Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:54:27 +0200
Sudan could be arming S. Sudan rebels, says report
<http://www.ap.org/> Associated Press
By JASON STRAZIUSO
19.10.2014
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Sudan's government plans to increase military
assistance to rebels in South Sudan, which could prolong the south's civil
war and return the region to a wider conflict, according to a leaked
document.
Sudan will provide tanks and artillery and share intelligence with rebels
fighting South Sudan's government, according to the minutes of a high-level
meeting of security and military officials in Khartoum, that a top American
expert on Sudan has concluded are real.
South Sudan - which broke away from Sudan in 2011 after a peaceful vote for
independence - has had an internal conflict since last December between
supporters of the government and former Vice President Riek Machar.
Thousands have been killed and some 1.7 million people displaced. Peace
talks are ongoing but fighting continues.
The leaked minutes say that Machar and two commanders requested advanced
weapons and training.
"Our reply was that we have no objection, provided that we agree on a common
objective," said 1st Lt. Gen. Hashim Abdalla Mohammed, Chief of Joint
General Staff in the minutes. Mohammed also talks about self-rule of South
Sudan's Upper Nile region, where a lot of the country's oil is located.
Rebel leader Machar has previously denied that Sudan was helping his side.
"Khartoum is one of the mediators," Machar said in an interview with The
Associated Press in August. "Khartoum is neutral."
A rebel spokesman, Brig. Lul Ruai Koang, on Friday also denied any links
with Khartoum. Rebel fighters get their weapons by capturing them from
government forces or soldiers who defect to the rebel side, said Koang.
However, outside analysts believe that the minutes of the meeting in
Khartoum are real and show that Sudan still has designs on the south's oil.
Eric Reeves, a Sudan expert at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts,
received the minutes - dated Sept. 1 from an Aug. 31 meeting - from a
contact in Sudan and published them on the Internet. The document has since
been making the rounds of Arabic readers and writers "and every single one
I've been in touch with believes it to be authentic," Reeves said.
Reeves said any military assistance to Machar's rebels by Sudan when
fighting resumes in December - after the end of the rainy season - "will be
exceedingly violent and will horribly exacerbate the humanitarian crisis."
Aid experts say South Sudan faces severe hunger and could fall into famine
next year.
There is "increasing evidence" of Sudan's backing for South Sudan's rebels,
including allowing the rebels safe haven in Sudanese territory, the Small
Arms Survey, a publication by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of
International and Development Studies, wrote this week. It notes that South
Sudan's government also believes Sudan is aiding the rebels, though Sudan's
government denies the allegation.
Africa Confidential, an in-depth magazine focusing on Africa, concluded the
documents are authentic after contacting current and former Sudan
politicians.
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