NCP bans SPLM/N, arrests many members and leaders and confiscates properties and documents all over Northern Sudan
Press Release National Congress bans SPLM/N, arrests many members and leaders and confiscates properties and documents all over Northern Sudan
In a significant development, the National Congress Party has banned the SPLM/North and arrested many of its members and leaders in addition to confiscating properties and documents across the Northern Sudan.
Over the last 24 hours, the following violations have been reported:-
1-Western Darfur State:
In Al Geneina, the capital of Western Darfur State, the security agencies yesterday conducted a predawn raid in a number of SPLM offices and residents of the SPLM members, resulting in the arrest of Madam Salwa Adam Bineiya, the Chairperson of the SPLM in Gadaref State. She was spending the Eid holiday with her relatives in Geneina. Madam Salwa is also a former SPLM candidate for the post of the governor of Gadaref. Five other members of the SPLM in Darfur have also been arrested. Several SPLM vehicles and documents have been confiscated after offices had been vandalized and shut down.
2-Al Gezira State:
SPLM offices in the entire counties and districts of the state have been shut down and members arrested, among them the secretary general of the SPLM in the state and a well-known activist in Wed Medani city, Ustaz Abdullah Abaker. It is to be recalled that the Governor of Al Gezira, Zubeir Bashir Taha attempted to close down the SPLM offices in many times in the last three months, even before the war could start in the two areas. Taha is well-known Islamic fundamentalist and anti-SPLM/N campaigner.
3-Northern Kordofan State:
SPLM offices in the state have been closed down. The SPLM Secretary General, the Secretary for Information and the Chairperson of Ghibesh District have been arrested by the security forces. Furniture and documents of the main office in Al Obaid town have been confiscated.
4-Khartoum State:
In the capital Khartoum, the security forces closed down the General Headquarters of the SPLM/N. The office of the Secretary General at Arkuwait has been vandalized, using a force consisting of four vehicles carrying heavily armed soldiers.
5-Nile State:
In this state SPLM offices have been shut down and vehicles and documents have been commandeered.
6-Sennar State:
Offices of the SPLM have been shut down and many members rounded up from their houses and detained. It is worth mentioning that Sennar is a neighboring state to Blue Nile.
7-Northern Darfur
All SPLM offices in Northern Darfur have been shut down, particularly offices in Al Fasher, the capital of the state. It is worth mentioning that all those who are arrested are civilians and have nothing to do with the on going war. They are citizens who are exercising their constitutional rights through peaceful means. We call upon human organizations and activists to bring pressure to bear on Al Bashir government to stop this witch-hunt against the SPLM/N membership. The general public in the Sudan, the region and the international community at large will be updated as we receive more information.
Conclusion:
The plan to eradicate the SPLM/N has been designed long time ago by the National Congress who fears the role of the SPLM/N as a democratic force in the transformation of the North. The leadership of the SPLM/N has been a target of a semi-Nazi campaign during the six year interim period. It is evidently clear to the National Congress that the SPLM/N is a formidable force, thus the delusional attempts to uproot it!
The National Congress, by depriving the SPLM/N of any political space, and by disowning the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement which was the only viable track, has deliberately chosen war as the only mechanism to eradicate the SPLM/N. The NCP will live to regret this choice as the SPLM is there to stay and to lead. Rather, it is the dictatorship of the NCP that will sooner or later be assigned to history’s dustbin.
Yasir Arman
SPLM/N Secretary General
September 4th,2011
Press Release
SPLM/N Position on the regional and international consultations to
stop the war in South Kordofan and Blue Nile StatesThe SPLM/N leadership has been consulted by a number of concerned regional and international bodies and countries on the unfolding human catastrophe precipitated by the National Congress and the need for a speedy end to the current conflict.
As part of the consultation, we received an invitation from the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, inviting the SPLM/N leadership to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for consultations.
The SPLM/N has similarly been consulted by the office of the Chairman of AUHIP, former President Thabo Mbeki and also by the US Special Envoy to Sudan Ambassador Princeton Lyman.
We have also conferred with the Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations Mr. Haile Menkarios. In the light of these consultations, the SPLM/N would like to underline the following principles and new realities:
1-Perment and just peace is a strategic goal for the SPLM/N.
2-The SPLM/N highly values and appreciates the concern of the regional and international community and will always be ready and available to consult with them.
3-The National Congress ignited this war and must fully bear responsibility for its consequences. Moreover, it is the National Congress that dishonored the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement in an utter contempt to the regional and international efforts!
4-We appeal and ask the regional and international community to seriously take in to account the fact the NCP is using food as a weapon in the current conflict, denying hundreds of thousands of civilians from humanitarian assistance and using some of them as human shields. This act is unacceptable and constitutes a war crime. There is a need to open safe corridors for delivering aid to the needy civil population. In this context, Sudan has precedence in the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) which saved millions of civilians during the war in South Sudan. The same model can be applied taking into consideration the realities of today.
5-Sudan Air Force is being used by the National Congress in targeting the civil population and civilian installations from Blue Nile to Darfur. Therefore, we urge and appeal to the international community, particularly the UN Security Council to apply a NO-FLY ZONE from Blue Nile to Darfur.
5-With the SPLM/N now having been banned; thousands of civilians killed, injured, displaced, or forced to flee as refugees in South Sudan and Ethiopia; and the Chairman of the SPLM/N and the only truly elected governor in Northern Sudan having been removed unconstitutionally and state of emergency declared and SPLM/N leaders being hunted and arrested all over Sudan and with SPLM/N properties and documents confiscated, offices closed down countrywide, the CPA has practically been dismantled.
The National Congress, by this unwarranted aggression, has created a full-fledged war, engulfing the New South in the North. Will it then be business as usual for the National Congress?
Yasir Arman
SPLM/N Secretary General
September 6th, 2011
Sudan says south-aligned group must end operations
(Adds Sudanese president and head of parliament comments paragraphs 7 and 15)
By Khalid Abdelaziz and Hereward Holland
KHARTOUM/JUBA, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Sudan demanded on Sunday that the southern-aligned Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) cease operations in the country, stoking tensions with the newly independent south after fighting flared in border areas.
The SPLM, the south’s dominant party, said this amounted to banning the group.
“There is no party that is called the SPLM in Sudan and it has no right to carry out political work because it is illegal,” Rabia Abdelati, adviser to the information ministry, told Reuters in Khartoum.
“Carrying out any activity is considered a crime punishable by the law.”
The SPLM’s northern wing, SPLM-N, fought with the south before a peace deal in 2005 that led to South Sudan’s independence in July. It has supporters in Sudan, particularly in areas along the border.
Khartoum blames the south and the SPLM for violence in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states as well as other areas along the boundary where fighting since Thursday has killed more than 20 and driven many from their homes. SPLM officials say Khartoum is to blame.
In a statement ran by the Sudanese news agency SUNA on Sunday, Sudanese President Omar el Bashir said that his government would “settle any security or military disturbances by the People’s Liberation Movement” yet added that his country remains “keen on having a state of peace and stability.”
Security officials told SPLM members the government was banning its political activities, according to a senior SPLM official in Khartoum late on Saturday. He said security forces had taken control of the SPLM’s main Khartoum office.
On Sunday, SPLM-N Secretary-General Yasir Arman said Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) “has banned the SPLM as a political party and arrested many civilian leaders of the SPLM.”
“They closed down my office as SPLM secretary general in Khartoum,” he said, adding that five members were arrested in Darfur — another region that has risen up against Khartoum — and that other senior officials were arrested in other regions.
“Their main objective is to destroy the SPLM in the North. They see us as a threat,” Arman said.
“The SPLM has no more political space left. It is under attack in South Kordofan and Blue Nile so the NCP is sending a message that the only option is war.”
Analysts say Sudan’s government in Khartoum is trying to strike against the rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile before they become a serious political and military threat. The fighting risks drawing South Sudan into a proxy war.
The Sudanese government declared a state of emergency in Blue Nile state on Friday, sacked the governor who was a member of the SPLM-N and appointed a military ruler in the area.
The Sudanese parliament is due to discuss the state of emergency in an urgent session on Sept. 12, Egypt’s MENA news agency said, quoting the head of Sudanese parliament Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir.
Peter de Clercq, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), said a UNHCR team estimated that more than 20,000 people had crossed into Ethiopia from Kurmuk, one area of Blue Nile state where fighting has flared.
“From al-Damazin (Blue Nile state capital) we understand that significant numbers of people are leaving, trying to head north to Khartoum,” he said, without giving numbers. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Writing by Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo,; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E7K40MF20110904?sp=true
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