JUBA/KHARTOUM, March 21 (Reuters) - Sudan accused its old civil war foe
South Sudan of aiding rebels in an attack on an oil-producing border area on
Wednesday, about two weeks before the two presidents are expected to meet to
try to resolve rows over oil and other issues.
South Sudan's army and the northern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army
North (SPLA-N) denied the charge, saying it was calculated to raise pressure
on Juba before the talks.
South Sudan has been at loggerheads with Sudan since seceding in July under
a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war.
The two have yet to resolve sensitive issues such as demarcating the border,
dividing debt and deciding how much the landlocked new nation should pay to
export oil - the lifeblood of both economies - through Sudan.
The oil question took on new urgency when South Sudan shut down its fields
in January in protest after Khartoum started taking some crude to make up
for what it called unpaid fees.
South Sudan has invited Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to meet his
southern counterpart Salva Kiir in Juba on April 3 to try to resolve the
dispute, complicated by fighting between rebels and government forces in
border areas.
Rebels of the SPLA-N, a division of the southern army during the civil war,
have taken up arms in Sudan's South Kordofan state. South Sudan's national
army is still called the SPLA, but Juba denies supporting the insurgents.
Sudan's army and security forces "confronted an attack on Heglig town in
South Kordofan carried out by the rebel movements which took the territory
of South Sudan as a starting point," the Sudanese Media Center, a news
agency linked to the state security apparatus, quoted the intelligence chief
as saying.
"Half the force that executed the attack belonged to the SPLA of South
Sudan," the report said.
A spokesman for the SPLA-N, Arnu Lodi, said he had not heard of any attack
on Heglig. "I think this is part of a media campaign that lacks any basis in
truth," he said.
"The point of this kind of talk is to win the support of citizens in Sudan
in an attempt to pressure South Sudan's government during the negotiations."
Heglig is a major oil producing area under the control of Sudan, though
parts of the territory are disputed.
South Sudan's armed forces spokesman Philip Aguer also said the accusation
was false. "It is Sudan who has been moving forces, they are coming out of
their bases," he said.
"We have been expecting an attack on Jau for the last three days," he added.
"Maybe they attacked our forces and wanted to cover up. Tomorrow we will
know what is happening."
BASHIR VISIT
Bashir's expected visit to South Sudan's capital would be his first since
the African nation became independent.
The two leaders are expected to sign final agreements on two deals brokered
by the African Union that ensure the free movement of citizens in one
another's territory. Sudan had threatened to treat southerners as foreigners
from April.
South Sudan also hopes there will be progress with oil issues at the summit,
said Anne Itto, deputy secretary-general of the ruling Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM).
She said Juba was offering to pay Khartoum $2.6 billion plus transit fees
and a pipeline grant as compensation for allowing oil exports through Sudan.
"I believe he (Bashir) would be interested in coming because I think nobody
in the world wants to fight all the time," Itto told reporters in Juba.
"We are willing to do a number of things. I think this is a very great
opportunity. What I cannot say is whether Khartoum will be reasonable
enough," she said.
Juba will not sign an oil deal at any price and still rejects Sudan's
proposal of transit fees totalling $36 a barrel, she added. South Sudan has
offered to pay around $1 a barrel.
The African Union hopes the agreements on citizenship will pave the way for
an oil deal.
Sudan's cabinet has warned southerners living in the north that they will
have to get residency or work permits by April 8 or risk being treated as
foreigners.
More than 350,000 southerners have moved to South Sudan since October 2010
after decades living in the north, but some 700,000 southerners remain in
Sudan, the United Nations says.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Tim Pearce)
S.Sudan invites Bashir for April 3 summit with Kiir
Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:52pm GMT
By Ulf Laessing
JUBA, March 21 (Reuters) - South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has invited
Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir to meet in Juba on April 3 to try to
resolve a conflict over oil payments, a southern official said on Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from Khartoum. The visit would be Bashir's
first to South Sudan's capital since the African nation became independent
in July under a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war with
Khartoum.
The two have been locked in a row over how much the landlocked South should
pay to export oil through the north. Juba shut down its oil fields in
January in protest after Khartoum started taking some crude to make up for
what it said were unpaid fees.
Bashir and Kiir are expected to sign final agreements on two deals brokered
by the African Union that ensure the free movement of citizens in one
another's territory. Sudan had threatened to treat southerners as foreigners
from April.
South Sudan also hoped there would be progress with oil issues at the
summit, said Anne Itto, deputy secretary-general of the ruling Sudan
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
She said Juba was offering to pay Khartoum $2.6 billion plus transit fees
and a pipeline grant as compensation for allowing oil exports through Sudan.
"I believe he (Bashir) would be interested in coming because I think nobody
in the world wants to fight all the time," Itto told reporters in Juba.
"We are willing to do a number of things. I think this is a very great
opportunity. What I cannot say is whether Khartoum will be reasonable
enough," she said.
Juba would not sign an oil deal at any price and still rejects Sudan's
proposal of fees totaling to $36 a barrel, she added. South Sudan has
offered to pay around $1 a barrel.
The African Union hopes the agreements on citizenship will pave the way for
an oil deal, the most pressing issue because oil is the lifeline of both
countries' economies.
Sudan's cabinet has warned that southerners living in the north would have
to get residency or work permits by April 8 or risk being treated as
foreigners, highlighting their lingering legal uncertainty.
More than 350,000 southerners have moved to South Sudan since October 2010
after decades living in the north, but some 700,000 southerners remain, the
United Nations says.
Both countries also need to mark the joint border and find a solution for
the disputed border region of Abyei. North and south also regularly accuse
each other of supporting rebels on the other's territory. (Reporting by Ulf
Laessing; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
For Sudan's Blue Nile refugees, hunger is "like a weapon"
Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:26pm GMT
By Hereward Holland
DORO CAMP, South Sudan, March 21 (Reuters) - Two-year-old Islam Musa lay in
the corner of bed number six as her grandmother, Zena Bade, fed her milk
through a tube.
Stalked by hunger and aerial bombardment, the pair were among the tens of
thousands of people who have been driven from their home in Sudan's Blue
Nile state across the border into South Sudan's Doro refugee camp. For
months, Bade said, they had survived on nothing but leaves and tree roots.
"The government soldiers came and chased us away from our village and took
away our sorghum," she said, speaking in the white medical tent where her
granddaughter lay. "We hid in the bush."
Their plight encapsulates the human toll of a war that has convulsed Sudan's
border states since South Sudan became an independent country over the
summer, throwing a spotlight on a conflict that is complicating efforts to
resolve issues such as oil revenue sharing between Sudan and the South.
Sudan's division initially overshadowed the fighting, but warnings of
impending famine from the United States and activists such as Hollywood
actor George Clooney have refocused attention on the conflict.
Limited access to the border regions makes it hard to accurately assess the
war's impact. But the United Nations estimates that over 410,000 people have
fled their homes in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, another border state.
Aid workers and refugees in Doro camp, where some 45,000 people have fled,
say food stocks in Blue Nile are likely to run out in the next couple of
weeks.
"The area is a war zone now. The traders are not going there. There is not
anything coming from outside. What the people have there now is finishing,"
Doro camp supervisor Sila Musa said, standing in the baking sun. "They
depend on the roots of the trees and the fruits of the trees."
Musa, former commissioner of Kurmuk county in Blue Nile, estimated that up
to 100,000 people may be trapped in the state, unable to leave because they
cannot carry the food and water they would need for a journey that can take
as long as a month.
Like many of Khartoum's critics, he said the bombing campaign was
deliberately designed to cause hunger, scatter civilians and deprive the
guerrillas of a support network.
"It becomes just like a weapon because if people do not eat, they are going
to die. The same as if you are using a gun, you are going to kill the
person. There is no difference," he said.
Sudan regularly denies such charges, saying the armed forces are working to
protect civilians and that it is the rebels who have been responsible for
any humanitarian suffering.
Khartoum has also dismissed fears of a looming famine. Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali
Osman, its U.N. ambassador, has described the humanitarian situation in
South Kordofan and Blue Nile as "very normal."
Last week, the United Nations said it had made some progress in talks with
Sudan to deliver more aid to South Kordofan, but said it wanted more access.
ANGER SIMMERS IN CAMPS
Bombardment in Blue Nile and dire conditions in the refugee camps have
pushed many young men to consider joining the rebels.
"There is nothing left there," Nathanial Yahia, 26, said, squatting in the
dust to play Bau, a game using stones and a board hewn from the back earth.
"We young people, we are now very angry because (our) mothers and fathers
are not in a good situation."
He described his fields across the border, where he said Antonov aircraft
bombed day and night.
"Because of the Antonovs, everybody now wants to help the (rebels), so that
they can fight together, so that the people can go back home to Blue Nile
state. Living here is not free."
As with most of Sudan's conflicts, the roots of the wars in Blue Nile and
South Kordofan stretch back decades. Tens of thousands of fighters in both
states sided with the south during a civil war against Khartoum that started
in 1983.
A 2005 peace deal ended the fighting, clearing the way for Sudan's partition
in July, but it left the two states in the north.
The pact offered residents of the states "popular consultations" t o
determine how they would interact with Khartoum, but those talks were never
completed.
In June, the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N), made up of a
former division of the southern rebel army, began fighting government forces
in South Kordofan. Other SPLA-N troops loyal to Blue Nile governor Malik
Agar quickly took to the bush when fighting spread to that state in
September.
Khartoum and Juba have repeatedly accused one another of backing rebels on
either side of the border since then, hindering talks over unresolved issues
such as how much the landlocked South should pay to use oil infrastructure
in Sudan.
The talks became more urgent in January, when Juba shut down its output of
about 350,000 barrels per day after Khartoum began siphoning off some oil to
make up for what it called unpaid fees. Crude production is the lifeblood of
both economies.
South Sudan has since accused its northern neighbour of "stealing" over 6
million barrels of crude and of bombing an oil well close to their shared
border, which Sudan denies doing.
After months of rancour, the two presidents are set to meet next month to
try to break the deadlock.
CLOONEY TO THE RESCUE?
Analysts say any deal will hinge on the two sides agreeing to end what they
describe as proxy wars that have displaced tens of thousands of people like
Islam and her grandmother.
There appears to have been some recent progress at the talks, which have
repeatedly collapsed in acrimony, though Sudan watchers are cautious about
raising hopes of a deal.
"I don't think they would be going ahead with the summit if there wasn't
some forward momentum on the outstanding issues," said Aly Verjee, an
analyst at the Nairobi-based Rift Valley Institute think tank.
Actor George Clooney was arrested in front of Sudan's embassy in Washington
D.C. last week, as he sought to draw attention to the bombing campaign.
Some activists have praised the celebrity for publicising a conflict that
remains obscure for many Westerners. But others have criticised what they
view as his oversimplified depiction of the conflict as Sudan's ruling Arab
elite targeting black Africans.
There are also concerns that Clooney's activism, which is aimed at getting
the United States to pressure Khartoum into ending the "man-made tragedy,"
could damage talks at a critical stage by making it harder for Washington to
help broker a deal.
Whatever the impact of celebrity activism, international awareness has come
too late for Islam Musa in bed six.
Three days after the interview with her grandmother, she died, becoming
another statistic on the whiteboard of the Doro refugee camp. (Additional
reporting and editing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Wed Mar 21 2012 - 19:05:52 EDT
