"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing" By Konstantin Josef Jireček, a Czech historian, diplomat and slavist.
The National Congress Party Continues its Aggression against the Two Areas by
Attacking SPLA Positions in Damazin and the Residence of the Elected Governor.
In a new upsurge of aggression and an extension of what happened in South Kurdofan, forces allied to the Popular Defence Forces and the Sudanese Army instigated an all-out attack on positions of Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in Damazin after midnight of the third night of the ‘Blessed Eid Al-Fitr’ without regard of the holiness of the occasion. The attacks targeted the residence of the elected Governor; and Brigadier-General, Al-Jundi Suleiman, Commander of the Joint Integrated Units who was fired upon at the ‘Mahaseel Gate’ at the entrance to the Damazin City.
The offensive was later intensified to include all SPLA positions. It has been noted known that Damazin city has witnessed high-levels of tension over the last four days, as a result of the deployment of a full Popular Defence Force(PDF) and Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Brigade, with a large amount of armament, that included 12 tanks and 40 Dushka-mounted trucks. The force then proceeded to lay siege to strategic positions in the city.
The National Congress Party (NCP) will answer for the result of this naked aggression and attacks on civilians, the SPLA and the elected Governor of the Blue Nile State. Now, it is quite clear what had been the intention behind the recent duplicitous cease-fire declaration: it was to prepare the political and military ground for an attack in Blue Nile State.
We would like to confirm that the Chairman of the sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army and the Governor of Blue Nile State is well and hasn’t suffered any harm.
We will continue to inform public opinion of the developing events and affirm that the NCP will bear fully their consequences. It has been a game-plan that started by the move to forcibly disarm the SPLA; and this is by a party that possess the largest military arsenal in Sudan. The NCP will also bear the burden of all the great calamities that befell Sudan, chief among them is inducing South Sudan to secede.
Yasir Arman
Secretary General
Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement
Press Release
NCP stages coup against legitimacy in Blue Nile, destroys the CPA
With its onslaught on the Blue Nile Region on September 1st, the National Congress Party has gratuitously staged a coup against the legitimacy by ousting an elected governor and thereby destroying the CPA in the two areas.
The objective of the NCP has always been to eradicate the SPLM/A in the North. Despite the efforts by the SPLM and the regional and international community, as evidenced in the endeavors of Prime Minister Meles Zinawi and the AUHIP Panel headed by President Mbeiki, which resulted in the Addis Ababa Frame Work Agreement, yet President Bashir has insisted on the war track and disowned the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement.
The events that took place in the Blue Nile and earlier on in Southern Kordofan, marked the beginning of the second Islamic Republic as perceived by the National Congress leadership. This delusional perception has put an end to the CPA in the two areas as well as on the quest for democratic transformation in the Sudan, resulting in the destruction of the Popular Consultation which is the only peaceful mechanism to resolve the conflict in the two areas. Moreover, the removal of the only elected governor in the North – who was elected against the will of the NCP- in spite of its attempts to rig the elections in Blue Nile, is unconstitutional and would therefore not be recognized by the SPLM.
Call for a No-Fly Zone in the two areas and Darfur:
In view of the current human right atrocities , the SPLM-N calls upon the IGADD countries, the Troika, the UN Security Council and International Community who are the grantors of the CPA to sponsor a resolution on a No-fly Zone in the two areas and Darfur. The Sudan Air Force is seriously involved in targeting the civil population, thus becoming directly responsible for massive atrocities, including ethnic cleansing and genocide. This brutal force needs to be reign in.
Update from the ground:
· Since yesterday and today, the Sudan Air Force continued its aerial bombardment mainly on civil population targets , resulting in killing two women and a kid in Kurmuk and injured an old man. The major water tank in town for the civil population was destroyed.
· In Bau, a woman was killed as a result of the bombardment.
· In Damazin, four SPLM members were slaughtered; hundreds arrested, including Mamoun Hammad, who is the deputy Speaker of the State Parliament and Abdullaihi Ibrahim, who is the SPLM Secretary General. Babiker Mohammed Adam, who is a member of the SPLM Secretariat.
· Given what happened in South Kordofan with regard to ethnic cleansing, we call upon human rights organizations to put pressure to bear on NCP to ensure the safety of the SPLM-N members.
· Thousands of displaced people are scattered allover the State and are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
· The SPLM-N Headquarters in Senar State was attacked by the security forces and SPLM members are being rounded up from their houses.
· Despite the fierce offensive by the NCP forces, the SPLA is in full control of the area, with the exception of Damazin. The SPLA is fully controlling the town of Gissan, Kurmuk, Dindru, Ulu, Graud, Meinza and Ingassana Hills.
Conclusion:
The NCP dream of the Second Islamic Republic is in indeed another brand of the Taliban republic. It will only begin and end in more human atrocities and cost in addition to instability in the Sudan and the wider region. The NCP, as once truly described by Dr. John Granag De Mabior, “they are too deformed to be reformed”.
Yasir Arman
Secretary General of the SPLM/N
3rd,Sept.2011
Sudanese Armed Forces Clash With Opposition Fighters in Blue Nile Province
Sudanese government forces and members of the northern branch of the ruling party in neighboring South Sudan clashed in the capital of Blue Nile state, the governor and an army spokesman said.
State Governor Malik Agar said government forces attacked members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, of which he is chairman. “When our forces shot back at them, they just heavily bombarded my house and all sites” of the SPLM-N in the state capital, Al-Damazin, he said.
Al-Sawarmi Khaled, a Sudanese army spokesman, said SPLM-N forces attacked first at the southern entrance to Al-Damazin. Sudanese government troops are now in “full control” of the area, he said by phone today from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. “We’re now carrying out military operations to chase remnants of rebels in Blue Nile.”
Sudan’s government has been trying to disarm members of the SPLM-N in the border states of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan who fought with the forces of South Sudan during the two-decade civil war that ended in 2005. South Sudan gained independence on July 9. Sudanese government soldiers have clashed with SPLM-N fighters since June 5 in Southern Kordofan.
Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir announced a cease-fire in Southern Kordofan last week.
Southern Kordofan
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in an Aug. 30 statement that the government continued to bomb civilian areas in Southern Kordofan after the declaration of the cease- fire. Khaled denied the allegation.
“Now the real aim behind the cease-fire in Southern Kordofan was uncovered: just paving the political and military situation for attacks on Blue Nile,” Yasser Arman, the SPLM-N secretary-general, said today in an e-mailed statement.
More than 300 vehicles carrying residents fleeing Al- Damazin were heading today to Wed Al-Nile, a town 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Al-Damazin, Esmail Mohamed, a member of Ummah, Sudan’s biggest opposition party, said by phone as he travelled in the convoy.
“The situation is very serious in Blue Nile,” he said. “Some 4,000 people are being evacuated from the city” by the Sudanese army.
Sudan army attacks SPLA forces and governor’s residence in Blue Nile: SPLM-N
Sudan Tribune: September 2, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Forces of the Sudanese government on Friday attacked the the residence of the Blue Nile state governor, who is also chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), Malik Agar.
Malik Agar, head of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) speaks during a joint news conference with SPLM north’s secretary general (Reuters)
According to Yasir Arman, SPLM-N’s secretary-general, Sudan’s army (SAF) launched a military offensive at midnight Friday targeting the SPLM’s Joint Integrated Units under the command of Jondi Suliyman and the house of Agar in the state capital Al-Damazin.
Arman told Sudan Tribune that in the past four days the Sudanese government had deployed reinforcements consisting of one infantry brigade, 12 tanks and 40 armed vehicles into the area.
“This debunks the deceptive ceasefire announced by Al-Bashir in South Kordofan because it was declared in order to prepare for an attack against Al-Damazin,” Arman said.
He further warned that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) would be held accountable for attacking the house of “the elected governor” and the “atrocities they are committing against the civilian population” as well as the SPLM-N’s membership in the two areas.
“We wish to assure SPLM-N’s supporters and members of the general public that Malik Aggar is safe,” Arman said, promising to give more details on the events taking place in the Blue Nile within the next few days.
Arman did not explain what triggered the fighting and there was no confirmation of the attacks from independent sources.
In a phone interview with Bloomberg, Agar said the attack happened after three vehicles used by the SPLA were shot at by Sudanese soldiers while approaching the southern part of Al-Damazin.
“When our forces shot back at them, they just heavily bombarded my house and all sites of the SPLA in the capital,” Agar said.
Sudan official news agency (SUNA) carried statements by SAF saying it has been attacked by the SPLA.
Al-Sawarmi Khaled told SUNA that the SPLA started the attacked. He further said they have long expected this move because Agar was mobilizing his troops during the past period. He further said the this attack aims to alleviate pressure on SPLA troops under the command of Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu in South Kordofan.
Agar also spoke to SUNA about “skirmishes” between the commander of the joint integrated units and the Sudanese army at the gates of Al-Damazin.
He further confirmed that the fighting is taking place now in all the state between the two forces.
The eruption of war in Blue Nile with heavily armed SPLA units could put the entire Sudan at risk of a full scale war. The government in Khartoum has been engaged in clashes with SPLA forces in South Kordofan since last June.
SPLM-N has blamed the government for fighting in South Kordofan saying that Sudan’s army was seeking to disarm its fighters by force.
Last May, SAF sent a letter to SPLA saying that its forces in the two states must disarm by June 1st or deploy to what is now the new country of South Sudan.
But the SPLA responded by saying that the units are composed of northern soldiers, therefore withdrawing South is not an option.
The Blue Nile’s governor told the New York Times (NYT) at the time that SAF has moved “dangerously close” to the bases of SPLA fighters and that he did not think the southern-allied forces would surrender.
“It’s like putting a cat in a corner,” Agar said. “They will fight.”
PaanLuel Wël is the founder and editor-in-chief of PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd, a news website that covers news, opinions, analysis, history, culture and literature of South Sudan and the world. Founded in July 2011 by PaanLuel Wël to create a platform for free expression and constructive dialogue, the website features articles from various contributors, including columnists, commentators, poets, authors, activists and academics. PaanLuel Wël believes that media can play a vital role in informing, educating and empowering the people to participate in nation-building and social transformation. He also believes that media can foster a culture of dialogue, tolerance and diversity among different communities and groups, and hopes to inspire and mentor the next generation of South Sudanese writers and journalists.
