur denial, 16 July). But was it genocide? Research published by the Lancet has shown that 80% of conflict related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases.

Moreno-Ocampo says President Omar Bashir is "deliberately inflicting on the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction". In fact those displaced from these groups have moved to the main towns (where the army garrisons are). If the army was their tormentor, would they take refuge near its barracks?

Moreno-Ocampo uses the word "denial" very unwisely, because he is in denial. The conflict in Darfur is almost over. Even Eric Reeves, one of the most one-sided critics of Sudan, has admitted that the violence has diminished significantly in the past two or three years; and, he told the International Herald Tribune, "many, including myself, have been slow to recognize how significant this reduction has been". General Martin Luther Agwai, who led the Unamid force in Darfur, has stated that the conflict is over, and that Darfur suffers more from low-level disputes and banditry.

A political process is now under way, in Doha, Qatar; it has full international support and is backed by the energetic retired general Scott Gration, President Barack Obama's special envoy. This is where the help of the international community is needed. Moreno-Ocampo calls for something else: "Arresting a head of state", ie regime change. He wants to stop the efforts of the leader who signed the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 and the Darfur peace agreement in 2006. In the whole article, Moreno-Ocampo uses the word president only once before the name of Bashir: this is because he was against April's Sudanese elections. Thus we see an unelected, unaccountable prosecutor targeting a democratically elected president and calling for his removal.

Paradoxically, Moreno-Ocampo is appealing to a UN security council in which the US, Russia and China do not recognise the Rome statute which created the international criminal court. Indeed, one month after the court was set up in 2002, the US Congress passed an act authorising the president to use "all possible means" to bring about the release of any US national detained or imprisoned by the ICC.

This court will never investigate Gaza or Iraq because it operates, as its president, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, said to the UN general assembly in October 2009 "in a political world", with double standards. Moreover, the UN's own fact-finding mission in 2004 never found evidence of genocide.

Moreno-Ocampo is right, however, that "the Darfuris do not have the luxury of time". So he should know that any actions designed to sabotage the political process are not constructive and will prolong the suffering. In his book about Sudan, Richard Cockett said Darfur activism (led by the Save Darfur Coalition) that culminated in ICC involvement misled the Darfur rebels into believing the US will invade Sudan and hand them power. This prolonged the conflict. Moreno-Ocampo's activism does the same.

Authors: Khalid al-Mubarak

“A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand.” –Plato.

By Luk Kuth Dak

August 16, 2010 (SSNA) -- Have you ever asked yourself the question, why there’re some great leaders and some who aren’t? The answer is, great leaders are those individual politicians who have an informed passion for politics and serving others. And passion is essential because it plays a major role in making tough decisions that might never be popular, but that must be made for the greater good.

Meanwhile, those leaders who aren’t great, are virtually the ones who have an uninformed passion for politics or serving others. They become politicians purely for individualistic purposes- mostly- in search of fame and wealth. Thus, an uninformed passion is as dangerous as any other form of ignorance.

Certainly, those kinds of selfish individualistic politicians not only are they toxic to their own societies, but they are dangerous to their nations, in that they wouldn’t hesitate or have a second thought, to destroy their people and nation, if it fulfills their personal wants and needs. Therefore culling them should be the duty of everyone in South Sudan.

To prove my point, you shouldn’t look further than the “Jallaba golden boys” Dr. Lam Akol, and most certainly, the purported Professor, David De Chand.

However, the sad truth is, we are all being presumed guilty by association with those individuals. And in David’s case, I’m twice as guilty. Firstly, by both of us being South Sudanese. And secondly, by both being Nuer, even though he doesn’t speak a word of the Nuer language, nor he behaves as a Nuer should behave. Not to mention, of course, that his name “David De Chand” sounds more French than the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Besides, in a recent interview with Al Rayaam, a pro government Arabic daily newspaper, the congenital liar, David De Chand was quoted as saying, “ The time is not right for the South Sudan to secede; We shall not accept to be cut off from Sudan.” Then he was asked about the imposition of the Islamic faith on none Muslims, especially in the so-called Sudan’s national capital, Khartoum. De Chand wasted no time. “There’s no such a thing as Islam’s imposition taking place; And by the way, the majority of South Sudanese are now Muslims; Mosques exist along Churches because there is freedom of worship; Our problem in the Sudan is political. It’s neither racial nor religious,” he disgorged.

Now, that’s as treacherous as it gets. And it had to hurt, especially for some of us, who identify themselves as Nuer. I can go on and on again, but, I think you got the message.

In essence, as an anchorman and a reporter, I was privileged enough to get the sense of what great leaders are all about, and what they all have in common. Based on that exposure, there no is shadow of a doubt in my humble opinion, and that of many other South Sudanese people that, Honorable, Ustaz Pagam Amum, the distinguished Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is indeed one of the greatest leaders in South Sudan and a true patriot, who always has the best interest of the people of South Sudan at heart, and stands up for what is the right thing to do.

Indeed, I’m livid. Instead of thanking the man and extolling him for all he has done, and for waking up every morning, and going to bed every night, thinking about the welfare of South Sudan, he has now become the target of cheap shots bashing, name-calling and character assassination, by the sellout flunkies and NCP Southern accomplices in the so-called SPLM-DC; who are engaging in the king-making of Dr. Lam Akol.

Like most Southerners, I can fully understand the reasons behind the relentless assault and the savage campaign waged by the NCP/NIF bigots, against Ustaz Pagan Amum. That’s their prerogative. But, when the assault comes from some wicket South Sudanese, it can’t be anything less than a treason. And those who commit treason belong behind bars.

Pagan Amum is a hero, indeed.

The author is a Sudanese journalist and a former news anchor at Juba Radio. He can be reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.borglobe.com

By Deng Malual Jok, Bor Globe

By Mabior Philip  www.borglobe.com

Juba (Borglobe)...the Sudan People’s Liberation Army is in a hot pursuit of the rebel leader George Athor, who is cowardly in hiding, the army spokesperson Kuol Deim Kuol said, in a bid to bring security under control as the independence vote nears.

In a press conference yesterday at the Minister of Information’s regular press forum, Kuol disclosed that the army attacked the infamous rebel hideouts at Payakyak in Jonglei’s Khorfulus County mid this month, killing 39 rebel soldiers. The rebels, however, managed to kill 2 army soldiers in the shoot-out.

“I can tell you, we want to arrest him alive or kill [George Athor]”, he stressed, as he described the military’s might as enough to deter off aggression against the January, 2011 vote. “We are pursuing them and the problem is that the area is becoming swampy”.

George Athor rebelled against the Government of Southern Sudan after losing Jonglei state gubernatorial seat in the last April’s general elections, unlawfully claiming that the vote was rigged.

The Undersecretary, Bior Ajang of the Ministry of SPLA Affairs, which is charged with designing the SPLA policies and handling administrative issues, said Athor will be tackled militarily in protecting the referendum.

“Fighting him to either get hold of him or kill him is what can help the people of southern Sudan ”, Bior said during the briefing. “I am opposing the idea of not fighting him to allow people go for the referendum”, he added.

Recently, a white plane was arrested in Falouj in Khorfulus County in Jonglei state, where George Athor is twisting his life in the thick bushes. Athor’s third in command, the former commissioner of Pigi County , was captured in the plane. The plane belonged to the Sudan Armed Forces. The SPLA said it was the evidence that some circles in the north were arming criminals in the south to disrupt regional peace.

In a related development, Kuol said the army attacked the hideout of Kul Chaar, another leader of rebelling armed men in Unity, killing five of his soldiers and capturing some guns. He is now running towards Heglig north of the state, where they are always accommodated by the SAF, he said.

Gatluak Deng, according to the official military statement, is under treatment in Khartoum , after running from the SPLA for his life on foot, which caused his feet to swell. Duop Gatluak, also leading armed gangs, was wounded by the SPLA and he is now in hiding, according to the army spokesperson. “With unity of the SPLA and security organs, we are tracking down these criminals”, Kuol said.

Sabotaging the political process now under way will prolong the suffering

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the international criminal court prosecutor, claims that the "genocide is not over" in Sudan (Now end this Darfur denial, 16 July). But was it genocide? Research published by the Lancet has shown that 80% of conflict related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases.

Moreno-Ocampo says President Omar Bashir is "deliberately inflicting on the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction". In fact those displaced from these groups have moved to the main towns (where the army garrisons are). If the army was their tormentor, would they take refuge near its barracks?

Moreno-Ocampo uses the word "denial" very unwisely, because he is in denial. The conflict in Darfur is almost over. Even Eric Reeves, one of the most one-sided critics of Sudan, has admitted that the violence has diminished significantly in the past two or three years; and, he told the International Herald Tribune, "many, including myself, have been slow to recognize how significant this reduction has been". General Martin Luther Agwai, who led the Unamid force in Darfur, has stated that the conflict is over, and that Darfur suffers more from low-level disputes and banditry.

A political process is now under way, in Doha, Qatar; it has full international support and is backed by the energetic retired general Scott Gration, President Barack Obama's special envoy. This is where the help of the international community is needed. Moreno-Ocampo calls for something else: "Arresting a head of state", ie regime change. He wants to stop the efforts of the leader who signed the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 and the Darfur peace agreement in 2006. In the whole article, Moreno-Ocampo uses the word president only once before the name of Bashir: this is because he was against April's Sudanese elections. Thus we see an unelected, unaccountable prosecutor targeting a democratically elected president and calling for his removal.

Paradoxically, Moreno-Ocampo is appealing to a UN security council in which the US, Russia and China do not recognise the Rome statute which created the international criminal court. Indeed, one month after the court was set up in 2002, the US Congress passed an act authorising the president to use "all possible means" to bring about the release of any US national detained or imprisoned by the ICC.

This court will never investigate Gaza or Iraq because it operates, as its president, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, said to the UN general assembly in October 2009 "in a political world", with double standards. Moreover, the UN's own fact-finding mission in 2004 never found evidence of genocide.

Moreno-Ocampo is right, however, that "the Darfuris do not have the luxury of time". So he should know that any actions designed to sabotage the political process are not constructive and will prolong the suffering. In his book about Sudan, Richard Cockett said Darfur activism (led by the Save Darfur Coalition) that culminated in ICC involvement misled the Darfur rebels into believing the US will invade Sudan and hand them power. This prolonged the conflict. Moreno-Ocampo's activism does the same.