Recent claims by Sudanese rebels accusing the government of violating a peace agreement have raised fears of a resumption of hostilities between the two sides and cast a cloud over ongoing peace talks.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army on Tuesday claimed government soldiers and militia forces had launched surprise attacks on the rebel-held town of Tam in the Western Upper Nile region and on Reang, east of Koch in southern Sudan. It said the attacks were repulsed by the SPLA.
SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje also accused Sudanese President Umar Hassan al Bashir of "beating war drums" via the Khartoum media. 
Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in November at the end of the latest round of peace talks underway in Kenya, the parties agreed on a cessation of hostilities throughout the country. The agreement was to last until the end of March 2003. Peace talks are due to resume in the Kenyan town of Machakos later this month.
"This is again a violation of the truce, which contradicts article 6.3(a) of the MOU," Kwaje said in a statement. "Similarly, for the last few days, Umar al Bashir has stepped up hostile press propaganda against the SPLM/A and its leadership." 
Bashir reportedly told a mass rally in the eastern Sudanese border town of Kassala at the weekend that he would use the "barrel of the gun" to bring peace to the war-torn country, if the ongoing negotiations failed. 
In response to Kwaje's statement, the Sudanese authorities said the SPLM/A's accusations themselves constituted a violation of the MOU, which expressly prohibits the use of media campaigns by both sides. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Thursday a communications committee had been set up in Machakos during the talks, through which such grievances could be channelled and discussed.
He said he could therefore not comment on the issues raised by the rebels as that would be tantamount to violating the MOU. "We had agreed not to continue media campaigns about each other. We have channelled our responses to all the allegations through the committee," Dirdeiry said. 
South Sudan has been the scene of fierce fighting between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A since 1983. An estimated two million people have been killed and four million displaced as a result of the war, which has been complicated by ethnic rivalries and issue of oil. 

Sudan's parliament on Monday approved the extension of a state of emergency for a fourth year, news agencies reported.
Despite being imposed for an initial period of three months, the state of emergency has been in effect continuously since its original imposition in December 1999, when Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir also sacked Islamist leader Hasan al-Turabi as speaker of parliament, Reuters said.
The state of emergency has been criticised by human rights groups, who claim it has been used to suppress opposition to the ruling National Congress party.
In a recent report, Gerhart Baum, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, said the state of emergency had allowed the establishment of Special Courts in Darfur, western Sudan, which were of "deep concern" and not in keeping with international standards.
The Sudanese government says the continuation is necessary as a result of security concerns, including those arising from the country's 19-year civil war. 
"The decision was taken in Monday's session after parliament ratified reports explaining security justifications which require extending the state of emergency," Reuters quoted the Sudan News Agency as saying.
Peace talks between the government and the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) are scheduled to resume in Kenya in January, with both sides agreeing to cease hostilities at least until the end of March 2003.

The Sudanese government and southern rebels have extended for the second time a ceasefire agreement in the Nuba Mountains region until mid-2003, according to news agencies.
"This is indeed a great moment for all the people of the Nuba Mountains... The Nuba people have for years been in the front line of the war and without adequate humanitarian support," Jan Erik Wilhelmsen, chairman of the international Joint Military Commission, the body charged with overseeing the ceasefire, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-Nuba (SPLM/A-Nuba) originally signed the renewable six-month ceasefire in the 80,000 sq km Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan State, on 19 January this year, following a proposal made by US peace envoy John Danforth.
Formal peace negotiations between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government designed to bring an end to the country's 19-year civil war are scheduled to resume in Kenya in early January. A broad framework for a peace deal - the Machakos Protocol - was agreed in July, but agreement has yet to be reached on key issues such as the sharing of power and wealth in a post-conflict Sudan. A general cessation of hostilities has also been agreed, and is scheduled to last until the end of March 2003.
The Nuba Mountains, however, is considered as a "transition area" between northern and southern and Sudan, and its status in any peace deal has yet to be decided upon. While the SPLM/A have claimed the region as part of the south, Khartoum says it has been part of the north for administrative purposes since independence in 1956, and should not take part in the southern self-determination process. 
Meanwhile, the US State Department said on 20 December that further progress had been made towards peace during meetings between the two sides held in Washington last week. A joint statement from SPLM/A and government representatives issued after the meetings said they had agreed, among other things, to "avoid provocative rhetoric unhelpful to the peace process".
"The two sides take this opportunity to reaffirm their strong commitment to achieving a just and comprehensive peace settlement as quickly as possible," the statement said.

The next phase of Sudanese talks, scheduled to begin in early January, must make substantial progress or risk collapsing under the pressure of hardline constituents and the domestic politics of the warring parties, an international think tank has warned. 
The latest phase of negotiations between the Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement /Army (SPLM/A) ended in the southern Kenyan town of Machakos on 18 November, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on power sharing. They also extended an earlier agreement on a countrywide ceasefire and agreed on unimpeded humanitarian access to affected populations.
However, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned there are still many obstacles surrounding the issues of power and wealth-sharing which hardline elements on both sides could take advantage of. 
"The peace process is nearing the decisive point, and when the parties return to the table next month, it will be time for historic decisions, compromises, and political courage," ICG said in a new report released on Thursday.
The report, entitled "Power and Wealth Sharing: Make or Break Time in Sudan's Peace Process" said the MOU was not indicative of how close the parties were to reaching a more comprehensive agreement on those issues. 
"This is not necessarily negative as both sides want to be certain of the implications of what they sign," the report said. 
However, it added that both parties must put forward realistic negotiating positions in order to sell agreements reached to their respective constituents. "The last days of the round [of talks] revealed hesitancy by both parties to tie themselves to a binding framework at this stage."
"By putting forward unrealistic negotiating positions, holding onto dogmatic rhetoric and making rigid demands, the parties provide openings for the more extreme elements in the other camp thereby hardening positions and making the eventual implementation of an agreement more difficult," the report said. 
ICG however praised efforts by the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for its recent successes in spearheading the Sudanese peace process. "The partnership between IGAD and the observer countries is solid and working.  The chief mediator, Gen.Lazarus Sumbeywo, is indispensable - an excellent negotiator with good instincts about the parties' intentions and requirements," the report stated 
The ICG's comments follow reports this week to the effect that Sudan's ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) had proposed the formation of a political alliance with the SPLM/A, the AllAfrica.com website reported on Thursday. 
But the SPLM/A said it had not received the Khartoum proposal. Spokesman George Garang told IRIN that Khartoum's earlier objections to the concept of a political partnership had forced negotiators to remove the proposal from the MOU. 
"It would be interesting to see this new proposal and study it," he said. "There had earlier been a proposal on power sharing during the talks but they [Khartoum] rejected it. To us, there is no difference between a partnership, which was earlier proposed, and an alliance." 
David Mozersky of the ICG expressed caution over Khartoum's latest proposal. "I wouldn't put too much weight on it," he told IRIN. "The statement is not necessarily indicative of anything." 
However, he conceded that a "partnership of sorts" would emerge after the signing of a final peace agreement. 

The Sudanese government has agreed in principle to a proposal by the African Union (AU) that the Khartoum government meet its Asmara counterpart, according to Sudanese radio. The radio said on 6 December that the AU had invited the two governments to meet and discuss ways of reducing bilateral tension, which has been high for the past two months following accusations by Sudan that Eritrea was backing rebel forces fighting the government of President Umar al-Bashir.
Eritrea has not yet responded to the AU's invitation, issued earlier this month, but has repeatedly denied backing anti-government rebels in Sudan's 19-year civil war. Several Arab journalists who visited eastern Sudan shortly after a rebel offensive in October reported no evidence of any Eritrean presence in the area. 
Sudan accused Eritrea of being behind that offensive, a charge which led the Arab League to adopt a resolution last month calling on Eritrea to desist from interfering in Sudan's internal affairs. Eritrea, which subsequently dismissed the resolution as "unnecessary", for its part accused Sudan of threatening war, and of backing Jihad, an Eritrean hardline anti-government group.
Subsequently, in an address to the AU's mechanism for the resolution of disputes, the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, Uthman al-Sayyid, repeated his government's accusation that Eritrea was backing rebels, and called on the AU to investigate alleged Eritrean aggression along Sudan's eastern border. He also requested the AU to send observers to the border to monitor the situation. 
Khartoum's tentative acceptance of the AU proposal comes in spite of the fact that last month Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il ruled out the possibility of Egyptian mediation between his country and Eritrea to cool the war of words between them.

Sudan's warring parties have accused each other of arming and supporting the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgent group which is waging war against the Ugandan government from hideouts inside Sudan.
On Monday, the Sudanese government said it had information that the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was supplying weapons to the LRA, Uganda's independent 'Monitor' newspaper reported. 
"SPLA is actually providing LRA with arms. This is not an allegation. We have evidence. We are compiling the information and a report will be out very soon," the paper quoted Sirajudin Hamid, the Sudanese ambassador to Uganda, as saying. 
However, the SPLM denied the accusations. "That is preposterous," spokesman George Garang told IRIN on Wednesday. "What people know is that it is Sudan which is arming, harbouring and supplying assistance to the LRA."
He reiterated earlier SPLM/A claims that the LRA had helped Sudanese forces to recapture Torit, a key southern garrison town, which fell to the rebels on 1 September.
The latest accusations follow the extension of a military protocol signed in March between Sudan and Uganda, which allows the Ugandan army to hunt down the LRA in southern Sudan. 
The Ugandan authorities have said they are looking into the allegations. 
"We have a mechanism in place. We will use official channels to handle these suspicions," Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday. 
He said the SPLM/A was trying to antagonise Kampala and Khartoum because it was unhappy with the latest extension of the military protocol.
"The latest protocol says we are not to harbour support for SPLM/A," Bantariza said. "I think the SPLM/A is trying to antagonise us along with Sudan, just to give the impression that we are having an alliance with the wrong people."

Uganda and Sudan this week agreed to extend by two months the military protocol authorising the Ugandan army to flush the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from its hideouts in southern Sudan. 
The Sudanese ambassador to Uganda, Siraj al-Din Hamid, told IRIN on Tuesday that his government had agreed to extend the protocol for a further 60 days to the end of January. 
He said the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) would be allowed access to Sudanese territory as far as "four degrees latitude north", thereby defining a region which is also subject to agreements on humanitarian access between the Khartoum government and the United Nations.
Any military operation north of this area could only be mounted in close coordination with the Sudanese army, Hamid said. "If there need be [such an operation], it will require very close coordination between the Sudanese and the Ugandan governments." 
The military protocol was first signed between the two governments in March. 
Hamid said the latest extension had brought in a number of aspects providing for broader coordination between the two governments, establishing observation points, and enhancing the monitoring system by military experts from both countries to ensure ample access to the border areas. 
"I think this time it will succeed, because it may involve the Sudanese army," he said. "There will be a lot of coordination between the two sides." 
Meanwhile, the Ugandan army has offered a reward of US $11,000 for information leading to the capture or killing of LRA leader Joseph Kony. 
According to the government-owned 'New Vision', the army however noted it would still respect any rebel surrender under a presidential amnesty declared in 2000. 

A plan by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to introduce a new currency in the territories it controls will hurt the country's peace process, a senior Sudanese diplomat has said. 
The SPLM/A recently announced that it was planning to introduce its own currency for southern Sudan in December. 
The currency, known as the "New Sudan Pound", is part of a plan to introduce a suitable secular financial system for the non-Muslim southern part of the country, as opposed to the Islamic Sharia system being utilised in the north, SPLM/A spokesman George Garang told IRIN. 
"We need a financial system that is not Sharia based," he added.
Sirajudin Hamid, the Sudanese ambassador to Uganda, however described the SPLM/A decision to introduce the new currency as a "naive move which has no bearing on reality".
He told IRIN that it was technically impossible for the rebel group to introduce a currency into a territory that was not internationally recognised as a state. "You can't have a currency if you don't have a central bank or even a state recognised by the international community," Hamid said.
Hamid said the move was a tactic used by the SPLM/A to exert pressure for more concessions from the Khartoum government at ongoing peace talks in Machakos, Kenya. 
"This is not a wise move. It is not helpful to the peace process. It is not going to work," he said. 
However, according to Garang, the new currency is in line with the Machakos Protocol, an agreement reached in Kenya in July which recognised three entities in Sudan - the south, the north and the central regions. 
Garang insisted that the new currency did not affect the peace process in any way. "This is not an issue of international recognition," he said. "Having two currencies has worked in many countries. We can have two currencies and still remain within Sudan." 

Sudanese warring parties are expected to visit the United States in mid-December at the invitation of President George W. Bush's government, according to official sources. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN that a number of representatives of both the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, had been invited to attend a "brief" meeting in the US, and both sides had accepted. 
They would brief US government officials on the progress of the latest round of peace talks held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which this month wound up in Machakos, Kenya, according to Dirdeiry. 
During the talks, which ended on 18 November, the parties agreed on a broad set of principles, which included the extension of a countrywide ceasefire and humanitarian access to vulnerable populations in disputed regions of southern Sudan. The parties however failed to reach a deal on key wealth- and power-sharing proposals. The talks are expected to resume in January, but a date has yet to be set.
Observers view the US invitation as part of its role as a key player in the Sudanese peace process, and in which Washington is expected to push the parties towards a comprehensive ceasefire. However, State Department officials declined to give details regarding those who would  represent the Sudanese parties or the Bush administration during the meeting, but said US diplomats would take part along with American technical experts on the issue of the Machakos talks, Voice of America reported. 
Dirdeiry however said no negotiations would take place during the trip. "This is not about negotiations. We are right on track in the talks. There is no need of opening another forum. IGAD is the best forum. The two days can't solve the remaining difficult issues in the talks," he said. "But we feel this will give us the opportunity to explain to the United States that we are engaged in peace-making in Sudan," he said. 
The US officially joined the Sudanese peace process in 2001 when it appointed Senator John Danforth as its special envoy to Sudan. Danforth negotiated a successful truce and humanitarian access in the Nuba Mountains region, which had suffered severe humanitarian crises as a result of the war. 

Women must play a pivotal role in bringing an end to wars that have ravaged the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia's minister for women said on Monday.
Gifty Abasiya, Minister of State in Charge of Women's Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, pointed out that the victims of war were women and children. She was speaking at a conference sponsored by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN).
"It is well-known that our sub-region has, in the last decade, faced all sorts of man-made natural calamities," she told delegates at the UN's Conference Centre in Addis Ababa.
"Coupled with the overall political insecurity - chaos, disorder and conflicts ravaging the sub-region have victimised the women of our region," she said. "It will not be an exaggeration if I say that conflicts in our region have had the most negative effects on our development."
According to research by IGAD, some 80 percent of refugees and internally displaced people due to conflict are women and children.
"Although the involvement of women is considered to be vital for ensuring sustainable peace, women have so far been marginalised and do not participate fully in decision making of conflict prevention and resolution as well as peace initiatives," she stated.
Bakoko Bakoru Zoe, Uganda's Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, said women have always had to carry the burden of war.
"Women suffer from the disease and poverty that war also brings and yet we are not allowed to be involved in the process of conflict resolution," she said. "All the ministry of defence officials and ministry of foreign affairs are men. These are the people who started the war, yet we are excluded."

The Sudanese government has agreed to allow Ugandan soldiers to continue an offensive against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels inside Sudan, just a few days after ordering them to leave.
Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza told IRIN on Monday that Khartoum had agreed to allow the UPDF to continue to operate in southern Sudan for as long as it took to wipe out LRA bases there.
"There is a policy and principle of allowing UPDF on Sudanese soil that will continue for as long as it takes to do the job," he said.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said last week the agreement had not been renewed because Uganda had not given a time limit for the operation or specified where it would be operating, local media reported.
"The Sudanese government took the decision (not to renew the protocol) due to the failure of the Ugandan government to answer some questions concerning the limit of time needed for Uganda troops to remain within Sudanese territory," the Ugandan government-owned 'New Vision' quoted Isma'il as saying at the time.
The reports triggered diplomatic activity between the African neighbours and a visit to Kampala by Sudanese envoy Mubarak al-Fadl al-Mahdi. 
However, Bantariza told IRIN that Ugandan government representatives, including Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi, had been told at a meeting with Sudanese envoy in Kampala that the operation would be allowed to continue. A discussion between the two countries over the future of the agreement had been "misconstrued by the media", he added.
"We were told by the Sudanese that they had not even changed their minds," he said.
The Ugandan army in March launched 'Operation Iron Fist' in an attempt to destroy LRA rear bases inside south Sudan. However, the operation has widely been viewed as having forced many LRA elements back into northern Uganda, where they have escalated attacks against civilian targets. 
The bilateral protocol which allowed Ugandan soldiers to operate in southern Sudan was originally intended to last for just one month, but has been extended several times, with the most recent extension expiring on 14 September.
According to Muhammad Ahmed Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, the original memorandum of understanding which, among other issues, outlined the permitted areas of operation for the UPDF in southern Sudan, would still be in effect. He added that a time limit for the operation had been agreed on, but that he was unable to say when that limit would be reached.

The Sudanese government has withdrawn its permission for a Ugandan army offensive against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in south Sudan.
The charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, Muhammad Ahmed Dirdeiry, confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday that the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) would not be allowed to continue its 'Operation Iron Fist' against LRA targets on Sudanese territory. "They have been given enough time to do this job," he said.
The Ugandan army in March launched the offensive in an attempt to destroy LRA rear bases inside south Sudan. However, the operation has widely been viewed as having forced many LRA elements back into northern Uganda, where they have escalated attacks against civilian targets. 
"The LRA are right now operating in northern Uganda. We haven't heard of them operating much in south Sudan for two months," Dirdeiry said.
The bilateral protocol which allowed Ugandan soldiers to operate in south Sudan was originally intended to last for just one month, but has been extended several times. The most recent extension expired on 14 September, and the two governments have been in consultations over the arrangement since.
"Following the capture of [LRA leader Joseph] Kony camps [in south Sudan] the Sudanese were making the point that we needed to re-define our area of operation. They were saying it was not necessary for us to be deep inside their territory," Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi was quoted as saying by the government-owned 'New Vision' newspaper. 
Mbabazi added that he had not yet received official communication form Khartoum on the issue.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries came under scrutiny last week after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni threatened to sever diplomatic ties with Khartoum over allegations that certain elements within the Sudanese government had resumed support for the LRA. 
Sudan has denied supporting the LRA either directly or indirectly.
The start of Operation Iron Fist marked a thaw in relations between the two neighbours, and in April they agreed to re-establish full diplomatic ties. Relations had been severed in 1995, with Uganda accusing Sudan of providing support to the LRA, and Khartoum accusing the Ugandan government of backing the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army.
According to Dirdeiry, diplomatic relation between Uganda and Sudan were still "okay" despite Khartoum's decision to withdraw permission for the anti-LRA offensive. 
The LRA, a group whose beliefs are rooted in Christian fundamentalist doctrines and traditional religions, has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government since 1987, with the aim of establishing its own rule based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. 
The group has typically attacked villages in the north, forcing over 500,000 people to live in very poor conditions in camps for the internally displaced. 

The chance that a lasting peace agreement between the Sudanese government and southern rebels could be struck in early 2003 means humanitarian actors should be prepared in case an "enormous humanitarian undertaking" is needed, the United Nations said on Tuesday as it launched its US $255 million appeal for Sudan.
While a peace deal would not immediately end Sudan's chronic "humanitarian disaster", it would make "new opportunities to support the people of Sudan and create the welcome challenge of moving from humanitarian relief to rehabilitation and rebuilding," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for 2003. 
Peace talks being held in Kenya under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have raised hopes among aid agencies that Sudan's 19-year civil war could soon come to an end. The Sudanese government and the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Monday agreed to extend a cessation of hostilities agreement until the end of March 2003, and also signed an accord outlining the broad principles on which a post-conflict government would be based.
Following a possible peace agreement and associated ceasefire arrangements, a transitional assistance programme would be required to support: agricultural recovery and food security; community peace-building; and large-scale support to key social services such as education and health, OCHA said. The Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) detailed in the appeal document provides a framework for undertaking key interventions, and outlines the most important elements of a first-phase transitional strategy. 
The 2003 appeal comprises 64 projects totalling US $255 million form nine UN agencies, the International Organisation for Migration and nine nongovernmental organisations.
The projects are designed to meet four key objectives in 2003: saving lives and reducing human suffering; provision of essential basic social services; building capacity and resilience; and strengthening protection and grassroots peace-building mechanisms.
Some US $274 million had been requested for this year under the 2002 Consolidated Appeal (and revisions), which was 45 percent funded as of mid-November. "Insignificant funding" had been cited by all agencies as the most significant operational constraint, OCHA said. 
Funding of food aid had fallen significantly in 2002, and there were currently insufficient stocks to sustain operations beyond a four-month period to meet minimum daily requirements of the most critically affected populations and to provide a buffer for early 2003, the report warned.
In addition, the water and sanitation and health sectors, which were normally assigned high priority for donors, remained "dangerously under-funded" at 33 percent and 14 percent respectively, OCHA said.
The 2003 appeal is targeted at interventions in 12 sectors, including: food (US $126 million); agriculture (US $19 million); education (US $9 million); health (US $24 million); mine action (US $7 million); and multi-sectoral programmes (US $32 million). 
"Helping the people of Sudan to rebuild will therefore be an enormous challenge and responsibility for the international community, which must give its full support to this process," OCHA said.

The Sudanese government and southern rebels agreed on Monday to extend a cessation of hostilities agreement until next March, but failed to reach full accord on the sharing of power and wealth.
A statement from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional body overseeing peace talks, said both sides had agreed to extend the "Memorandum of Understanding on the Cessation of Hostilities" until 31 March 2003, and to continue scheduled meetings designed to ensure implementation of that MOU.
Both the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) originally agreed in October to cease hostilities for the duration of talks, which were at that time scheduled to last until the end of the year. 
Mediators had hoped to strike a comprehensive power-sharing deal before talks adjourned on Monday. However, the parties will now return to the negotiating table in January to work out the structure of a government of national unity, and also to discuss the thorny issue of wealth-sharing, including the distribution of Sudan's growing oil revenues.
Although government and rebel negotiators failed to reach specific agreement, they did sign a deal which sketched the broad outlines of a post-conflict government, and provided a basis for future talks.
According to the IGAD statement, both parties had in principle agreed to: a bicameral national legislature with equitable representation of the people of south Sudan; ensure that civil service and cabinet posts be representative of the people of Sudan; and to hold free and fair elections during a six-year interim period. 
The current talks are building on the Machakos Protocol - an interim accord signed in Kenya in July. Under that agreement, the people of south Sudan are allowed a vote on whether to secede from the north after a six-year interim period, during which time both north and south will be under the control of a national unity government. 

Relations between Sudan and Uganda have come sharply into focus following recent claims that the Sudanese government has resumed support for the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group active in northern Uganda. 
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last week threatened to sever diplomatic ties with Khartoum over allegations that certain elements within the Sudanese government had resumed support for the LRA. Since June this year the rebel group has stepped up attacks in northern Uganda, creating a severe humanitarian crisis in the region. 
Sudan and Uganda first broke off diplomatic relations in 1995 at the height of mutual suspicion, with each accusing the other of arming and supporting the other's rebels. Full diplomatic ties were only restored this year. 
On Monday, a local government official in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu told IRIN the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) had established that LRA leader Joseph Kony was trying to seek support from among some commanders in the Sudanese army. He claimed they had been using Kony to fight the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the rebel movement which occupies territories in southern Sudan. 
"It seems Khartoum doesn't know what the commanders are doing. They {Sudanese commanders] have been using the LRA as mercenaries to fight for them while they relax in the barracks. Kony was a blessing for them," he said. 
Khartoum has however denied supporting the LRA either directly or indirectly.
Sirajudin Hamid, the Sudanese ambassador in Kampala, told IRIN on Monday that such claims were "unsubstantiated sheer nonsense". He said they were engineered by elements either inside Uganda or in the region who benefited from the conflicts in Sudan and Uganda to undermine the improving relations between the two countries. 
"These are lies. The government undertook a thorough investigation and there was nothing on the ground to supplement such reports," he said. 
"The army in Sudan is very disciplined, it has its regulations and contraventions.  It is a serious offence to go around alone without informing superiors especially on matters related to state security," he said. By opening its borders to the Ugandan military, Hamid said, Sudan had become a target of the LRA. 
He added that Sudanese President Umar Hassan al-Bashir would send a high-level delegation to Uganda, led by Mubarak al-Mahdi, the leader of Sudan's largest opposition party UMMA which recently joined the government. 
"We are hoping that this delegation will reassure President Museveni," he said. 

The international community should make every effort to ensure the Sudanese government and southern rebels agree to permanent, unhindered humanitarian access to Sudan's war-affected populations, a leading think-tank said in a new report.
"Warring parties and international aid providers in Sudan have an historic opportunity to bring to an end what is perhaps the most extreme and long-running example in the world of using access to humanitarian aid as an instrument of war," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Friday. 
Manipulation of humanitarian assistance has been an "integral part" of the strategies of both warring parties throughout Sudan's 19-year civil war, ICG said in its report: 'Ending Starvation As a Weapon of War in Sudan'. 
The Sudanese government in particular, according to ICG, has been responsible for hindering humanitarian efforts by denying flight access to conflict-affected people in south Sudan, and has "burdened the relief process with new layers of bureaucracy". 
Representatives of Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on 15 October signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) providing for a cessation of hostilities and unimpeded humanitarian access through to the end of 2002, prior to the resumption of peace negotiations in Kenya. 
Chief mediator in the talks, Kenyan General Lazarus Sumbeiywo, has said he expects to achieve an extension of the MOU - both a cessation of hostilities and the removal of humanitarian access restriction - for a further three months until the end of March 2003. 
However, both parties had broken agreements on humanitarian access in the past, meaning there was "every reason to be sceptical" that the current agreement would produce a lasting improvement in access, ICG said. 
It was, therefore, vital for the international community to maintain pressure on both the government and the SPLM/A to provide unimpeded access on a permanent basis. "Failure would mean more deaths, and putting Sudan's fragile peace process at risk," ICG warned.
Peace talks being held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) were scheduled to adjourn at the weekend until January. However, the negotiations were still continuing on Monday in an attempt to strike a deal on the key issues of power-sharing and wealth-sharing, Kenyan media reported on Monday. 

After suffering decades of civil war, recurrent drought and widespread inter-ethnic conflict, Sudan now hosts the largest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world - some 4 million people. 
The main cause of this unparalleled level of displacement has been, and continues to be, the civil war which has been fought since 1983 between the Khartoum government and southern rebels, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
Not only are civilians caught in the crossfire between warring parties, but in more recent years "the military strategies embraced by both the government and the SPLA have often placed civilians directly in the firing line," the think-tank, International Crisis Group (ICG), said in a recent report.
Government forces and their allied militias have frequently attacked civilian targets as part of an effort to weaken support for the SPLA, while the SPLA relies on guerrilla tactics against the government, according to ICG.
In addition, bombing raids by government aircraft, such as the one in February on a relief distribution site at the village of Bieh, western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), widely condemned by aid agencies, governments and the UN, have wreaked havoc in some parts of southern Sudan, and forced civilians to flee into the bush seeking cover from aerial bombardment.
The combined effect of militia attacks, bombing raids and mass evictions, often exacerbated during periods of drought, is to create a state of chronic insecurity and poverty, particularly among rural communities in the south. Over the years, this has led to a chronic population drain from the south towards the transition zone between north and south, and further north to the capital, Khartoum.

Displacement in the north
Khartoum and its surrounding area hosts an estimated 1.8 million IDPs, making up some 40 percent of its population, according to the Global IDP Database [see: <a href="http://www.idpproject.org" target="blank">www.idpproject.org</a>]. The IDPs in Khartoum include large numbers of southerners who have fled conflict and drought in southern and south-central Sudan since the latest phase of civil war began in 1983, with others displaced by drought in the west.
Only a minority - some 220,000 people - of Khartoum State's IDPs are housed in four official camps, located on the barren outskirts of the city where it merges with the Sahara Desert. Most of the remainder - over 1.5 million people - live in 15 unofficial 'squatter areas' in the eastern part of the city, according to the US Committee on Refugees (USCR).
While residents of the official IDP settlements are considered to be comparatively well provided for, and have access to supplementary food supplies, water, and essential medicines, there is generally much less social provision in the squatter areas. 
Several reports have described a "bleak humanitarian situation" for the latter category of IDPs, including regular outbreaks of disease, chronic food insecurity, and limited access to safe drinking water.

The Guiding Principles and Shari'ah
Despite the massive numbers of long-term IDPs living in close proximity to the seat of power, there is not yet an official government policy dealing explicitly with the treatment of IDPs, humanitarian sources told IRIN.
In addition, the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement have not been officially endorsed by the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). Despite being based on the Geneva Conventions, the Guiding Principles are not binding, and it is up to individual governments to choose whether or not to apply them.
Indeed, the Guiding Principles would not be ratified by the Sudanese administration until they had been endorsed by the UN Security Council, Hasabo Muhammad Abud al-Rahman, a HAC official, told IRIN recently.
According to Hasabo, however, at least half of the Guiding Principles were already covered under Shari'ah (Islamic law). 
With this in mind, research is under way to find ways of integrating fully as much of the Guiding Principles as possible into Shari'ah, humanitarian sources told IRIN recently. Despite significant overlap of the Guiding Principles with some parts of the national law, integration of the concept of rights as laid out in the UN document into Sudanese law could be a stumbling block, according to legal experts. 
Despite the problems, initial efforts have been made to promote the main aspects of the Guiding Principles in both the north and the south of Sudan, including separate seminars with government officials and SPLM/A representatives. It is also hoped that officials of Sudanese indigenous NGOs will play a key role in educating IDPs on the Guiding Principles, and the protection they aim to offer.

Southern cycles of displacement
Between 1.5 million and 2 million people are believed to be internally displaced in the south, including about 300,000 in government-held towns, and an estimated 80 percent of southern Sudan's five million people have been displaced at least once during the latest phase of war, according to USCR. Many displaced families in the south have fled from place to place during the war, living outside camps in destitute conditions, often indistinguishable from the local poor. 

Forced displacement in oil region
In recent months, attention in the south has been focused on the oil-rich region of western Upper Nile, where an escalation of fighting in 2002 has heightened fears that the already grave levels of displacement could worsen.
Religious and human rights groups have accused government forces of provoking mass displacements of civilians in order to secure areas for oil exploration. Khartoum, however, has consistently denied targeting civilian populations in oil areas, saying it is attempting to make the areas safe for oil operations, and has accused the SPLM/A of escalating military operations and causing the deterioration of humanitarian conditions.
Although reliable estimates of the numbers and condition of displaced people in western Upper Nile have been difficult to arrive at because of fighting, and government of Sudan humanitarian access denials to a number of locations on the area, anecdotal evidence from the field paints a worrying picture. 
In an April report on the health situation in western Upper Nile, the international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) quoted the testimony of Nyageai, a southern Sudanese woman in her early thirties. She had been forced to leave her village in July 2000 as a result of fighting between rival rebel groups. 
Once the fighting had subsided, she returned, with fellow villagers, to find that their tukuls (huts) had been burned to the ground, and their cattle - their main source of wealth - stolen. They spent two days and nights walking through the bush to the government-controlled town of Bentiu, but had to move on again after six months. 
MSF quoted Nyageai as saying as she sat in a small shelter in a cattle camp north of Nimne, 20 km east of Bentiu: "We have no hope when we are sitting in this place. We have no hope where help will come from. We have no hope." 

Peace deal signed
Despite the Nyageai's pessimism, there may be some hope for Sudan's IDPs. In July, the government and SPLM/A signed a framework deal, which outlined the broad principles of a future peace settlement, and raised the prospect of mass IDP returns. 
Further moves towards peace were made in October, when both sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities for the duration of talks, and the loosening of restrictions on humanitarian access, at least until the end of 2002. 
Agreement has yet to be reached, however, on the modalities of any programme of resettlement, and on arrangements for a permanent ceasefire - a key requirement if large numbers of IDPs are to be able to return to their homes safely.

Local agreement shows the way
A local ceasefire agreed in the Nuba Mountains region of south-central Sudan, a "transition area" straddling the traditional lines of conflict between north and south, could point the way forward. 
Intense conflict between government and rebel forces over the course of the war had forced some 170,000 people into the perceived sanctuary of government-controlled "peace villages", with thousands more displaced living in SPLM/A-held territory, predominantly in the rocky, mountainous parts of the region, where access to farmland is scarce and food security poor. 
However, a confidence-building initiative by US Special Envoy to Sudan John Danforth resulted in a ceasefire agreement coming into effect in the region in January this year. 
The agreement, extended for a second six-month period in July, is being overseen by a Joint Military Commission, part of whose mandate is to build confidence in the ceasefire with a view to allowing the free movement of the Nuba people throughout the region.
Perhaps the Nuba peace deal will point the way to a lasting peace in Sudan, thereby ending the cycles of displacement, and a return for many of the millions of displaced civilians forced to live in chronic insecurity with little or no prospect of a return home. 
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

The Eritrean foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a resolution adopted by the Arab League warning Eritrea against interfering in Sudan's internal affairs was "unnecessary", and did not reflect Eritrea's positive contributions towards the Sudanese peace process, according to Eritrean state radio.
On Sunday, the Arab foreign ministers called on Eritrea not to interfere in the internal affairs of Sudan and expressed concern over US policy towards Khartoum. In the resolution, the council of the Arab League asked Eritrea to "respect the sovereignty and security of Sudanese territory and regional security". All the ministers of the 22 member-states signed the resolution.
Relations between Eritrea and Sudan deteriorated swiftly after the Sudanese government accused Eritrea of being behind a major offensive in Kassala State in northeastern Sudan in early October, in the course of which rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army took several key towns and a number of government garrisons.
The Eritrean government has repeatedly denied backing rebels in Sudan embroiled in the 19-year civil war, and several Arab journalists who visited Kassala shortly after the rebel offensive reported no evidence of an Eritrean presence in the region. Last week, the Sudanese government said Eritrean troops were no longer present there.
On Monday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il ruled out the possibility of Egyptian mediation between his country and Eritrea to calm down the war of words. The Egyptian government had extended the offer in anticipation of a visit by Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki, who arrived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Tuesday for three-days of high-evel talks with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak.

Talks between Afewerki and Mubarak will focus on conflicts in the region, especially those in Sudan and Somalia.

Three years ago, Arab raiders kidnapped Akwal from her home in southern Sudan along with her four children. During her captivity, she lived through frequent beatings and ill-treatment. "Sometimes we had no food for two days," she recalls
The first time she tried to escape, Bak received severe beatings which tore her upper lip. In spite of this, she did eventually manage to escape with two of her children and find her way home. "If they had caught me the second time, they would have killed me," she said. 
Elsewhere, Elizabeth Henry, 19, considers herself to be lucky to be alive. She is among over 36,000 people who were expelled from their homes in the western Upper Nile region (Wahdah State) of southern Sudan, where oil concessions operated by consortiums of Sudanese government and foreign oil companies are sited. 
Western Upper Nile has been the scene of fierce fighting between government troops and those of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The government has been accused of deliberately depopulating the area in order to make way for oil exploration and extraction. 
"There was bombing all the time, and those who survived were shot by government soldiers coming on foot," Henry, who now lives in neighbouring Bahr al-Ghazal narrates. "Even my husband was killed. I have been going on foot for three months carrying my two-year-old daughter," she adds. 
The stories of Bak and Henry are captured by Mary Anne Fitzgerald in her new book "Throwing the stick forward: the impact of war on southern Sudanese women".
The book, published on 25 October by Operation Lifeline Sudan - the United Nations body under the umbrella of which UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs out relief work in disputed regions of southern Sudan - chronicles the extent of hardships southern Sudanese women face as a result of the 19-year civil war. 
The book, sponsored by the UN Children's Fund and the UN Women's Development Fund with some funding from the Royal Dutch government, contains detailed accounts of the abductions, rape, displacements and fear women affected by the civil are regularly exposed to. It documents Sudanese women's daily fight for survival in a harsh environment.
Southern Sudanese women, the author notes, have one of the poorest quality of life indices in the world - one doctor for every 222,000 people, a 90-percent illiteracy level and one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally. This means that women are more often weakened by anaemia, inability to do sums, as well as loss of self-esteem resulting from cultural bias against their participation in community activities. 
The author also laments the scanty involvement of women in the ongoing Sudanese peace process, even though the war has left them with many tasks usually reserved for men, most whom are involved in the fighting. 
And yet if peace comes and development follows, the women of southern Sudan would be expected to overcome their acute trauma and contribute in new ways to the future of heir communities, she adds. "All but a handful of those sitting around the table discussing the future of Sudan are men. Yet women in many of the cultures in southern Sudan have a traditional role as peacemakers, and it is the women who have suffered some of the worst forms of abuse during the course of this terrible war," Fitzgerald notes. 
The book seeks to find a way forward, within the context of the culture and circumstances shaping southern women's perspectives, and to establish a platform from which their voices can be heard, according to the author. Women have been and could again be a positive force for improvement, but they face many obstacles, according to Fitzgerald. 
The impact of war on southern Sudanese women has not only eroded women's status but is also undermining their participation in critical decision-making. Despite avowals made on paper, the participation of women in the decision-making structures of the SPLM/A, which controls large swathes of southern Sudan, is minimal, according to the book. "Women's associations only work with the county commissioner, who has no mandate to promote women's issues," it notes. 
In both the Muslim-dominated north and the more Christian and animist south, women outnumber men in various disciplines, mainly because men have to go and fight. In the north, for example, women have ample representation in politics, the judiciary, in universities and in diplomacy,  according to Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the Sudanese charge d'affaires in Kenya.
There was also one woman member of the Sudanese government delegation currently in Kenya negotiating peace with the SPLM/A, Dirdeiry  added. "Islam is understood as a religion which discriminates against women. This is because of extremist groups like the Taliban. But in Sudan, women are not discriminated against. In some ministries, women even outnumber men," he said. 
However, according to Fitzgerald, extraordinary demands on women in the south resulting from the war are affecting girls' education more disproportionately that boys'. "There is no doubt that the war has penalised women when it comes to the division of labour. Military conscription has twisted cultural practice to free men from traditional obligations and chained women to a greater number of household and food-security chores," the book notes. 
This new situation appears to have translated itself into a cultural norm to the extent that even where men are present, they do not make themselves available to support the women. Women's work is made even more tedious by the scarcity of boreholes from which they can fetch water, and of grain-grinding mills. "The women do three-quarters of the work. We are oppressed," a woman from  Upper Nile told the author.
"If you have only sons, then you do all the work. If any of the tasks is not performed, the man will fight you. Men are meant to cut wood and smear mud on the walls. Now they leave the work and tell us to do it. Women are now even fishing. We are now making fishing nets. That used to be the work of men. Men go to the forest, thatch the roof. Their other job is to meet with ladies and produce children. The rest is done by the women," she adds. 
The book cites enormous disparity in school enrolment between males and females. An 11-year-old girl quoted in the book noted that she was lucky to be one of two girls in a class with 106 boys. Her sisters were not in school because her father forbade them to go.
As refugees, southern Sudanese women, particularly from the pastoralist Dinka community, have to fight against sexual violence and the constant threat of abduction by family members seeking to marry them off in exchange for cattle. "We flee the Sudan and our problems follow," a woman living in the Kakuma refugee camp, in northern Kenya , whose name is given as Mary Nyadier, said an interview. 
Among others things, the book urges authorities in both northern and southern Sudan to break this culture of impunity by strengthening their administrative and legal systems to ensure that those who commit such crimes against women and girls get punished. 
Samson Kwaje, the SPLM/A spokesman in Nairobi, Kenya, however, defends the movement against accusations that it has no women delegates participating in the ongoing peace process in Kenya. "Women have been very active in all aspects of the struggle. We are also empowering them. There are many NGOs run by women. We also have women delegates in the talks," he told IRIN. 
According to Kwaje, SPLM/A has at least five women delegates listed as delegates to the ongoing peace talks, sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). However, the movement did not have funds to enable the women to travel to Kenya for the current round of talks.
But Fitzgerald also notes that the lives of southern Sudanese women are not all about woes and tribulations. In many crisis-prone areas, women have shown determination to be part of the decision-making process leading to peace. They are spearheading local peace initiatives. "Despite their precarious situation, these women demonstrate clarity of purpose and vibrant, logical thinking when articulating their aspirations," the author notes. 
This attitude is summed by Elizabeth Otieno of the New Sudan Conference of Churches. "Women are fed up with the war. They don't even know why it's going on. They are always asking the men to stop it. The women are coming out and talking. They have even stood up and said they won't bear any more sons if they are going to be sent to the front lines," she said.
In some relatively stable regions in southern Sudan, women are coming together with the help of local and international NGOs to participate in income-generating projects such as tailoring, soap-making, baking and catering. 
Moreover, some refugee women in Kenya have formed support groups in which they can learn income-generating skills, although they lack formal education and face difficulties accessing credit facilities. "We came together so we would not fight in a strange land as our husbands are fighting. It doesn't matter who our husbands are. We share the same problems. When working together, the strangest love affairs develop. We do not speak evil of our men," notes Pauline Riak, who heads the Sudanese Women's Association, based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. 

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

A dramatic increase in the potentially fatal liver disease, kala azar, is threatening southern communites already weakened by the country's 19-year civil war, the international organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned. 
"The state of these patients is appalling. They are being carried on stretchers for days to make it to the clinic. They look pale and thin and are extremely anaemic," Jose Antonio Bastos, MSF Operational Director, said in a statement on Friday.
Kala azar, or visceral leishmaniasis, is a parasitic disease transmitted by the sandfly, which attacks the liver and the spleen causing fever and severe weight loss. The disease is very often fatal if left untreated.
In Lankien, eastern Upper Nile, MSF said it had received over 100 kala azar admissions each week for the last six weeks, and in Malakal, also eastern Upper Nile, over 200 patients were currently being treated.
Weakened by years of conflict, much of the southern population had been left "extremely vulnerable" to disease, and reports from neighbouring areas suggested that prevalence rates would be high there as well.
Although the disease is endemic in parts of Sudan and usually peaks at this time of year, the current outbreak was at an "exceptional" level, and showed a dramatic increase compared to previous years, the statement said.
"Insecurity, malnutrition and poor access to health care lower the people's natural resistance to diseases and make for an environment where outbreaks like the current one occur," Batsos said. "There is a clear overlap of those areas where kala azar is endemic and areas of conflict." 
However, a cessation of hostilities agreement signed between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in October, prior to a resumption of peace talks, has paved the way for easing restrictions on humanitarian access in the south. 
"The ceasefire agreement may mean that we can soon get into areas that we have not been able to reach until now," Bastos noted.

The Ethiopian, Sudanese and Yemeni foreign ministers have agreed to enhance their common security in the region, the Ethiopian foreign ministry announced on Friday. The move comes after high-level talks were held by the countries' leaders at a two-day summit in Yemen.
"The three foreign ministers held extensive discussions on ways and means of further enhancing the multifaceted relationship among the three countries in the economic, political, security, cultural and other fields of mutual interest," the foreign ministry statement said. It said all three countries were keen to promote closer ties so as to ensure "peace" in the Horn of Africa.
The statement made no reference indicating the representation of Eritrea at the meeting. Earlier talks between the three leaders had also focused on Eritrea and its role in the region. Ethiopia accused the tiny Red Sea state of trying to destabilise the Horn. This sparked anger from the Eritreans, who described the three countries as forming an "axis of belligerence".
The Ethiopian foreign ministry's statement said the ministers had agreed to set up three subcommittees respectively to examine issues relating to politics and information, peace and security, and economics, business and culture.
It went on to say that "the ministers have, in their assessment of matters of mutual concern, reached a common understanding on a number of issues". They had stated that all three countries were keen to ensure the success of the peace processes in Sudan and Somalia.
Their next meeting is expected to be held in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in mid-December.

Ongoing peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), and a recent agreement opening up access to war-affected populations, have raised hopes that Sudan could be about to see real improvements in its dire humanitarian situation.
In a recent visit to north and south Sudan, CARE International Assistant Secretary-General Howard Bell, and CARE USA President Peter Bell, met with key representatives of the government and the SPLM/A, in an effort to advocate for an equitable peace agreement, and continued, unimpeded humanitarian access. Here they tell IRIN about their impressions of the peace process.

Question: From your meetings with government and SPLM/A representatives, how would you describe their current approach to the peace process?

Peter Bell: I last visited Sudan three years ago and there's been a marked change over those three years. There is considerably more focus on peace now than there was then. When I last went to the north, to the authorities, even talking about peace was very sensitive. But on this visit every single person in authority talked about their commitment to arriving at a just and lasting peace. From the conversations we have had so far in the south there also seems to be a considerable interest in peace and a commitment to moving toward peace.
I would just make one cautionary comment. And that is that the size, the complexity, the diversity of Sudan, and the history of all these years of warfare give reason for pause. It will not be easy and there will be many, many difficulties along the road.

Q: What role do you think CARE and other NGOs can play in the peace process bearing in mind they are not formally involved in the Machakos talks?

Peter Bell:: The strength that we bring is our experience working at the grassroots with hundreds of poor communities in the north and the south, and seeing the continuing harm the war causes to people, seeing their desire for peace, and their desire for a better future. I think it's that perspective that we can bring together with a sense of the hard practicalities and realities of making a peace in principle work in practice.
The inclusion of unimpeded humanitarian access in some of the more recent agreements was in part a result of some very strong lobbying by CARE and some other NGOs. That's an example where we've had some influence. Also NGOs like CARE have some influence back in our home countries as independent voices advocating for peace and for access.

Howard Bell: One of the concerns that has been expressed by a number of people we've talked to is the notion of inclusivity within the peace process and how to ensure that the implementation of the process is as inclusive as possible. It's organisations like CARE with our contacts on the ground, with our association with Sudanese partners that will allow and promote that inclusivity.

Q: Have CARE staff seen any major improvements in the ease with which they are able to operate since the ceasefire came into operation?

Peter Bell I cannot say that there's been a dramatic change yet. But I think there is more of an inclination both in the north and the south to link the importance of our work in relief and development to the advancement of peace. 
We have for some years now advocated very strongly for humanitarian access to all parts of the country, and now I think there is an appreciation that establishing greater humanitarian access in turn helps to advance the peace process. On the other side, a framework for peace and an actual peace settlement will help to ensure humanitarian access.

Q: Do you have a message to the parties regarding the cessation of hostilities agreement, which is due to expire at the end of the year?

Peter Bell: It's tremendously important that the cessation of hostilities agreement be maintained both in principle and in practice. The maintenance of the cessation of hostilities is a concrete sign of the commitment on both sides to bring the war to a close and it is a way of building confidence and trust on both sides. Of course what we would hope is that by the end of the year the two sides would be sufficiently close to a broad framework for peace that they would want to keep the cessation of hostilities. 

Q: Do you have any comments on the allegations made by both the government and the SPLM/A, that each side has already has violated the cessation of hostilities agreement?

Peter Bell: We know that ultimately any peace agreement has to depend first and foremost on the goodwill of the belligerent parties, but strong verification measures are also important. When we go to Machakos later today [Monday] one of the things I hope we will be able to discuss with some of the participants is precisely how humanitarian agencies and NGOs in particular can be helpful in verification, particularly on the question of humanitarian access. I think that we can play a constructive role there, but it needs to be first and foremost a combination of the parties on both sides supported by formal verification procedures and capacities. We also believe that is true on questions of human rights, and on questions of harm to civilian populations.

Q: What sense do you get that the parties are actually tackling the outstanding issues, such as the sharing of wealth, and the disputed border territories?

Peter Bell: My impression is that step by step they are tackling the key issues. Some of these issues have been discussed in the past and others they are tackling newly, but my impression is that they are making progress. 
The process for making peace a reality will be fitful, difficult, uneven but it's tremendously important to continue with the process. This is truly an historic moment for Sudan, and if the peace process fails Sudan will return not just to the status quo ante, but will be further behind than when the process began, and it would be an enormous tragedy with untold consequences. I don't know when Sudan would have another opportunity to get to a settlement.
I would also like to mention the critical importance of the international community in drawing together support for this process. There's been a lot of support within the international community over the last year or two in coming to a more concerted, unified support for the process. It's important that the attention of the international community be maintained and that kind of unity be maintained. 

Howard Bell: We have appreciated the continued leadership of the UN and OLS [Operation Lifeline Sudan], and we think that the next few months will be a critical period for the UN and OLS in terms of continued leadership. Particularly if there is peace and we need to move into different modes to cement that peace on the ground.
(IRIN, Nairobi, Nov 05, 2002)

Eritrea – Sudan : Refugee agency unaware of forced repatriations

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has said it is not aware of plans for the forced repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan following assertions by Asmara that Eritreans are being "relocated" by the Sudanese authorities.
According to the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC), the Sudanese authorities have "started deviating" from agreed procedures on the repatriation of Eritrean refugees. In a statement, it said ERREC officials were "unjustifiably expelled" from Sudan and life for many Eritrean refugees in Sudan was "becoming increasingly unbearable". 
"On top of that, the Sudanese authorities have decided to relocate Eritrean refugees from Kassala region further inland," the statement said. "According to the Sudanese authorities, the relocated refugees will again be 'repatriated' to Eritrea." 
It accused Sudan of taking a "unilateral" decision to repatriate refugees, in violation of a tripartite commission agreement between Sudan, Eritrea and UNHCR.
Tension has been increasing in Sudan's eastern Kassala state following fighting in the area between government troops and rebels. The Khartoum government has also accused Eritrea of involvement in the rebel attacks, charges which Asmara denies. 
The governor of Kassala has called for moving urban refugees into camps, but UNHCR says these refugees are "self-reliant" and should not be put in a position where they would again become dependent on humanitarian aid. 
UNHCR spokesman Jonathan Clayton told IRIN on Friday that the agency's representative in Khartoum would be meeting the governor of Kassala state to discuss the issue. "In addition, we would prefer that the [urban] refugees be given some time to decide whether they want to repatriate or not," he said.
Clayton said the agency was closely monitoring the situation and discussions were still ongoing. He said the UNHCR representative would try and negotiate a "humanitarian corridor" for repatriating refugees from Kassala. 
UNHCR confirmed that the governor of Kassala has also announced the relocation of an entire refugee camp situated near the border with Eritrea.
The repatriations have been put on hold, firstly because of the rainy season, and then because of the deteriorating security situation which led to the closure of the border between Sudan and Eritrea.
UNHCR also confirmed that 45 Eritrean refugees have been detained by the Sudanese authorities - reportedly for suspected links with Sudanese rebels - although some have been released. The agency is trying to gain access to those still detained. 
It also said UNHCR staff and ERREC officials were expelled from the camps in Kassala. "However, this was due to security concerns, given the prevailing situation at the time," Clayton said.
Tens of thousands of Eritreans began fleeing war at home some 30 years ago. Earlier this year, UNHCR announced the cessation of refugee status for Eritreans, saying that conditions no longer warranted it. Refugees have until the end of this year to register to return home. Since the repatriation programme began in May 2001, over 50,000 Eritreans have gone home out of an estimated 90,000 camp-based refugees.

US President George Bush has extended an order imposing bilateral sanctions against Sudan, citing continued concern over the alleged activities of terrorist groups in the country.
"These actions and policies are hostile to US interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," Bush said in a notice on Tuesday extending the order.
The sanctions, originally imposed under the Clinton administration in 1997, criticise the government of Sudan, for alleged "support for international terrorism; ongoing efforts to destabilise neighbouring governments; and the prevalence of human rights violations, including slavery and the denial of religious freedom".
The order imposes a trade embargo against Sudan and a total asset freeze against the government of Sudan, according to the US Department of Commerce website. Criminal penalties for violating the order range up to 10 years in jail, $500,000 in corporate, and $250,000 in individual fines. 
Although Washington has said the government in Khartoum has cooperated with US efforts to combat international terrorism, Sudan remains on a list of seven countries the US accuses of sponsoring terrorism. 
Khartoum says the US contention that it supports terrorism is erroneous, and that restrictions placed on Sudanese companies result from "pressure by groups hostile to Sudan".
Bush last week signed legislation calling for additional sanctions against the Sudanese regime if it failed to act in good faith in peace talks with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
The legislation empowers the US administration to suspend diplomatic relations with Khartoum, to oppose loans and assistance from international financial organisations, to take steps to deny Sudan oil revenues, and to seek a UN resolution for an arms embargo against the Sudanese government. 

Canadian oil company Talisman Energy on Wednesday announced the sale of its Sudanese oil interests, saying it would end uncertainty over their future. 
"Shareholders have told me they were tired of continually having to monitor and analyse events relating to Sudan," Talisman president and chief executive officer, Jim Buckee, said in a statement.
Talisman's 25 percent share in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) would be sold to ONGC Videsh Ltd, a subsidiary of India's national oil company, for US $758 million, and would be completed by the end of the year, the statement said.
Talisman has come under fire from human rights groups, which have argued that the company's four-year involvement served to support the forced displacement of people to make way for oil exploration, and that oil revenues have been used by the Sudanese government for arms purchases. 
They have also alleged that oil infrastructure has been used by the Sudanese military to prosecute the 19-year war against southern rebels. 
According to Buckee, however, corporate responsibility policies implemented within the GNPOC as a result of Talisman's advocacy efforts would "continue to influence the operations of the consortium for years to come." 
"We have long argued that Talisman's presence in Sudan has been a force for good and we have taken steps to ensure the benefits created through our involvement will continue to benefit the people of Sudan both now and in the future," he added.
The GNPOC is 40 percent owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation, Malaysia's Petronas claims 30 percent, with the Sudanese government oil company, Sudapet, owning 5 percent. 
Recent months have seen an escalation of fighting around the main oil fields of western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), with aid agencies reporting the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians as a result of the fighting. 
While Khartoum has declared its intention to double oil production from the current level of about 240,000 barrels per day, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has repeatedly said that oil installations are legitimate targets in the war, and that it intends to halt oil extraction completely. 
"Selling our interest in the project resolves uncertainty about the future of this asset," Buckee said.
Ongoing peace talks between the government and the SPLM/A, and the signing of an agreement to cease hostilities for the duration of talks has raised hopes of an end to the conflict, and an improvement in the country's dire humanitarian situation. 
However, the parties have yet to reach agreement on the controversial issue of wealth-sharing, including the distribution of oil revenues. 

Human rights systems in Africa need to be strengthened, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights last week stressed in a communique that capped its 32nd ordinary session, held on 17-23 October in Banjul, The Gambia.
Addressing the 216 participants, Commission Chairman Kamel Rezag-Bara urged all the actors to ensure the entry into force of the Protocol to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the preparation of the Draft Protocol on Woman's Rights in Africa. 
Representatives of national human rights institutions and NGOs expressed concern over the situation of human and peoples' rights prevailing in many African states. 
The Commission granted affiliate status to the South African Human Rights Commission and the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria. 
It also granted observer status to 12 NGOs from various countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Republic of Congo, Seychelles, South Africa,  Sudan and Zimbabwe.
It further considered and adopted a resolution on the Guidelines and Measures for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment in Africa also known as the Robben Island Guidelines [http://www.apt.ch/africa/rig/Robben%20Island%20Guidelines.pdf .
The Commission also considered and adopted a draft declaration on the principles of the freedom of expression in Africa. It decided to hold its 33rd Ordinary Session in Niamey, Niger, from 5-19 May, 2003 on the invitation of Niger's government.

Continued abuses by both the government and rebels means there has been no overall improvement in the human rights situation in Sudan, a UN report says. 
In his report to the UN General Assembly last week, Gerhart Baum, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, said he had "continued to receive information pointing to the perpetration by all parties to the conflict of numerous serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law [IHL]".
Among the main issues of concern were those related to the continued state of emergency, the "virtual impunity" enjoyed by the security services, the persistence of press censorship and the limited room for the political activities of opposition parties, the report said.
The state of emergency had allowed the establishment of Special Courts in Darfur, western Sudan, which were of "deep concern" and not in keeping with relevant international standards, it said.
Despite being imposed for an initial period of three months, the state of emergency has been in effect continuously since December 1999, and was extended for an additional 12 months at the end of 2001.
Several reported cases were cited in the report, including that of 14 prisoners charged with armed robbery and sentenced to death by a Special Court in Nyala in July. The prisoners were reported not to have received legal representation during their trial.
A second case, also conducted in Nyala, involved 88 persons sentenced to death by hanging or crucifixion, after what was reported to be an unfair trial. Two of them were reported to be 14-year-old boys.
Ongoing inter-ethnic conflict in Darfur over land and pasture exacerbated by drought has led to the destruction and depopulation of villages, and high levels of displacement, the report noted. 
The Special Rapporteur expressed hope that ongoing peace talks between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), underway in Kenya, could provide an opportunity to bring an end to war-related human rights abuses.
For peace to be sustainable, however, it was paramount that the issue of human rights and democratisation was put at the heart of the talks, being held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
The Special Rapporteur called on the rebels to develop genuine democratic structures, and urged  them and their allied militias to do their utmost to prevent human rights violations. 
All parties to Sudan's 19-year civil war were called upon to use their influence to put an end to violations of human rights and IHL. 
"The burden represented by the war cannot provide any justification for human rights abuses," Baum said in his report.

About 17,000 Sudanese refugees remained in hiding on Monday, having fled ethnic violence last week in a refugee settlement in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 
Rebels of the Congolese Patriotic Union/Popular Rally (UPC-RP) had moved into the Biringi refugee settlement, about 80 km west of the town of Aru on the Congo-Ugandan border, prompting most of the population to flee, Kitty McKinsey, regional public information officer with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told IRIN on Monday.
This latest round of fighting erupted on 21 October when the rebels, believed to be supporters of the Hema people, began withdrawing northwards, UNHCR reported. Lendu fighters blocked the rebels; thereby sending them into the Biringi settlement and surrounding areas, causing panic among the refugees who fled into the bush.
Fighting between the UPC and Lendu intensified on Thursday and Friday, McKinsey said. "A handful of refugees" who had fled from Ayamba, an area about 11 km from the centre of Biringi where fighting had taken place, briefly returned to their homes on Monday to see if their houses remained standing and to gather some food, she said. Some other refugees, who had not witnessed the fighting, but had fled when they heard gunfire, were reportedly returning to stay, she added.
"There have been no reports of any casualties among the refugees or the civilian population, but UNHCR remains concerned about their safety," she said.
UPC, led by Thomas Lubanga, is a dissident faction of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation.

The Sudanese government, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the United Nations system on Saturday signed an historic agreement allowing unimpeded humanitarian access to hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan. 
"In the whole history of OLS we have never had unfettered access. Some places we know are facing dire conditions and we can expect the demands to be extraordinary," Ronald Sibanda, of the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), said in a statement.
The arrangement would last from 1 November and until the end of 2002, when peace talks being  held in Kenya under the aegis of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are scheduled to end.
"We hope the agreement will continue beyond the current time frame and that this is a start of a new reality," Sibanda said.
The World Food Programme estimated the agreement would enable the UN food agency to provide food aid to an additional 558,000 people, on top of the 3 million people already targeted for assistance.
Agreement on unfettered access would also allow a polio immunisation campaign due to start on Monday to go ahead as planned, the OLS statement said.
A previous agreement, signed on 15 October between the government and the SPLM/A to cease hostilities for the duration of talks, has opened the door to greater access to conflict-affected populations in the south, analysts said.
The Sudanese government had in recent months increased humanitarian access denials to locations in south Sudan, and in October banned UN relief flights over two huge regions of the far south, effectively cutting off air access from the main OLS logistics base in northern Kenya to the south.
"The people of Sudan have suffered terribly. We now have a chance to make a dramatic change for the better," Sibanda said. 

The Eritrean government has protested to the Sudanese authorities over the "mass arrests" of Eritrean citizens in the country. 
The Eritrean News Agency (Erna) quoted the foreign ministry as saying Sudanese security forces on Monday "illegally entered" the compound of the Eritrean Community Centre in Khartoum "and arrested many Eritreans, including two members of the Eritrean embassy in Khartoum". 
"Apart from this, the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed that the government of the Sudan has started mass arrests of innocent Eritreans all over the Sudan," the news agency said. 
The foreign ministry summoned the Sudanese ambassador in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and handed him an official memorandum of protest, demanding the immediate release of all arrested Eritreans. It also called on the Sudanese government "to refrain from such irresponsible acts". 
Sudanese government officials were not immediately available for comment. 
Meanwhile, Khartoum has denied allegations by Eritrea that the governor of Sudan's eastern Kassala region has called on the UN refugee agency UNHCR to "move all Eritreans in the administrative region of Kassala to Eritrea within one week". 
"The allegations are totally unfounded," a statement from the Sudanese embassy in Asmara said. It said Sudan was committed to the tripartite agreement signed with UNHCR and Eritrea on the return of refugees. 
"We are in fact in the process of co-ordinating efforts to transport those who wish to return to their homeland in spite of the closure of the common border as a result of the recent Eritrean aggression," the statement added. Khartoum has accused Eritrea of involvement in recent attacks by rebel Sudanese forces in eastern Sudan, charges strongly denied by Asmara. 
"To protect refugees against any hazardous acts by the invading forces, they will be moved to camps away from the border area," the statement said. "This operation is being carried out in full co-ordination with the concerned authorities."

The Sudanese government has claimed southern rebels have violated an agreed truce, putting in doubt the future of peace talks to bring an end to the country's 19-year civil war.
"If the GOS [Government of Sudan] troops are compelled to intervene or [are] thus drawn in any new fighting over there, this could do away with the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] altogether," a statement from the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi said. 
According to the statement, the forces of a rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)-allied militia on Thursday morning attacked the towns of Koch and Thorken in western Upper Nile (Wahdah State). 
No comment was immediately available from the SPLM/A.
Western Upper Nile is at the centre of the Sudanese oil industry, and has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months, with the SPLM/A saying it considers oil installations to be legitimate targets in the war. 
"This is a dangerous attempt to interfere with the military positioning in a highly sensitive area where a delicate balance currently exists," the government statement said.
The government delegation to the peace talks in Machakos, Kenya, has made an official complaint about the attack to the special envoy of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is coordinating the talks.
Peace talks between the government and rebels resumed last week after a six week suspension. Government negotiators walked out of the meeting on 2 September, after rebel forces seized the strategic southern town of Torit, Eastern Equatoria. Government troops have since recaptured the town.
In the MOU, signed prior to the resumption of talks, both sides had agreed to a cessation of hostilities for the duration of talks. 
However, even before Friday's allegations, both sides had accused each other of violating the truce. Just ten minutes after the cessation of hostilities came into force, the SPLM/A said government forces had launched an attack in eastern Sudan. 
And Khartoum has already complained to IGAD over the SPLM/A capture of the southern town of Akobo, Jonglei State, from the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM), an armed group allied to the Sudanese government. 

US President George Bush has approved legislation calling for sanctions against the Sudanese government if it fails to act in good faith during negotiations with southern rebels. 
"The Government of Sudan must choose between the path to peace and the path to continued war and destruction," Bush said in a statement released by the White House on Monday. 
The legislation empowers the US administration to suspend diplomatic relations with Khartoum, to oppose loans and assistance from international financial organisations, to take steps to deny Sudan oil revenues, and to seek a UN resolution for an arms embargo against the Sudanese government. 
If the Sudanese government "makes the right choice, that course will mean improvement in the lives of all Sudanese, better bilateral relations with the United States, and the beginning of its reacceptance into the community of peace-loving nations," Bush said.
Under the Sudan Peace Act, passed by an overwhelming majority in both houses of the US Congress earlier this month, the US government must certify every six months that both Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) are acting in good faith in efforts to bring an end to the country's 19-year civil war. 
However, the Act makes no provision for direct sanctions against the rebel group, merely saying that if it was not conducting talks in good faith, any sanctions imposed on the government would then be dropped.
The Act also authorises the payment of US $300 million over three years to assist "areas outside government control to prepare the population for peace and democratic governance", including support to civil administration, education, health, and agriculture.
The Sudanese government has strongly criticised the Act, saying it reflects a return to "failed and imbalanced policies" by the US administration. The Act was "hostile, biased and religiously motivated", according to a statement released by the Sudanese embassy in Washington earlier this month. 
A previous attempt by US lawmakers to pass similar legislation stalled over a proposal to impose capital market sanctions on both US and foreign companies doing business with Khartoum. The current legislation does not include the contentious proposal.
Khartoum suspended peace negotiations in Kenya on 2 September, saying the SPLM/A had spoiled the atmosphere of talks by launching an offensive in the south, and by making demands which fell outside the scope of a framework deal agreed in July.
In a memorandum of understanding, signed prior to the resumption of talks last week, both parties agreed to suspend hostilities for the duration of negotiations being held under the aegis of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
However, both sides have already accused each other of violating the truce. Just ten minutes after the cessation of hostilities came into force, the SPLM/A said government forces had launched an attack in eastern Sudan. 
And Khartoum this week said it would make an official complaint to IGAD over the SPLM/A capture of the southern town of Akobo, Jonglei State. 

It was now "time to move from vision to action" in implementing the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), African finance ministers agreed at the weekend.
The ministers had reached consensus on many "issues of critical importance in accelerating Africa's progress and development and in meeting the challenges of implementing NEPAD", at the conference held in South Africa. 
In a statement released on Monday, finance ministers from throughout the continent said they had agreed "on the overall vision for Africa's development as enshrined in NEPAD: to bring the continent into a new age of peace, security, stability, economic growth, and prosperity ... [and] setting the stage for growth through regional integration, by putting in place sound macro-economic policies, improving trade policies, and attracting more foreign capital". 
Among the priorities agreed upon for the implementation of NEPAD were: "pursuing sound economic policies, unleashing the private sector for poverty reduction, enhancing capacity building for deeper integration into the global economy, embracing the African Peer Review mechanism, and transforming our partnerships with donors through mutual accountability," the ministers said.
"And given the prominence of AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases as threats to African development, combating them must be part of the [Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper] PRSP process. Greater attention must also go to formulating gender-sensitive policies for health, education, and other services," they agreed.
The ministers also undertook to improve public expenditure management systems in their respective countries and enhance "transparency in the use of resources".
"Especially urgent is providing duty-free, quota-free access for products originating from African countries. We also call for simplifying and harmonising rules of origin to help ensure that African countries benefit from the market opportunities granted, particularly in value-added production," the ministers noted.
Debt relief was also high on their agenda.
"It is also clear that the HIPC [Highly Indebted Poor Countries] initiative is not working well enough. Only six African countries have reached their completion points, and for some of them the debt remains unsustainable. Several proposals are on the table for moving beyond HIPC to greater debt relief. What is needed is to move faster to increase relief, to align it with the pursuit of the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], and to free up more resources for development. We also recognise the need to attend to the debt burden of non-HIPC countries," the statement said.
The conference was held under the auspices of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
ECA spokesman Peter da Costa told IRIN the conference was a "tremendous success because for the first time NEPAD has moved from the high level of heads-of-state and foreign ministers to the level of the practitioners, finance ministers, who will implement the initiatives. They're the ones on whom the success of NEPAD depends".
Another notable benefit of the conference was that African ministers appeared to have embraced the peer review mechanism. "Initially the fear was that there would be conditionality upon conditionality [placed on acceptance of the peer review mechanism] ... but the ministers discussions were extremely encouraging," Da Costa said.
ECA agreed with the ministers that "a new way of addressing debt that actually works" needed to be found. The organisation called on African ministers to "do more to articulate an African position on debt relief ... they need to engage the international community more on that," Da Costa said.

Eritrea on Monday again denied involvement in the fighting in eastern Sudan, saying the Sudanese government was making such accusations as a "pretext" to scuttle ongoing peace negotiations with Sudanese rebels.
A Sudanese government statement on Friday reiterated its commitment to a cessation of hostilities agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) signed with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) last week during resumed peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos. But, it said, fighting in the east, launched by "an unprovoked military attack by Eritrean forces" in the Rasai area earlier this month, was not necessarily covered by the Memorandum.
The agreement "does not preclude the government of Sudan's [right] to repulse the Eritrean aggression", the Sudanese statement said.
However Eritrea's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Teweldemedhin Tesfamariam, told IRIN his country had no war with Sudan. "Eritrea has nothing to do with the fighting in Sudan and Khartoum knows this full well," he said.
"It is fighting against its opposition forces with whom it has been holding peace talks," he added. "The government of Sudan cannot accept that it is losing the current battles against the [opposition] NDA so it is looking for a perceived external enemy and it is unfortunate it has decided on Eritrea to be the one."
The SPLA makes up the biggest component of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is based in Asmara.
The Sudanese statement said the government had filed a complaint with the UN Security Council against Eritrea which, it said, was "notorious for attacking its neighbours". It said Sudan had notified the Security Council of "its intention to exercise its legal right of self-defence" under the UN charter.
Teweldemedhin said Sudan was accusing Eritrea of aggression as a "pretext for scuttling the Machakos talks".
"The government of Sudan knows the SPLA cannot be expected to accept such violations of the Memorandum signed in Machakos while the NDA forces are being attacked in the east and government attacks continue in the south," he said. "If they [rebels] pull out of the talks - as the Sudan government wants them to do - then it can blame the rebels for their failure. This is an intricate deception." 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been mandated to develop a UN policy framework on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The first of a series of international workshops coordinated by OCHA was held in Pretoria, South Africa from 15 to 17 October to examine the issues and provide input to the UN Secretary-General's next report to the Security Council. IRIN spoke to Mark Bowden, chief of OCHA's Policy Development and Studies Branch, who is leading the consultative process.

Question: This workshop is part of a process, what is the end product?
Answer: Part of the process is to get greater understanding of the concept of protection of civilians within regions, but also to get their [participants] feedback as to what are the main issues they see as particular threats to the security of civilians, and for them to be able to feed this back into the Security Council report and other reports on the protection of civilians that we do. One of the main aims of the workshop has been to take the concept of protection of civilians outside the Security Council to the UN's general membership to get a greater understanding of member states' responsibilities, and to identify the problems that they have in providing better protection for civilians which we see as having been seriously threatened over the last decade or so.

Q: The issue of developing a legal framework is all well and good, but if we look at the particularities of conflict in Africa we have the issue of trying to identify combatants, we have the issue of the motivations that drive conflicts, do you find any problems in trying to reconcile the practical with the theory?
A: One of the interesting things to come out of the conference is that despite the fact that this [Africa] is an extremely complex environment where I think there's more confusion between civilian status and combatant status than many other parts of the world, it is still possible to apply standards and principles when dealing with the problems of protection. Some of these things are actually very straightforward and practical issue to adopt, for example on refugees - to ensure that refugee camps are 50-km away from an international border is a practical measure that doesn't necessarily cost, it isn't an issue of capacity, it's primarily an issue of political will ... 
Again with IDPs [internally displaced persons], what was demonstrated very clearly in this meeting was that where the government feels it needs to move people out of the war zone to enable it to conduct its military operations, this doesn't mean they should ignore international standards for the treatment and care of that population. And again, there are very practical measures that can be put in place to get better implementation and compliance with those standards, including the government themselves introducing or legalising those international standards. So I think one of those things that will come out of this meeting is a very much more practical and focused approach to what actually can be done within the constraints that governments face, and indeed organisations face, that would make an appreciable difference to the protection and safety of individuals.

Q: When as a government you are up against an opposition that doesn't hold those standards, the onus always seems to be on the government to act better than the rebels ...?
A: I think that one of the salutary sides of the discussion here is the inability of [actors] in the region, so far, to have any meaningful engagement with armed non-state groups, by which we mean rebel groups. The dialogue has been very difficult or non-existent throughout the region as a whole. This has made it far more difficult to get acceptance of international norms and standards which apply to those groups just as much as they apply to the government. It is one of the more difficult problems this region has in dealing with the protection of civilians. 

Q: What do you think is behind this move towards international standards and architecture which means certain actions can no longer be tolerated?
A: I think there's been a sea change in Africa and I thinks that's really quite important. Really, what's significant about NEPAD [New Partnership for African Development] and the African Union [AU] is that they are operating on a very different basis as regards to standards than the OAU [Organisation of African Union] did. There is a system of peer review which is a way of checking that standards are being upheld and there is a commitment, within the new African Union, to look at intervention in states that are not living up to their responsibilities towards their civilian populations. So in Africa there's been a very important change and I'm not sure how far this has been recognised internationally ... it's going to be very interesting to see how they [the AU] do this, it's a challenge for them, they are taking on a tremendous task. I'm sure there's still many sensitivities in Africa as a whole as to how these will be addressed, but at least there's been a shift in thinking in Africa which I think we need to recognise and acknowledge. 
In terms of the international community as a whole, I think with the concept of the war against terrorism there's less of an interest now in dealing with the root causes of conflict and that, I think, will have a great impact on the protection of civilians. Because unless we try to address the root causes, to look at issues of justice and reconciliation, ... [recognise] issues of social equity behind many of the conflicts, we'll provide no security in the longer term for civilians. I worry that internationally, to some extent, conflict prevention is slipping off the agenda, and with that a large element of the way civilians can be afforded protection.

Q: How will findings from this workshop be incorporated into the Secretary-General's report?
A: What I hope will come out of the workshop are two main things. First of all, a real sense of what are the issues that affect the region so that we can incorporate this into the Secretary-General's report to give some sense of the concerns that exist in the region about protection of civilians, where the emphasis should be and how that can be handled. What we also hope to get out of it is what areas we may have missed when looking at the aide memoir [a practical guide on protection issues prepared by OCHA for the Security Council], there are some issues here that strike one as fundamental to the protection of civilians that are not actually addressed by the aide memoir and the work of the Security Council. One example of this is the issue of property rights. 
That maintaining the respect of the property rights of displaced people, for example, is the key to their effective return and reintegration. There are other areas that may come out of this process as well that we haven't addressed. The other particular emphasis in the region are the links that exist here between the proliferation of small arms, organised crime, and insecurity of civilians. These are more particular to this region than many other parts of the world. We should be able to better reflect them in the report of the Secretary-General.

A row between Sudan's warring parties over the terms of a temporary ceasefire they signed on Tuesday has plunged the Sudanese peace talks, which opened in Kenya this week to end the country's 19-year civil war, into uncertainty.
The row began on Thursday when the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)  claimed that the Sudanese government had violated the countrywide ceasefire only 10 minutes after midday, local time, when it became effective. 
The agreement, which became effective at midday on Thursday, committed both parties to cease hostilities throughout Sudan for the duration of the ongoing talks, and to ensure a military stand-down of their respective forces, including their supporting militia groups.
Samson Kwaje, the SPLM/A spokesman in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, confirmed the fighting, which had taken place in the east and lasted three hours, as Sudanese troops attempted to recapture significant towns the Eritrean-based opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - of which SPLM/A is the biggest component - seized on 3 October. 
Kwaje said continued fighting in the east would be a violation of the temporary ceasefire.  However, he said, he could not tell whether it would affect the ongoing peace talks in Kenya. "Of course our forces will fight back. But we can't say now how this will affect the talks. We will examine [the matter] case by case," he said. 
Khartoum has not officially responded to the charge, but has insisted that the fighting in in the eastern part of the country was a result of Eritrean aggression, and was not covered by the temporary ceasefire it signed with SPLM/A. This position was reflected by the presidential peace adviser, Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani's comments, in which he stated that although the truce covered "all parts of Sudan", government forces might continue fighting on the eastern front, according to AFP. 
A source in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, told IRIN on Friday that it appeared that the government "would continue to fight on in the east irrespective of what was agreed upon in Kenya". 
According to the source, who chose to remain anonymous, the NDA's capture of major eastern government strongholds were a "major blow", and  Khartoum would "not rest" until they were recaptured. "The government stand is wrong. In any case, the ceasefire is not about people, it's about ending hostilities through out the country," the source said.
As a result of Sudan's complaints, the Ethiopia-based African Union last week said it would send a fact-finding mission to verify Eritrea's involvement or otherwise in fighting in eastern Sudan. The accusations have increased tension between Khartoum and Asmara, despite Eritrea's denials. 
Kwaje also denied any support from Eritrea for NDA. "They [Sudanese government] always look for scapegoats. When we are fighting in the east, they say  Eritrea is involved. When we fight in the south, they say the Ugandan government is involved," Kwaje told IRIN. 
"Libyan independent journalists even visited the area and found Eritrea is not involved," he added.

A temporary ceasefire agreement between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) came into force at midday on Thursday, a source close to the peace talks taking place in Machakos, Kenya, told IRIN.
He confirmed that every unit of soldiers on the rebel side had been ordered to observe the ceasefire except in self-defence. "Unfortunately there is no monitoring system in place, but any violations will be reported immediately to the mediators of the peace talks," he added.
The memorandum declaring the ceasefire, signed on 15 October, committed both parties to suspending hostilities throughout Sudan for the duration of the latest round of talks, and to ensuring a military stand-down of their respective forces, "including allied forces and affiliated militia," Samson Kwaje, an SPLM/A spokesman, told IRIN on Tuesday.
Formal peace negotiations are due to resume next week. On Wednesday, the mediators at the talks had given both delegations in Machakos a draft protocol on power-sharing, with two days to provide a written response to it, a source told IRIN.
Sudanese government officials were unavailable for comment.
This is the first politically motivated ceasefire agreement signed between the government and rebels in 19 years of civil war.

Sudanese rebels said on Tuesday they had signed a truce agreement with the government of Sudan for the duration of peace talks due to start on Wednesday in Machakos, Kenya.
Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) told IRIN that the signed memorandum committed both parties to cease hostilities throughout Sudan for the duration of the talks, and to ensure a military stand-down of their respective forces "including allied forces and affiliated militia".
Both sides would send messages to their respective forces, which would come into effect at midday on Thursday, he said.
The text of the agreement also committed both sides to maintaining a "conducive atmosphere" throughout the negotiations until "all outstanding issues in the conflict were resolved", he said. 
Wednesday's talks will kick off with the issue of power-sharing, he added. 
Kwaje said the SPLA was satisfied with the agreement which implicitly included the opposition grouping National Democratic Alliance in the term "allied forces", and covered the entire country including the eastern front which, he said, the government originally wanted excluded from the deal. 
"We could not have had a partial cessation of hostilities ... both sides could have shifted to the eastern front, so what would have been the point?" Kwaje said.
Sudanese government officials were not immediately available for comment.
This is the first politically motivated ceasefire agreement signed between the government and rebels in 19 years of civil war.

Sudan's government and rebel movement failed to reach agreement on Monday on the terms of a temporary ceasefire agreement, to be signed before the official resumption of peace talks in Machakos, Kenya.
The bone of contention concerned the eastern front, along the Eritrean border, which the government delegation was keen to see excluded from the agreement, Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) told IRIN on Tuesday. 
"Our argument is that an agreement should include all of Sudan," he said. He added that the two delegations were close to agreeing on the issue, however. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN that the government had expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on Monday afternoon, after which peace negations would resume immediately. The first items on the agenda for discussion, in order of priority, were power-sharing arrangements, wealth-sharing, and a comprehensive ceasefire. 
The talks were expected to last until 16 November, he added.

The African Union is to send a mission to Sudan and Eritrea to try and defuse tension between the two countries.
A statement released on 11 October urged the authorities of both countries to cooperate with the AU delegation and "appealed urgently" to their leaders to "exercise restraint and refrain from all acts that would heighten the tension" between them. 
It expressed "grave concern" about relations between the two countries over the last few days, and about "the threats of the situation to peace and security in the region". 
The decision to send the delegation was taken by the AU's Conflict Resolution body following a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday.
Tension has been increasing between Sudan and Eritrea after Khartoum accused Asmara of involvement in recent rebel attacks in eastern Sudan. Eritrea has strongly denied the accusations.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir have flown into Yemen for talks on the Horn of Africa, diplomatic sources told IRIN on Monday.
The pair are due to meet Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh for discussions on wide-ranging issues, including the situation in Somalia and Eritrea, the source said.
The move comes amid increasing tensions between Sudan and Eritrea, after Khartoum accused Asmara of involvement in rebel attacks in eastern Sudan recently. Eritrea has strongly denied the allegations, and urged the Arab League to intervene and help heal the rift with Sudan. 
In an interview with Eritrean radio and television on Sunday, President Isayas Afewerki said Sudan and Yemen were trying to "besiege" Eritrea, but their attempts "showed nothing but their weaknesses, and would wear out in time".
Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Sayyid Abdallah said war with Sudan was unlikely but stressed that if Khartoum "makes any deliberate military move to strike Eritrea, we will defend ourselves".
"We have become used to such accusations from Khartoum," he told the London-based 'Al-Sharq-al-Awsat' newspaper. He said Eritrea would work to find a political solution to the problems with its neighbour.
Yemen and Eritrea have also disputed ownership of the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea. The International Tribunal in The Hague stepped in and awarded most of the islands to Yemen, but allowed Eritrea to fish in the area.

A US-based Christian relief organisation has warned that thousands of civilians in areas affected by the country's civil war face starvation as a result of the Sudanese government's continuing restrictions on humanitarian access to southern Sudan.
In a statement released on Thursday from Baltimore, US, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) urged the international community to ensure unrestricted access to all populations in need there.
The statement said that although the Sudanese government had this week lifted parts of its 27 September ban on UN humanitarian flights in southern Sudan, Khartoum had continued to obstruct humanitarian operations in the country. The ban had affected about 800,000 people in Eastern and Western Equatoria, according to humanitarian sources.
An unprecedented 61 sites in the country remain inaccessible despite the lifting of the ban, according to CRS. In Eastern Equatoria, where CRS assists some 375,000 people, humanitarian air operations had been denied for four consecutive years, the statement added.
As a result of the frequent bans, local and international organisations under the UN umbrella group of humanitarian agencies called Operation Lifeline Sudan, of which CRS is part, was forced to travel into selected regions of Sudan by land from Uganda, thereby facing "life-threatening danger from roving bands" of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army, CRS said.
CRS Executive Director Ken Hackett noted in the statement that he also feared that the obstructions to the delivery of humanitarian aid would spark a disaster similar to that of the 1998 war-induced famine in which an estimated 70,000 people died.
"The international community, led by the United States, and members of the OLS agreement, have a responsibility to ensure that all victims of this tragic war receive humanitarian assistance, without further interruptions," he said. "There must be a universal understanding that any political negotiations toward peace in Sudan must include and address humanitarian concerns."
The appeal follows this week's passing of a resolution in the US House of Representatives empowering President George W. Bush to impose sanctions on Sudan as part of the efforts aimed at achieving peace there.
The Sudanese government has, however, condemned the US resolution. The Sudanese embassy in Washington said the resolution did not advocate for peace, but encouraged the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army to continue fighting, the Sudanese newspaper Al-Anba said on Friday.

A US-based Christian relief organisation has warned that thousands of civilians in areas affected by the country's civil war face starvation as a result of the Sudanese government's continuing restrictions on humanitarian access to southern Sudan.
In a statement released on Thursday from Baltimore, US, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) urged the international community to ensure unrestricted access to all populations in need there.
The statement said that although the Sudanese government had this week lifted parts of its 27 September ban on UN humanitarian flights in southern Sudan, Khartoum had continued to obstruct humanitarian operations in the country. The ban has affected about 800,000 people in Eastern and Western Equatoria, according to humanitarian sources. 
An unprecedented 61 sites in the country remain inaccessible despite the lifting of the ban, according to CRS. In Eastern Equatoria, where CRS assists some 375,000 people, humanitarian air operations had been denied for four consecutive years, the statement added. 
As a result of the frequent bans, local and international organisations under the UN umbrella group of humanitarian agencies called Operation Lifeline Sudan, of which CRS is part, was forced to travel into selected regions of Sudan by land from Uganda, thereby facing "life-threatening danger from roving bands" of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army, CRS said. 
CRS Executive Director Ken Hackett noted in the statement that he also feared that the obstructions to the delivery of humanitarian aid would spark a disaster similar to that of the 1998 war-induced famine in which an estimated 70,000 people died. 
"The international community, led by the United States, and members of the OLS agreement, have a responsibility to ensure that all victims of this tragic war receive humanitarian assistance, without further interruptions," he said. "There must be a universal understanding that any political negotiations toward peace in Sudan must include and address humanitarian concerns."
The appeal follows this week's passing of a resolution in the US House of Representatives empowering President George W. Bush to impose sanctions on Sudan as part of the efforts aimed at achieving peace there.
The Sudanese government has, however, condemned the US resolution. The Sudanese embassy in Washington said the resolution did not advocate for peace, but encouraged the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army to continue fighting, the Sudanese newspaper Al-Anba said on Friday.

The Khartoum government has reacted angrily to a US bill, passed by the House of Representatives on 7 October, which condemns the country's human rights record and calls on US President George Bush to deny Sudan access to oil revenues if, after six months, it is deemed not to be negotiating in good faith at resumed peace talks.
A statement issued by the Sudanese embassy in Washington described the "Sudan Peace Act" as a "hostile, biased and religiously motivated bill" which would prolong the war and the suffering in Sudan.
The US had "irrationally" chosen to blame the Sudanese government for the casualties of the 19-year war as well as a possible failure of the peace talks, due to resume in the Kenyan town of Machakos next week, the statement said.
A section of the Sudan Peace Act calls upon the US Secretary of State to "collect information about incidents which may constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict in Sudan, including slavery, rape and aerial bombardment of civilian targets".

The Khartoum government has said it will only resume negotiations with rebels, slated for 14 October in the Kenyan town of Machakos, if they agree to a temporary cessation of hostilities.
"We will not sit down with them to negotiate if they haven't signed before or on the 14th,"  Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Thursday. "We are ready to sign and have made that very clear."
Spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) Samson Kwaje told IRIN they would sign an agreement on the 14th, once they had seen the prepared text. "As long as it doesn't involve a comprehensive ceasefire, which will be negotiated when the talks have resumed, we will agree to a cessation of hostilities during the talks," he said.
Meanwhile, the forces of the opposition National Democratic Alliance - an umbrella group of southern and northern Sudanese opposition groups - claim to have captured two strategic towns on 8 October along the highway joining the capital, Khartoum, and the town of Port Sudan. 
"The capture of the two Rasais [called Rasai I and II] effectively cuts off traffic on this strategic highway which is the lifeline to the hinterland," said a statement released by the SPLA.
The SPLA had also "destroyed" a convoy of about 3,000 government troops moving though Mankien along the Bahr el Ghazal river in western Sudan, a separate statement claimed. 
Dirdeiry dismissed both claims as "propaganda", saying that they were "completely baseless". He added that 3,000 troops would never move together in one convoy "for obvious security reasons".
Government negotiators pulled out of peace talks in Machakos, Kenya on 2 September, saying the SPLM/A had spoiled the atmosphere of talks by attacking and capturing the town of Torit, in eastern Equatoria, the previous day. On 8 October, Khartoum announced that it had retaken the town, while the SPLA said it had carried out "a tactical withdrawal" of its forces. 

Sudan has described relations with Eritrea as strained, after Khartoum closed the common border following an attack in the east last week by forces of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) movement. 
The Sudanese government has accused Eritrea of involvement in the attack, charges which Asmara has vigorously denied. The Eritrea-based NDA - of which the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is the main component - confirmed it had captured the religiously significant town of Hamashkoreb in Kassala state. 
Sudan's charge d'affaires to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN on Tuesday the border had been closed, but that diplomatic relations with Eritrea, "although strained", would be maintained  during the period of the border closure. 
Dirdeiry also said the border closure would not affect an ongoing exercise to repatriate tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees from camps in Sudan. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says the repatriations - which were due to resume at the weekend after a temporary suspension caused by the rainy season - have been put on hold in view of the fighting. There are still some 90,000 refugees in the Sudanese camps. 
However, Dirdeiry claimed the repatriations would continue "unless the refugees themselves decide to remain in Sudan". 
"The border has been closed. That of course is an ordinary measure in such situations. UNHCR operations are not affected by this," Dirdeiry said. 
UNHCR spokesman Jonathan Clayton said clarification would have to be sought from the Sudanese government. "While the border is closed, one would assume the refugees cannot cross," he told IRIN on Tuesday.
The Sudanese government has now lifted restrictions on the movement of UNHCR staff in eastern Sudan and registrations for repatriation have resumed. Khartoum has also ordered the expulsion of 10 Eritrean government officials working alongside UNHCR on information campaigns in the refugee camps.

The Sudanese government on Tuesday claimed to have seized the key southern town of Torit, five weeks after its capture by rebels prompted the government to suspend peace talks.
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi told IRIN that government troops had taken control of the town on Tuesday morning. Khartoum had decided to retake Torit, Eastern Equatoria, to quell rumours that the government was "unable to control the situation on the south, and had its back against the wall", he said.
But Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) denied the government's claims. "They just want to create some morale for their troops," Kwaje told IRIN. "Let them try [to take Torit]. We are waiting for them." 
Local sources told IRIN that it appeared the SPLM/A had made a partial withdrawal from the town, and that the government offensive was continuing. 
Government negotiators pulled out of peace talks in Machakos, Kenya on 2 September, saying the SPLM/A had spoiled the atmosphere of talks by attacking and capturing Torit the previous day. The talks, brokered by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are due to resume on Monday, after both parties agreed to a cessation of hostilities for the duration of negotiations. 
In a statement on Friday announcing the resumption of talks, IGAD called on both the SPLM/A and the government to "exercise maximum self-restraint and avoid any action which may jeopardise the resumption of talks".
The Sudanese government on Sunday lifted a ban on relief flights of the UN-led Operation Lifeline Sudan over Eastern Equatoria and Western Equatoria one day before it was due to expire. However, aid activities were still severely restricted in Eastern Equatoria as a result of a extended list of government flight denials, according to humanitarian sources.
Increased restrictions on aid access in Eastern Equatoria at the start of the month raised concerns among aid workers that the government was planning a major offensive in the area.

Eritrea has denied backing Sudanese rebel forces which launched an attack in eastern Sudan last week.
Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella told a news conference in Asmara on Sunday that the claims by the Sudanese government were "a total lie with no supporting evidence". 
According to Sudanese television, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il warned that his country would "confront the Eritrean aggression politically, militarily and through a media campaign". 
An Eritrean government statement expressed "sadness and surprise" at the minister's remarks. 
"Sudan knows its opposition forces are operating from within Sudan," the statement said. "They have their bases there." The statement added that Isma'il's comments "violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Eritrea and are a declaration of a situation of war". 
The Asmara-based opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - of which the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is the biggest component - claimed responsibility for last Thursday's attacks in which government forces lost control of the religiously significant town of Hamashkoreb in Kassala State. 
"The targeting and shelling did not stop at Hamashkoreb, but extended to eight other positions on a front whose length is 180 km along our eastern border with Eritrea," a Sudanese government statement said. 
Sudan's charge d'affaires in Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, claimed that "Eritrean artillery has shelled Sudanese positions from across the border". He said Sudanese government troops had pulled out of Hamashkoreb because of the shelling and "have repositioned themselves".
"The SPLM/A is not giving very good signals at a time when peace talks are being resumed," he told IRIN on Monday. "The government is determined that it is ready to come back to negotiations in spite of all these instigations made by the SPLM/A." 
"We feel that if they are going to sign a cessation [of hostilities] there must be no room for such aggression in the future," he added.
Eritrea's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Teweldemedhin Tesfamariam, on Monday rejected Dirdeiry's claims. 
"Eritrea has no business shelling Sudan," he told IRIN. "As far as we are concerned, Sudan has its own problems, seemingly insurmountable. Sudan is inciting battles inside its own territory - in the south, in the east, everywhere."
"Sudan has made a habit out of pointing fingers at Eritrea whenever it loses a battle or two," he added." I see nothing new in it, except that this time their foreign minister has taken it too far."
Informed Eritrean sources told IRIN the Sudanese government was trying to "make out" that Eritrea was angry over the peace talks between the government and the SPLM/A, due to resume in Kenya next week. But, the sources said, Sudan was "frustrated" because it had lost the strategically important southern town of Torit to the rebels, and now Hamashkoreb. 
The peace talks, which began in the Kenyan town of Machakos last month, stalled after the rebels took Torit, and the government walked out saying the atmosphere had been "spoiled".
Samson Kwaje, the SPLA's Nairobi-based spokesman, confirmed to IRIN that the NDA had bases in eastern Sudan. "We control almost the whole of Kassala [state] now," he asserted.
The latest developments could pose a major setback for the huge ongoing Eritrean refugee repatriation operation in which the UN refugee agency UNHCR is assisting tens of thousands of Eritreans to return home from camps in Sudan.
UNHCR spokesman Jonathan Clayton told IRIN that the repatriation exercise, due to resume at the weekend after a lull caused by heavy rains, had been put on hold. He said 16 trucks had been positioned in and around the town of Kassala in preparation.
The Sudanese government has formally requested UNHCR to stop information campaigns inside the camp, which were part of the repatriation exercise. 
"There are still 90,000 Eritrean refugees in the camps," Clayton said. "These recent developments will have an impact on the operations to return these refugees, and are definitely not helpful."

The Sudanese government and southern rebels have agreed to a cessation of hostilities and the resumption of stalled peace talks, according to the regional grouping sponsoring the talks. 
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said in a statement on Friday that both the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and representatives of Khartoum had agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding prior to a resumption of negotiations scheduled for Monday 14 October.
"In order to create a conducive atmosphere for the talks, both parties have agreed to cease hostilities in all areas and ensure military stand-down of all forces," the IGAD statement said. 
Since the IGAD-sponsored talks broke down on 2 September there has been intensification of fighting across the south, with government forces making advances in southern blue Nile, and launching an offensive to recspture the strategic southern town of Torit, Eastern Equatoria.
The SPLM/A last week offered to suspend military actions during peace negotiations, but stopped short of agreeing to Khartoum's preference for a comprehensive ceasefire. 
The SPLM/A has been wary of agreeing to an open-ended, comprehensive ceasefire as it is concerned the government could use the time to build up its military forces in preparation for a massive offensive across the south, according to regional analysts. 
Arrangements for a permanent ceasefire are on the agenda for the upcoming talks.
Government negotiators walked out of talks five weeks ago, accusing the SPLM/A of spoiling the atmosphere by attacking Torit, and of backtracking on a framework deal by proposing the creation of a capital free of Shari'ah (Islamic) law, and of making claims over transition areas, which Khartoum maintains are part of the north. 
The IGAD statement made no mention of these rebel demands. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Kenya told IRIN on Monday that "all issues have been attended to in the [Memorandum of Understanding] document", and that the government had agreed to a resumption of talks based on the terms of the Machakos Protocol - the framework deal agreed in July. 
However, SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje said these contentious issues had not yet been dealt with, and would be discussed after talks resumed. "These will come up again," he said. 
Over the weekend forces of the opposition National Democratic Alliance - an umbrella group of southern and northern opposition groups - made advances in eastern Sudan, capturing the town of Hamashkoreb.
In view of the continued fighting, the IGAD statement urged both parties to "exercise maximum self-restraint and avoid any action, which may jeopardise the resumption of talks."

The Sudanese government has said it is committed to the humanitarian needs of conflict-affected populations, despite the continued denial of humanitarian access to hundreds of thousands of people in the south of the country.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima told journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday that in meetings with Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha and Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il, the government had expressed its continued commitment to the UN-led Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS).
Taha had instructed the competent Sudanese government authorities to review the issue of humanitarian access, and in particular the imposition of a 10-day ban on the airspace over Eastern and Western Equatoria in the far south of the country, Oshima said.
Oshima also met senior representatives of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Nairobi.
The suspension of aid activities caused by the ban had affected 800,000 people in Eastern and Western Equatoria; stopped food deliveries to some 350,000 to 450,000 people throughout southern Sudan; and meant that a polio vaccination campaign targeting 791,000 children under five would not take place as scheduled, according to a UN briefing.
The United States government on Thursday condemned the flight ban over Equatoria, as well as the imposition of additional restrictions on other parts of rebel-controlled Sudan.
"The denial of access continues the GOS [Government of Sudan] pattern of using humanitarian assistance as a weapon of war," Andrew Natsios, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and special humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, said in a statement.
New restrictions imposed at the beginning of October on flights to the Nuba Mountains, and on over 60 locations in areas under the control of the SPLM/A represented the "most restrictive monthly flight clearance placed on OLS in many years", Natsios said.
Restrictions placed on delivery of aid to the Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan, were "particularly egregious" given the Nuba ceasefire agreement signed by the SPLM/A and the government in January, he added.
The SPLM/A called the denial of access to the Nubas an "arrogant violation" of the humanitarian aspect of the ceasefire agreement. "This is a direct violation of the explicit terms of the Nuba Mountains ceasefire, which has been touted by many as a model of how peace can be extended in Sudan," an SPLM/A spokesman, George Garang, said in a statement on Thursday.
The Sudanese government has, on several occasions since March, increased the number of flight-denied locations, putting it at loggerheads with aid agencies over the crucial issue of access to conflict-affected populations.
A group of seven international aid agencies working in southern Sudan on Friday urged the UN to send a "clear and unambiguous message" to the warring parties requesting unfettered humanitarian access to affected populations. In a Friday statement, a CARE International spokeswoman called for "unequivocal, unrelenting and convergent pressure from the international community" to resolve the issue.
Freedom of access to vulnerable populations - an international humanitarian principle - is guaranteed under a beneficiary protocol of OLS, which established principles for the protection and provision of aid to war-affected populations in Sudan.

The Sudanese government on Thursday denied claims by southern rebels to have attacked a major oil rig in southern Sudan, cutting off the flow of oil to the north.
"This is a figment of someone's imagination," Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Kenya told IRIN. "There was a very minor attack which has been repulsed."
A statement from the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) office in Cairo claimed that rebel forces had penetrated the oil production and pumping complex at Heglig early on Monday and "destroyed the main station for pumping crude oil from the south to the north".
The installation at Heglig, western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), accounts for the bulk of Sudan's oil production, currently running at around 240,000 barrels per day, and is operated by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium of Chinese, Malaysian, Sudanese and Canadian companies, according to AFP. 
The consortium's Canadian member, Talisman Energy Corp., also denied the rebel claims. "There was no attack, there was no battle," Ralph Capeling, Talisman general manager in Khartoum, was quoted as saying by Associated Press on Wednesday. 
Talisman has been heavily criticised by church and human rights groups for its involvement in Sudan. They say thousands of civilians have been forcibly displaced from western Upper Nile to make way for oil exploration. 
The SPLM/A has accused Khartoum of using oil revenues for arms purchases, and says the oil installations are legitimate targets in Sudan's 19-year civil war. "The SPLM hereby reiterates its warning to oil companies and asks them to halt oil production until just peace is realised," the SPLM/A statement said.
The rebel claims come at a time when mediators are attempting to revive crucial peace talks which have been suspended since 2 September. Chief mediator, General Lazarus Sumbeiywo of Kenya, met with government authorities in Khartoum on Tuesday, to discuss proposals for a return to the negotiating table, including an offer from the SPLM/A to suspend military actions during talks.
Should talks resume, the issue of wealth sharing, including the distribution of oil revenues, is expected to be discussed.
Government negotiators walked out of talks being held in Kenya, the day after rebel forces captured the key southern town of Torit, Eastern Equatoria.
Since the talks broke down, fighting has intensified in parts of the south, with government forces reportedly attempting to recapture Torit, and to gain territory in the disputed transition zone of southern Blue Nile. 

Intensified fighting in southern Sudan has raised humanitarian concerns for an estimated three million civilians who are also affected by a recent government ban on relief flights to the region. 
The Sudanese government on Thursday banned all UN humanitarian flights from Kenya to Eastern and Western Equatoria regions in south Sudan for an indefinite period, following weeks of intense fighting between its troops and those of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
The New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement urged the Sudanese government to lift the ban to prevent "a humanitarian crisis from becoming a famine". 
"Coming at the same time that the government is stepping up its bombings of civilian areas in southern Sudan, the relief ban heaps one abuse on another," said Jemera Rone, a researcher with HRW.
Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), a UN umbrella body providing humanitarian aid to the country, said its officials were holding discussions with the Sudanese government in an effort to get the decision reversed.
The SPLM/A has also condemned the ban, saying the denial of humanitarian access to civilians in the region was likely to result in "catastrophic consequences for a population already vulnerable to drought, poor rains, crop failures, and frequent aerial bombardments". 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Kenya, in response said the flight ban was imposed only after fighting in the region intensified and the situation "got completely out of control". He added that he hoped humanitarian flights to the region would resume soon, when the current fighting stopped. 
"We advise them [humanitarian agencies] not to resume flights in the south because fighting is intensifying," Dirdeiry told IRIN on Monday. "It [the ban] is only because of the fighting. Once fighting stops, they can continue." 
Fighting intensified in the south following the rebel capture of Torit earlier this month, a strategic town in Eastern Equatoria. Sudanese President Umar al Bashir also pulled government negotiators out of key talks and ordered his troops to recapture the town at all costs. 

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has offered to suspend military actions during peace negotiations, which have been stalled since government negotiators walked out three weeks ago.
"The SPLA units will be instructed to maintain defensive posture and not go into offensive military operations," rebel spokesman Samson Kwaje said in a statement on Friday. "The SPLA will therefore observe a period of tranquility when the peace talks are in progress."
The rebel offer was welcomed by a presidential peace advisory panel, representing the Khartoum government, AFP reported on Friday. "The government is prepared to receive any proposal [from the SPLA] in this connection through the negotiators who are the sponsors of the negotiations and guarantors of agreements," AFP quoted a statement form the panel as saying. However, Khartoum has not yet formally accepted the offer. 
Chief mediator, General Lazarus Sumbeiywo of Kenya, is scheduled to visit Khartoum on Tuesday 1 October, to discuss with government officials proposals for a return to the negotiating table, Sudanese television reported on Saturday.
Khartoum has repeatedly called for a comprehensive ceasefire as a prerequisite for talks. The SPLM/A however, has been wary of such an open-ended pause in fighting, as it is concerned the government could use the time to build up its military forces in preparation for a massive offensive across the south, according to regional analysts. 
Peace talks being held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) were suspended on 2 September when government negotiators pulled out the day after the SPLM/A captured the strategic town of Torit, Eastern Equatoria, saying the town's fall   had spoiled the atmosphere of the talks.
Khartoum also complained that the SPLM/A had "backtracked" on a framework deal agreed in July - the Machakos Protocol - by proposing that Sudan be governed from a capital free of Shari'ah (Islamic) law, and by calling for negotiations on the status of disputed border areas, which Khartoum says are part of the north.
One of the disputed regions - Southern Blue Nile - has seen an escalation of fighting in recent days, with government forces claiming the capture of a key town in rebel-controlled territory. 
Increased fighting has also been witnessed in Eastern Equatoria, where the government is reportedly attempting to recapture Torit. Khartoum on Friday placed a nine-day ban on humnaitarian aid flights into Eastern Equatoria and Western Equatoria, heightening speculation it was about to launch a major offensive in the area. 

Bilateral relations between Sudan and Uganda have not been threatened by an incident this week in which Sudanese military planes bombed a Ugandan military detachment in southern Sudan, a Sudanese diplomat has said. 
Three Ugandan soldiers were injured on Tuesday when Sudanese military planes dropped bombs on their detachment in Palotaka, Uganda's government-owned 'New Vision' newspaper reported. 
The Sudanese government in March this year permitted Ugandan troops to hunt down the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which is fighting the Ugandan government from bases in southern Sudan.  Southern Sudan also is the scene of Sudan's civil war, involving the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the government.
Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi has already protested against Tuesday's incident to his Sudanese counterpart, who "regretted it and blamed it on his pilots having missed their targets", the 'New Vision' reported. 
Sirajudin Hamid, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Uganda, confirmed the incident but said he had not received any official reports
"The issue is why were they [SPLM/A and Ugandan soldiers] at the same place at the same time? The target was the SPLA, not the UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Force]," he told IRIN. "There is no hostility between Sudan and Uganda. Bilateral relations are good."
According to Hamid, Sudanese government military operations in southern Sudan have intensified since the capture of Torit - a key southern town - by the SPLM/A and the subsequent collapse of peace talks in Kenya earlier this month. 
"After the occupation of Torit by the SPLM/A, the whole area is now a military operation area. Obviously things will be a bit difficult. But this is not for me to decide," Hamid said. 
"The Ugandan defence minister is going to Khartoum to discuss some of the issues touching on the [March] protocol. Maybe they can also discuss ways in which the UPDF can withdraw from places where the Sudan government is running operations," he added. 

Sudanese government forces have made military gains in a key strategic transition area between north and south Sudan, government and rebel sources said on Thursday.
The Sudanese regular army based in the town of Damazin and the paramilitary People's Defence Forces had captured the town of Madal, Southern Blue Nile, on Monday inflicting "heavy casualties" on forces of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the area, the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported. 
A statement from the SPLM/A confirmed that Madal, located some 90 km north of the Ethiopian border at Kurmuk, had been seized. 
Local sources told IRIN that government forces had launched a major offensive in the area seven days ago involving helicopter gunships and Antonov bombers, and was still ongoing.
The region of Southern Blue Nile straddles the transition between north and south Sudan, and is hotly contested by the warring parties, both militarily and politically.
While the SPLM/A says the region has taken up arms against the northern government and should therefore be considered as part of the south, Khartoum points out that it was included as part of the north when Sudan gained its independence in 1956, and should continue to be considered as such, regional analysts told IRIN.
When government negotiators pulled out of peace talks with the SPLM/A earlier this month, they criticised the SPLM/A for continuing to dispute the borders between north and south, and included the ongoing dispute over Southern Blue Nile as a reason for the suspension.
A framework deal - the Machakos protocol - agreed to in July does not deal with the issue of borders, leaving it to be discussed in future talks. 
The SPLM/A has recently accused Khartoum of intensifying offensives across the south, and simultaneously calling for a comprehensive ceasefire in Sudan's 19-year civil war. 
The SPLM/A "condemns the NIF [National Islamic Front] regime for escalating fighting all over the New Sudan without any provocation from the SPLA," the statement said. 

The United Nations system has signed an agreement with both the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on UN support to remove landmines from the war-torn country. 
Both the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A would, with help form the UN, jointly develop a national mine action strategy to meet emergency humanitarian needs, the UN said on Friday. 
Although peace talks between the government and rebels are currently stalled, the strategy would also attempt to deal with the needs in a post-conflict Sudan, and mine action offices would be established in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as well as the southern aid centre of Rumbek.
The agreement was signed during the Fourth Meeting of States Parties to the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Convention, which took place in Geneva last week, the UN said.
Sudan has signed, but not yet ratified the Ottawa Treaty against landmine use, and has repeatedly denied recently laying landmines, claiming the SPLM/A is primarily responsible for their use in Sudan. 
After citing continued use of mines by rebel groups, the Commissioner General of the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission said in May the government would ratify the Ottawa Treaty, but only when "the above-mentioned violations will be ceased", The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in its Landmine Monitor report for 2002.
If the government were to ratify the treaty, it would have to observe a timetable in which it would be required to destroy landmine stockpiles, humanitarian sources told IRIN recently. 
The SPLM/A is not a party to the mine ban treaty, as it can only be signed by recognised national governments. However, the rebel group did sign in October 2001 a separate agreement on a total ban on antipersonnel mines throughout territories under its control - the Geneva Call Commitment to Non-Use.
At the Fourth States Parties meeting, delegates had "agreed to urge non-State actors to cease and renounce the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines", Ambassador Jean Lint of Belgium, president of the meeting said.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, figures compiled by the Sudanese government show there are some two to three million landmines and unexploded ordnance in Sudan, and mine accidents have resulted in more than 70,000 amputees and an equal number of deaths. 

The food security situation facing the oil rich region of western Upper Nile (Wahdah State) is "precarious", having deteriorated over the last month due to continued conflict, the Famine Early Warning System Networks (FEWS Net) reported.
In addition, thousands of people displaced by fighting from Western Upper Nile into neighbouring Bahr-al Ghazal and Jonglei States had lost the benefits of the current agricultural season as they been forced to leave before harvesting their crops, USAID's FEWS Net said in its latest update on southern Sudan.
They would also be unable to take advantage of the cropping season in their areas of refuge, as it was now too late, the report said.
The displacement had put pressure on host communities and risked increasing insecurity still further. An increase in the numbers of displaced people, particularly in the Lakes region, was likely to cause conflict over local resources, such as water and pasture, FEWS Net said. 
The ability of displaced persons to access food would therefore be "highly dependent" on the harvests in Bahr al-Ghazal and the Lakes region, and the "willingness of the host communities to share the local resources".
However, prospects for the coming harvest in Bahr al-Ghazal were poor as a result of inadequate rainfall. "Agro-climatic conditions and the current status of crops in most areas [of southern Sudan] indicated prospects of a poor harvest," the report said.
An upsurge in fighting in recent months around the oilfields of western Upper Nile has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group think tank reported recently. 
Humanitarian flight denials by the Sudanese government to locations in the region have also hampered efforts by aid agencies to deliver much needed relief food to the displaced. 

The Sudanese government and southern rebels have reached an "historic crossroads" in crucial peace negotiations, a leading think-tank has said.
"The government has reached an historic fork in the road as it deliberates next steps," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a new report released on Tuesday. "The rebel SPLA [Sudan People's Liberation Army], bedevilled by competing tendencies towards war and peace, faces a similar moment of truth," it added.
Sudanese government negotiators walked out of talks on 2 September after SPLA forces seized the strategic southern town of Torit, located some 100 km southeast of the Nile River port and key government garrison town of Juba.
In a memo to the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which is sponsoring the talks, the government delegation also claimed that new positions put forward by the SPLM/A since the second round of talks began in mid-August were "completely incompatible" with the Machakos Protocol - the framework deal agreed in July.
"Hardline tendencies that were dormant or hidden have been unleashed on both sides by the prospect of peace," ICG Africa Programme Director John Prendergast said in a statement. "The government and SPLA will have to overcome these forces if they are to reach a comprehensive final deal."
The first round of talks had resulted in a "breakthrough protocol" including agreement on the key issues of a self-determination referendum for southern Sudan, and the relationship between religion and the state, as well as a framework for resolving other outstanding issues, ICG said.
For any future peace talks to be successful, ICG argued, "it is crucial that mediators put forward proposals that genuinely give the long-term unity of north and south Sudan a chance". 
"Khartoum will not sign or implement a deal that does not provide a reasonable prospect that the south will vote to keep the country together, so it is vital that the mediators put forward proposals that create conditions for unity," Prendergast said.
This would also mean providing southerners with satisfactory security arrangements, and provisions for the substantial redistribution of power and wealth, the report added.
Prior to resumption of negotiations on these issues, however, the parties should agree to cease "major offensive actions" for six months to allow talks to break the "dangerous battlefield dynamic." 
[For full ICG report, 'Sudan's Best Chance for Peace: How not to lose it', go to: www.crisisweb.org]

The southern Sudanese town of Torit on Tuesday remained calm but tense, following Monday's heavy bombardment by government warplanes, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) said. 
Media organisations reported on Monday that government planes and helicopters bombed Torit town - which was seized by the SPLM/A from the government on 1 September - causing heavy damage.
SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN there had been no "significant" casualties in the town, although, he said, a total of 100 bombs had been dropped on it during Monday's raid. "They destroyed and flattened buildings, but there were no significant casualties, even in the civilian quarters."
He said government troops were still being mobilised from neighbouring Juba, southern Sudan's main town, currently controlled by the government, to engage SPLA forces on the ground. "Government forces are still being brought from Juba. We are prepared. We are just waiting for them," he added.
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, confirmed the rebel seizure of Torit, and told IRIN that government troops would continue to "fight back". "Southern Sudan is now all smouldering. People are fighting everywhere, and government troops are also fighting back," he said. 
Last week, government negotiators pulled out of peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos aimed at ending Sudan's 19-year civil war, after the SPLA capture of Torit. 
According to Dirdeiry, there has been little effort so far by the international community and the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) negotiators to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. 
He held the SPLM/A responsible for the collapse of the talks and criticised the international pressure being brought to bear on Khartoum - as opposed to the SPLM/A - to resume talks. "No real effort is being made to bring back the parties back to the table," he said. 
"If there is any pressure, then it should be directed at the rebels, who have violated the Machakos Protocol. We cannot be expected to negotiate when fighting is going on," Dirdeiry said. 

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has denied recent media reports that it is intending to attack and seize Juba - the largest city in southern Sudan's Equatoria region - from the government.
SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN on Monday his group had no plans to attack Juba, and was instead concentrating on the defence of Torit, a strategic southern town about 100 km southeast of Juba, which it captured from government forces on 1 September. 
"We don't have plans for Juba," he said. We are just maintaining defences around Torit. They [government troops] have vowed to recapture it from us. We are waiting for them." 
Kwaje also dismissed claims by the Khartoum government that the SPLA had received support from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group which at one time was supported by the Sudanese government and operated from bases in southern Sudan.
"The LRA are our enemies," Kwaje said. "They [Sudan government] just want to explain away their failure to defend Torit. They are now linking us with LRA. But LRA are their friends."
The SPLA's capture of Torit prompted government negotiators to walk out of talks that were underway in Kenya last week. Sudanese President Umar al Bashir ordered "a general mobilisation" of the army to retake the town.
Meanwhile, UN sources told IRIN on Monday that the UN had "temporarily" relocated 17 of its 55 staff from Juba to Khartoum. They were awaiting an assessment of the security situation in Juba, before returning to their work station. 
However the remaining 38 staff, as well as other nongovernmental organisations, are still in Juba and are continuing with "normal operations".

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged the Sudanese government and southern rebels to return to the negotiating table and put an end to the country's 19-year civil war. 
In a statement released by his office, Annan called on the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) "to build upon the progress made towards bringing an end to devastating conflict in the Sudan". 
Sudanese government negotiators walked out of talks on Monday after SPLM/A forces seized the strategic southern town of Torit, located some 100 km southeast of the Nile River port and the key government garrison town of Juba. 
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner has also expressed regret over the suspension of talks. "The United States is deeply disappointed by the decision of the government of the Republic of Sudan to withdraw its delegation from the Machakos talks," he said in a statement. 
US involvement in the peace process, including the appointment of a special envoy to Sudan, has been seen by many observers as a key factor in bringing both sides to the negotiating table. 
However, Kansteiner added that both sides had assured him of their commitment to the peace process. "The government reiterated that the current break is only temporary," he said. "Both parties reconfirmed that there is no possibility of a military victory for either side." He urged them to return to the negotiating table as quickly as possible. 
In a memo to the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which is sponsoring the talks, the government delegation said that new positions put forward by the SPLM/A since the second round of talks began in mid-August were "completely incompatible" with the Machakos Protocol - the framework deal agreed during the first round of talks in July. 
SPLM/A negotiating positions had led to renewed concerns over the issue of relations between religion and state, the proposed structure of an interim government, and the geographic boundary between north and south Sudan, the government said. 
According to rebel officials, however, internal political difficulties facing the Sudanese government were to blame for the impasse. 
Meanwhile, the UN said on Tuesday it had launched an emergency push to assist up to 100,000 civilians displaced by recent fighting in the south of the country. 
Fighting which began in June in the oil-rich region of western Upper Nile (Wahdah State) had forced thousands to flee into neighbouring Bahr al-Ghazal State, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard reported. "They have been forced to walk for at least three days and it is estimated that up to 50 percent of the displaced are children," he said. 

Some 562 child soldiers in southern Sudan have been released and reunited with their parents under a new demobilisation programme being carried out by the international organisation, Save the Children-Sweden.
Alebel Derib, the organisation's programme manager in southern Sudan, told IRIN on Tuesday that the event - which  took place between 3 and 10 August in Bor North and South counties, Jonglei State - was the first in a series of child demobilisations in the region. Most of the freed children were part of a civil defence group charged with protecting the community and its resources, he said.
Prior to this, Save the Children-Sweden had identified and registered 1,210 children serving with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which controls large swathes of territory in the south of the country. 
"Many of them were serving as community guards, protecting villages," Derib said. "This has to stop. We have been raising awareness in the communities. They have agreed to get the children back to school."
According to Derib, the demobilisation is being carried out with the support of the SPLM, which has developed a policy against recruiting children as soldiers. "The movement no longer has intentions to use children to fight," he said. "They have made a commitment against using child soldiers."
The demobilised children are to be integrated back into their communities. In a statement, Save the Children-Sweden said a programme was being launched to refurbish 12 schools, build a teacher training centre and strengthen a youth education centre.
"These institutions will not only serve the returnee children but other youth and children in the community, hence facilitating the reintegration of demobilised child soldiers," the organisation said.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has denied that its recapture of a strategic town in the south was the cause of a breakdown in peace negotiations. It said "internal difficulties" facing the Khartoum government were to blame.
"Before the GOS [Government of Sudan] delegation left Khartoum for the second phase of the talks in [the Kenyan town of] Machakos they were strictly ordered by columns of Islamic fundamentalist members of the regime to torpedo the talks," SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sudanese government negotiators pulled out of talks on Monday after SPLM/A forces captured the strategic town of Torit, Eastern Equatoria, over the weekend.
A statement issued by the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi on Tuesday said the rebel attack on Torit had "spoiled the atmosphere" of the talks. "That indicated the SPLM/A is still committed to the military option and not willing to negotiate in good faith or consider peace a viable option," it said.
However, SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje told journalists in Nairobi on Tuesday an upsurge in fighting around Torit had been initiated by government forces. "Before the start of last week the government of Sudan ordered an offensive on all fronts from Torit," he said.
Kwaje also claimed that government representatives had approached the second round of talks, which began in mid-August, with a negative attitude. "They did not want to act positively. They were looking for reasons to walk out, and finally Torit gave them one," Kwaje said.
Sudanese army spokesman Gen Bashir Sulayman was quoted as saying by the official Sudanese News Agency on Monday that government forces would be mobilised in an attempt to recapture the town. The armed forces would no longer stick to "self-restraint" following the rebel attack, he added.
In addition to the rebel offensive on Torit, the government gave three main reasons for suspending negotiations.
First, the SPLM/A had put forward a proposal for the creation of a federal union composed of one northern and one southern state, whereas the previous Machakos Protocol agreed in July had undertaken to maintain the unity of Sudan for at least a six-year interim period.
Second, continuing disputes over the transition zones between north and south - namely Southern Blue Nile, the Nuba Mountains region of south-central Kordofan, and Abyei in northern Bahr al-Ghazal - had not been settled to the government's satisfaction.
Third, the rebel negotiators had re-opened the issue of the relationship between state and religion by introducing the concept of a Shari'ah-free capital for Sudan. The SPLM/A say that, while the framework Machakos Protocol exempts the southern states from Islamic law, they are still opposed to an interim government being based in Khartoum as long as Shari'ah operates there.
In an apparent demonstration of the seriousness of the impasse, government negotiators had been instructed by Khartoum to return to the Sudanese capital, and had already left Machakos, Sudan radio reported on Tuesday.
"The Government of the Sudan has called back its delegation to the IGAD peace talks in Machakos, Kenya, for consultation," the Sudanese embassy statement said. "The Government of Sudan appeals to the international community to exert all pressure on the SPLM/A so as to compel it to live up to its previous commitments."
Agreement on a framework peace deal in July had raised hopes that negotiators may have been able to bring an end to Sudan's 19-year civil war.
The sharing of power and wealth between north and south, security arrangements, the geographic definition of the south, and the modalities of a comprehensive ceasefire were all due to be discussed during the second round of talks, sponsored by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), under the chairmanship of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.

Sudan's Islamist opposition leader, Hasan al-Turabi, who has been under house arrest for the past year, has been transferred to prison, according to media reports.
Turabi, the former Speaker of parliament, was arrested in February 2001 on charges of undermining the constitution and waging war against the state. His arrest marked the end of a long power struggle with President Umar al Bashir, whom he helped bring to power in a 1989 coup.
Turabi's transfer to jail follows a presidential decree extending his house arrest for another year. The decision sparked violent protests from his supporters, and attacks on prominent government officials in Khartoum.
Wisal al-Mahdi, Turabi's wife, complained that the authorities at Kober Prison, in the north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, were barring her from visiting her husband, AFP reported.
A regional analyst told IRIN on Tuesday that Khartoum's decision to transfer Turabi to jail indicated it was becoming "increasingly nervous" of his influence on the northern population.
"He is the major political threat to the government," the analyst said. "He controls the Muslim extremist groups. They don't know what he might do next."
Turabi recently voiced his opposition to a peace agreement between the government and the rebels reached in the Kenyan town of Machakos in July. "Turabi said the government sold out on Islam by trying to divide the country," the analyst said. "This is making Khartoum very nervous."

The Sudanese government on Monday suspended peace talks with southern rebels in protest over an attack on a key government garrison town in the south, news agencies reported.
"The Sudanese delegation to the Kenya talks will suspend the talks as of today because of the atmosphere created by the military operations and the occupation of Torit town," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il was quoted as saying by the Associated Press (AP). 
"When we are convinced that the rebel movement is serious about continuing toward peace and achieving a peace settlement, then the situation will change," he said, after meeting his Egyptian counterpart Ahmad Maher in Cairo on Monday. 
The rebel SPLM/A were unavailable for comment. 
A statement from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Sunday said rebel forces had taken control of the strategic town of Torit, Eastern Equatoria, in a counter-attack after government forces had been ordered to advance from Torit. 
"SPLA forces of the 2nd front are now in full control of Torit," SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje said in the statement. 
The official spokesman of the Sudanese armed forces, Maj-Gen Muhammad Bashir Sulayman was quoted as saying by the 'Khartoum Monitor' that government forces had "tactically withdrawn" from Torit in order to regroup outside the town. 
According to Sulayman, however, SPLM/A forces had shelled Torit for two days, reflecting a "lack of seriousness" in the Sudanese peace process. "It is now clear that the rebels have no intention to negotiate peace with the government forces," Sulayman said on Sunday. 
Negotiations between government and rebel representatives to work out the details of a peace deal have been underway in the Kenyan town of Machakos under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). While a framework deal agreed in July had raised hopes that negotiators may be able to finally bring an end to Sudan's 19-year civil war, agreement has not yet been reached on the modalities of a comprehensive ceasefire, the sharing of power and wealth, security arrangements and the geographic definition of the south. 
The current round of talks, which began on August, was due to continue until mid-September. 
"The SPLM/A reiterates its commitment to the IGAD peace process and will not be derailed from the pursuit of peace," the SPLM/A statement, released before the suspension of talks, said. "However, we also reserve the right to take pre-emptive action in order to protect the civilian population in areas under our control and to defend our positions."

Rights group condemns newspaper suspension

A human rights organisation in Sudan has protested against the government's decision to hand down a one-day suspension on a leading newspaper over an article it published on female circumcision.
In a statement, the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) said the decision to suspend publication of the Khartoum-based 'Al Ayam' newspaper had been reached on 24 August by the Sudan National Press Council (NPC). The NPC is a government-run body which monitors the print media in the country. 
It accused 'Al Ayam' of "offending public decency" by publishing an article on the widespread practice of female circumcision - also known as female genital mutilation (FGM) - in its medical column which deals with health questions from readers, according to SOAT. 
"The action of the NPC demonstrates both the continued restrictions on freedom of expression imposed by the government, and its unwillingness to allow open discussion of personal or medical matters, especially on the issue of female circumcision," SOAT said. 
Khartoum is officially opposed to female circumcision and has banned the practice in the country, although regional experts say it is still widespread. 
One analyst told IRIN that the "continued harassment" of the press in Sudan was forcing newspapers to practise high levels of self-censorship in order to stay in business. 
"The net effect of such harassment is that they all just practise self-censorship so they don't close down the newspapers," he said. 

International human rights organisations have expressed concern over the fate of 88 people, including two children, who have been sentenced to death by hanging or crucifixion in Sudan's Darfur region for taking part in ethnic clashes. 
On Sunday, the Sudanese government reportedly said it would not overturn the death sentences against the 88 people convicted of taking part in May clashes between the ethnic al-Muraalia and Reizagat tribes. At least 50 people were killed in the clashes. 
The rights group, Amnesty International, has condemned the death sentences as unfair and called for the immediate release of the detainees. 
"Everything is wrong with this case," the organisation said in a recent statement. "Not only have death sentences been passed, which Amnesty International opposes unconditionally, but they were passed after an obviously unfair trial. Those sentenced include two children, despite the worldwide ban on sentencing children under the age of 18 to death."
According to Amnesty, "emergency courts" sometimes known as "special courts", were established in Darfur under a 1998 state of emergency, which grants wide powers to circumvent Sudan's Criminal Procedures Act. The courts are headed by two military judges and one civilian judge and do not permit legal representation for the accused, the agency said. 
The Geneva-based International Secretariat of World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) said it was deeply concerned over the health of the detainees and the "continuing wave of arbitrary arrests and detentions" in Darfur.
In a statement, the OMCT urged the Khartoum government to carry out an impartial investigation into the "arbitrary circumstances" under which some of the prisoners were arrested and detained, as well as reports of the use of torture.
"More generally, OMCT is concerned by the reported worsening human rights situation in Darfur, which includes mass arrests, harsh detention conditions and the continuing persecution of the people from the African tribes native to the region," it added. 
"The government of Sudan must now ensure that the sentences are not carried out," Amnesty International said. "It should put an end to this cruelty."

A south Sudan women's group has said voting in the country's forthcoming referendum should be restricted to ethnic southerners.
In a statement on last month's peace agreement, the Southern Women's Group for Peace (SWGP) said residency in southern Sudan should not automatically be the basis for acquiring the right to vote. 
The referendum on self-determination is to be held in six years' time in accordance with the provisions of the Machakos Protocol.
The organisation said voting should be restricted to southerners "in the context of a clearly specified southern region". It said a southerner should be defined as a person whose parents' ancestry was traceable to any of the ethnic communities residing in south Sudan since 1820.
A referendum law should be part of the final agreement reached between the Sudanese government and the rebel the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which would include the principles and outlines of the referendum processes, the SWGP added. 
It said that in the event of a ceasefire, the agreement should be guaranteed and safeguarded by international bodies including the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the countries involved in the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development mediation.
The government and the SPLM are currently negotiating in a second round of peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos following the landmark peace deal signed on 20 July.

Direct negotiations between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) were due to begin on Monday after a week spent deliberating the agenda, the state-run Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported.
The current round of negotiations is being held in the Kenyan town of Machakos. SUNA said the announcement was made by Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, the presidential adviser on peace affairs.
He said documents presented by international experts and discussed by the warring parties included wealth-sharing at national and state level, and power-sharing arrangements. 
Meanwhile, President Umar al-Bashir on Monday reaffirmed his government's commitment to the provisions of the Machakos peace agreement, signed between the two sides last month, Sudanese radio reported. 
He said he hoped agreement would be reached between the government and the SPLM during this second round of talks, and stressed the need to present the agreement to the public, saying the option of unity would be left to the Sudanese people.

A leading southern Sudanese activist has called for independence for the Nuba Mountains region in south-western Sudan, as part of a final negotiated peace deal expected to follow ongoing talks to end the country's long-standing conflict.
The Sudanese veteran politician and leader of the Free Sudanese National Party (FSNP), Father Philip Abbas Ghabbush, was quoted in the Sunday edition of the Khartoum Monitor newspaper as saying he would like to see the Nuba Mountains made independent under international trusteeship if the peace talks being held in Kenya failed to address the issue of the region. 
The negotiations are being conducted in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and chaired by Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi. They are a follow-up to talks in July at which a landmark agreement was reached between the Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on the holding of a referendum in the south in six years' time to decide between unity and secession.
However, the issue of the Nuba Mountains did not feature in the July talks, according to Ghabbush. "We will ask for making the Nuba Mountains an independent entity, under the responsibility of the United Nations. It was not stated during the talks that the Nuba Mountains belong to the north or the south," he said.
Khartoum has so far insisted that southern Sudan is defined by boundaries set at independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956. These exclude Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile and other disputed and marginalised regions, whose inhabitants, the SPLM/A argues, identify with the southern struggle, although not physically in the south. 
Philip Neroun, the executive director of the Nuba Relief Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NRRDO), and a supporter of the southern struggle, told IRIN on Friday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that the ongoing negotiations in Machakos were expected to address the inclusion of the Nuba Mountains as part of the south, but not as an independent region. "We respect his [Ghabbush's] ideas for Nuba to be separate, but SPLM/A wants the Nuba Mountains to be part of the south," he said.
"According to the [Machakos] Protocol [arrived at in July], boundaries are not defined. The issues are being pushed in this round," he added. 
During the July talks, negotiators withdrew a proposal to use the 1956 geographical definitions of southern Sudan, after the SPLM/A raised objections, according to Neroun. With the July talks having succeeded, regional political sources believe that the current round of talks provide a good chance for the parties to substantively address the issues of wealth-sharing, and the fate of the Nuba Mountains and other disputed areas.
Ghabbush is supported by an alliance of three political parties active in the region - the Nuba Mountains General Union, the Sudan National Party, and his own party - which have echoed his  demand for Nuba Mountains to be treated as an entity separate from both the north and the south. 
In a letter addressed to Lazarus Sumbeiywo, Kenya's peace envoy to Sudan, on 5 August, the alliance said the three parties were "extremely concerned about the Nuba Mountains' future, because the issue of the Nuba Mountains, as well as the marginalised areas in northern Sudan, was not mentioned in the agreement". 
"We in the alliance, and on behalf of the Nuba people of Sudan, would like to bring to your attention that the Nuba Mountains borders of the 1925 Provinces Act clearly indicate that the Nuba Mountains is a separate region which has its own entity. Therefore, it is important to bear this fact in mind at your next negotiations in Nairobi," it added. The Machakos protocol referred only to north and south with, "no reference at all to the Nuba Mountains, as if Nuba Mountains is part and parcel of either south or north", the  letter said. 
The main demands by the alliance are that the Nuba Mountains region be administered from either the north or the south, under the supervision of international bodies during the six-year transitional period agreed upon in the Machakos protocol; and that at the end of the transitional period, the Nuba people should have the same right as the southern Sudanese people to determine their political future in the referendum, according to the alliance.
The 19-year Sudanese conflict, which has killed an estimated two million people, has often been portrayed as a war between the Muslim fundamentalist north and the largely Christian and animist south, but analysts argue that in reality, it is much more complex. The conflict also is believed to be further complicated by the ongoing oil exploitation being undertaken by the Khartoum government, with Canadian, Chinese and other foreign partners in the disputed regions of south-central Sudan, such as western Upper Nile. 
In the Nuba Mountains, the war has resulted in devastating humanitarian problems, prompting the United States government in September 2001 to appoint Senator John Danforth as its peace envoy to Sudan. Danforth early this year successfully negotiated a six-month ceasefire for the Nuba region. The ceasefire, which expired in July has been renewed for another six months.

Recent fighting between Sudanese government troops and forces of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in the oil rich regions of southern Sudan, which has led to massive displacement, has further undermined the already precarious food security situation and increased rates of malnutrition in the area.
The latest report by the US Agency for International Development-funded Famine Early Warning System Networks (FEWS Net) on southern Sudan has painted a gloomy picture of food prospects there. The report, released on Tuesday, stated that the situation was particularly adverse in the Jonglei and Upper Nile regions due to continuing conflict, and was not expected to improve before the September/October harvests.
"Most households in these areas have relied on assistance for their food since the beginning of this year. The reliance on food aid has been the result of conflict in recent years and has seriously disrupted markets and crop production," the report stated.
The most recent displacement of populations took place in July when people fled from western Upper Nile (Wahdah/Unity State) to the neighbouring Bahr al-Ghazal and Lakes regions, and although a proportion of the population had fled with their cattle, they moved at a time when the hunger season was at a peak and to an area where grain prices were highest and cattle prices were lowest, according to the report. "This is also the region where the majority of previously displaced households from western Upper Nile are residing," the report said. 
In the Bieh area, where conflict resulted in the killing of an aid worker and the abduction of three others by a southern based militia group, all humanitarian intervention had been suspended. This could worsen the already high malnutrition rates and disease incidence, food scarcity and access to safe water, the report said.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said its stocks of food were expected to last only until this month, before the current crop is ready for harvest. "This could be serious for areas already faced with malnutrition," WFP said in a statement included in the FEWS Net report.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which controls much of southern Sudan has reached an agreement with the Didinga people of the Equatoria region in the south to end their long-standing bilateral conflict. 
A two-page declaration issued after a "reconciliation and healing" conference between the Didinga and SPLM/A held in Nakwatom between 8 and 12 August said about 170 delegates from the local Didinga community, as well as from the neighbouring Toposa, Latuka and Dinka communities, attended the conference, according to a statement from the Kenya-based New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC). 
Telar Deng, the NSCC Peace and Advocacy Coordinator and main facilitator of the conference, told IRIN on Tuesday that the declaration was a breakthrough, because it had resolved a "problem that has existed for a long time". He said a special committee had been set up to ensure the smooth implementation of the declaration, which would be supervised by himself.
"This agreement is different in the sense that it gives people the opportunity to express their views freely. Previous initiatives failed because they were done by the SPLM/A, yet it was accused of oppressing the people. There was a high presumption that the SPLM/A, because of being a party to the conflict, couldn't resolve it," he said. 
In the declaration, signed on 12 August under the auspices of NSCC, the two parties apologised to each other, pledged to unite and to work towards solving the many problems affecting war-ravaged southern Sudan. 
"Having listened to all our deliberations and perspectives, we acknowledge and regret the shameful loss of life, suffering and destruction of property that occurred over the years, and ask forgiveness for the suffering caused to our loved ones, relatives and the community at large," the declaration said. "We all share the blame for yielding to 'blind revenge' and thus identifying the crisis, but we pledge today to forgive one another and open a new chapter," it added. 
According to Deng, relations between the Didinga community, who occupy the Chukudum area in Budi sub-county of the Equatoria region, and the SPLM/A had been tense for many years, but worsened in 1998, which saw increased fighting between the civilian population and the SPLM/A authorities. The conflict has been attributed to security concerns, governance in the area, socio-cultural factors, and economic interests, in addition to general conditions occasioned by the war between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A. 
The 12 August declaration, said Deng, was also of "great significance" in the overall Sudanese peace process and the current talks on ending the country's 19-year civil war. 
The talks, which opened last week in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, are a follow-up to the July talks which resulted in an agreement between the Sudanese government and SPLM/A for the holding in six years' time of an internationally supervised referendum on whether the south should secede from the north. The agreement was hailed as a breakthrough.

As the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army continue their second round of peace talks in Kenya this week, analysts agree that optimism for an agreement is warranted. 
With a consensus on the increasingly effective mediation partnership between Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) envoys from Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia and a group of observer nations comprising the US, UK, Norway and Italy, a momentum seems to have developed which, it is hoped, could end Sudan's 19-year civil war. 
Speaking in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, last week, John Prendergast, Co-Director of the International Crisis Group's (ICG) Africa programme, told reporters that the talks represented the best chance for Sudanese peace since the 1989 coup that brought Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir to power. 
US Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan John Danforth told reporters in Nairobi on Monday that because of the "very, very strong support" for the peace process worldwide, and his own belief in the will of the relevant parties to successfully conclude the talks, he was optimistic for an agreement for the first time since being appointed to his post. 
US President George W. Bush was "very personally engaged" in Sudan, Danforth told reporters, and the international community had a common commitment to supporting peace in Sudan both now and in the future. 
EGYPT'S FEARS 
Yet neighbouring Egypt - which since 1999 has brokered a Libyan-Egyptian peace initiative prioritising national unity - is firmly opposed to the landmark Machakos Protocol, signed on 20 July, which provides for a possible secession of the south after a referendum in six years' time. Egypt fears that secession might lead to increased competition for the Nile waters, as well a more extreme Islamist government in the north, analysts say. 
In a joint press conference held on 1 August with Sudanese Information Minister Mahdi Ibrahim, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir said that "Egypt stands firmly behind Sudan's unity", AFP reported. "Egypt supports this unity in the context of one country in which all people have their own rights and enjoy the fruits of national wealth," he went on to say, speaking on Egyptian President Husni Mubarak's behalf. 
On 31 July, Usamah al-Baz, an adviser to Mubarak, reiterated his government's opposition to partition. "Partitioning the country of Sudan into two parts would be a contagious phenomenon that would spread to surrounding countries on the basis of tribe, language, and religion," the state-run MENA news agency quoted him as saying, according to AFP. 
Accusations regarding US interests in the peace talks, and the exclusion of Egypt from them, have also appeared in Egyptian state-owned newspapers. "The major objective of the United States is to eliminate the Egyptian-Libyan influence and to abort their initiative and to separate the south of Sudan from the north on any basis," said a columnist, Salamah Ahmad Salamah, in the state-run Al-Ahram daily, AFP reported. "Egypt was completely excluded because of American pressure," he added. 
Notably, as recently as May 2002, Bashir and Mubarak, meeting in Cairo, discussed "reactivating the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative" and "other efforts aimed at guaranteeing the national unity of Sudanese territory," AFP reported. On 15 August, Foreign Minister Mahir stressed that the Libyan-Egyptian initiative - which many regard as an attempt to undercut the IGAD process - was still "not out of date". 

Future plans 
The Sudanese presidential peace adviser, Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, has said that Khartoum will work to develop southern Sudan in order to preserve unity. "The government has plans for development projects in the south, and we will enter into a race against time... to modernise the south and preserve the unity of the country," AFP quoted him as telling the state-owned Al-Akhbar daily. "It would be important to discuss with the different Sudanese parties how to benefit from this initiative in a way to preserve Sudan's unity," he added. 
But despite such "encouragement", the likelihood remains that the southern Sudanese may well opt - presuming that Bashir's government is still in place in six years' time and that the referendum takes place as agreed - for secession, something that Egypt must be aware of, analysts say. 
ICG has warned that if Cairo's security fears are not allayed, it could become a spoiler. Mubarak could work with anti-Bashir elements in Khartoum to undermine or topple the president, and thus wreck the entire peace process, said Prendergast last week. For Egypt, "Sudan is foremost a national security issue. They have said that repeatedly because of the [Nile] water issue," he said. "Egypt could work to erode support for Machakos among members of the Arab League." 
"The US must get Egypt on board," he stressed, adding that high-level and personal diplomacy was required from Bush to achieve this. But despite having said that Sudanese peace was a priority, Prendergast noted, "President Bush has never made a phonecall specifically about Sudan". 
Danforth, however, dismissed the possibility of any interference from Egypt, saying that while it remained opposed to succession, it recognised that partition of Sudan was a possibility. "They're now dealing with the reality," he said. "I do not see Egypt as a spoiler. The government gave no indication of that when I was in Cairo."

Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has extended the house arrest of the opposition-leader, Hasan Abdullah al-Turabi, for one year. No trial has taken place after 19 months in detention.
"President Bashir, on the basis of Article 132 of the Constitution and Article 15 of the Law on Emergency and Public Security of 1998, has taken an extraordinary decision to extend the detention of Hasan Abdullah al-Turabi, for a renewable period of one year," AFP quoted the state-run Sudan News Agency as saying on Sunday.
A day before the renewal, a lawyer acting on Turabi's behalf had announced that a judge of the constitutional court had ordered his release, news agencies reported. This report was subsequently denied by the court's chairman, stating that instructions to release Turabi had never been released.
The decree was issued on the basis of state-of-emergency regulations - introduced in 1999 - and the Sudanese constitution. More than 20 lawyers drawn from various opposition groups were, however, questioning its legality, and had announced that they would consider a formal challenge, AFP reported.
Turabi, the leader of opposition party Popular National Congress (PNC), and formerly the Speaker of the National Assembly, was arrested on 21 February 2001, on charges of undermining the constitution and waging war against the state. His arrest followed his signing of a memorandum with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which stated that the agreed objectives - working jointly to resolve the crisis and establish a democratic system - would be pursued by peaceful means of popular resistance against the government's "authoritarian" methods.
Two days later, the government brought charges against him. Bashir said at the time that Turabi would never be released unless he denounced the SPLM/A memo he had signed, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported.
"It is alarming that even a politician as prominent as Dr Turabi, who has held high government office with the president and has been politically active for more than three decades, may be subjected to prolonged detention without trial, with no opportunity to disprove the charges against him in open court," said HRW in a March 2002 letter to the president.
Turabi's continuing detention is widely considered to be part of an ongoing power struggle between himself and Bashir, whom he helped to seize power in a 1989 coup.
(IRIN, Nairobi, 19 August 2002)

Tens of thousands displaced since signing of accord

Since the signing of the landmark Machakos Protocol on 20 July between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, tens of thousands of people have been displaced by a government offensive in the area of the oil fields in western Upper Nile (Wahdah/Unity State).
Speaking in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday, John Prendergast of the advocacy body, International Crisis Group, told reporters that tens of thousands were now stranded on the border between western Upper Nile and Bahr al-Ghazal.
Since the signing of the accord, government forces had effectively opened up a "third front" on the western side of the oil fields in an effort to clear the area of civilians and secure control over it. Previously, most of the fighting had occurred on the eastern and northern sides of the oil areas.
From the government garrison of Mankien, the villages of Tam, Buoth, Kerial, Wicok and Rier had been attacked by forces loyal to the government, including the Arab mounted militias known as the Murahilin. Witnesses - members of the Nuer tribe - had consistently spoken of militia groups burning villages, stealing cattle, and sometimes women and children, he said. These were used as payment in kind for the militia groups, he added. 
Fighting on the ground had been backed by Antonov aircraft dropping bombs, and a more efficient use of helicopters than previously observed, with pilots identifying locations for attack on the ground.
The offensives were an attempt to hold the towns so that border posts could be set up, said Prendergast. "The idea is to clear the areas of civilians. After each attack, the civilians trickle back to their homes, but there are only so many times you will do that before giving up."
Prendergast emphasised, however, that the fighting had no bearing on the second round of peace talks taking place in the south-western Kenyan town of Machakos since Monday. "Both sides have to pursue the battlefield option while negotiations go on, in case they don't work," he commented.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has sent out an urgent appeal for funding to help assist victims of heavy rains which hit parts of northern Sudan between 3 and 8 August, causing severe flooding and rendering thousands homeless.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Federation said floods had caused extensive damage in the northern states of Western Kordofan, White Nile, Al-Jazirah and Khartoum, where the thousands of displaced people were facing serious health risks from poor access to clean water and sanitation facilities, the statement said. 
According to the Federation, the area worst hit by the floods was Al-Nahud town in Western Kordofan, where at least 25,000 residents were facing severe health risks as a result of the flooding. About 20 villages in White Nile, and 26 in Al-Jazirah had also been affected. In Khartoum State, heavy rains coupled with flash floods had hit about 126 houses in Al-Safa village, south of Omdurman, it added. 
The worst effects of the flooding had been found in Al-Nahud town, where thousands of homes had been washed away. Here the population was facing immediate health risks due to lack of shelter, clean water and sanitation, the statement said. 
Initial surveys carried out by the authorities, the Sudanese Red Cross and Crescent Society and humanitarian organisations, found that 3,000 families in the town had completely lost their homes, while the huts of 1,933 others had been partially damaged, according to the statement. Over 600 latrines and a number of public facilities had also been affected.
The Federation said the most immediate needs for the affected people comprised plastic sheeting or tents, blankets, essential medicines and medical equipment, water purification materials, mosquito nets and water pumps, as well as a month's food ration for 25,000 people. 
Support for staff and volunteers to be involved in the emergency operation in the affected states was also needed. "Cash contributions are therefore urgently needed to cover the cost of deployment of staff and volunteers for assessment, transportation of materials and the local purchase of water purification, sprayers, drugs and blankets," the Federation said. 

The US envoy for Sudan, John Danforth, said on Wednesday that rights for southerners were the key to national unity.
"The issue is what will happen in the next six years," he said. "Whether there will be a just peace, whether the rights of the people who are in the minority and the people in the south will be recognised and whether they will be full participants in the country," Reuters news agency quoted him saying in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Following a meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa, he told reporters that almost all parties to the 19-year conflict recognised that a united Sudan was desirable, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the appointment of a Canadian special envoy for peace in Sudan was greeted with reservations in Khartoum. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il had told journalists that the appointment of Senator Mobina Jafer "is still under consideration by the concerned authorities", AFP reported. Ottawa should have consulted Khartoum before taking this step, he added. "It is difficult to expect that Sudan would agree to such an appointment, by any country, without full consideration," AFP quoted him saying.
In a separate development, the donor community, together with United Nations agencies, expressed concern on Wednesday over the serious humanitarian situation obtaining in parts of Sudan due to "continued military operations and lack of humanitarian access". In a statement, they called for "a dramatic gesture" which would allow "immediate free and unimpeded access" to populations in need.
Peace talks between the two main warring parties, the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which opened in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos on Monday, are a follow-up to talks in July which resulted in the historic Machakos Protocol.
The Protocol makes provision for a referendum for the population in southern Sudan - the scene of fierce fighting between Khartoum and the SPLM/A since 1983 - to be conducted in six years' time to choose whether to secede or remain in a united Sudan. 
Matters yet to be agreed on by the parties include the geographic definition of the south, power sharing, wealth sharing, and security arrangements. A statement issued this week by the advocacy group, International Crisis Group, also said that the signed protocol was ambiguous on the issue of the relationship between religion and state. "The issue will remain a live one until an agreement is reached on a constitution for the central government that is neutral on religion," it noted.

Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir has lifted a ban on political parties, as a step towards his goal of establishing democratic institutions in the country, a Sudanese diplomat in Nairobi has told IRIN.
Bashir abolished all political parties when he took over power in a coup in 1989. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, said on Monday that legislation aimed at establishing freedom of association was enacted in 1997. He said the latest presidential move was meant to lift some of the tough regulations governing the registration of parties. "We have been in the democratic process. This is just part of it," he said. 
With the lifting of the ban, Sudan's more than 10 opposition political parties will be able to fully participate in the country's political life, have full access to the media, and be able to contact their constituents, according to Dirdeiry. 
The lifting of the ban has coincided with the arrival in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, of Alan Goulty, the British envoy to Sudan, and the opening on Monday of the second phase of Sudanese peace talks in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos. 
Goulty, who arrived in Khartoum, also on Monday, is on a two-day visit for talks on the Sudanese peace process aimed at ending the country's 19-year-civil war, according to AFP. "We have had a good discussion on the need to plan for implementation of the peace agreement which will be coming soon," the agency quoted Goulty as saying after meeting Karam al-Din Abd al-Mawla, the Sudanese international cooperation minister, on Monday. 
The talks are a follow-up to talks held in July, which culminated in a historic agreement, the Machakos Protocol, being signed between the main warring parties - the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
Under the deal, the parties agreed that a referendum for the population of southern Sudan - the scene of fierce fighting between Khartoum and the SPLM/A since 1983 - be conducted in six years' time to choose between to secession or remaining within a united Sudan. 
The agreement was hailed as a breakthrough, but renewed fighting in the south in the last few weeks since it was signed has been seen as a setback, raising fears of lack of commitment to the accord on the part of the signatories.

The second phase of Sudanese peace talks, a follow-up to the talks in July which resulted in a historic agreement between the main warring parties - the Khartoum Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)- opened in the south-western Kenyan town of Machakos on Monday.
The July talks resulted in the Machakos Protocol, in which both parties agreed that a referendum for the population in southern Sudan - the scene of fierce fighting between Khartoum and the SPLM/A since 1983 - be conducted in six years' time to choose whether to secede or remain in a united Sudan. 
The protocol was hailed as a breakthrough, but renewed fighting since it was signed has been seen as a setback, raising fears of lack of commitment to the accord on the part of the signatories. 
The Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has described the second phase of the current talks as "the best", but "shaky", chance for a just peace in Sudan since the civil war broke out after Khartoum imposed the Islamic Shari'ah law throughout the country in 1983. 
In a statement released on Monday, ICG said an agreement would be hard to reach on the detailed issues currently on the table, and the international mediators would have a huge responsibility in keeping the talks on track. According to the ICG statement, the Machakos Protocol of 20 July, and other agreed matters of principle still have to be "translated into a detailed peace agreement". 
Matters yet to be agreed on include, the geographic definition of the south, power sharing, wealth sharing, and security arrangements, it said. "As so often, the devil is lurking in the detail, and his appearance here seems guaranteed when either side doesn't like the direction the talks are headed", the ICG President, Gareth Evans, said in the statement.
Moreover, the protocol was ambiguous on the issue of the relationship between religion and state, ICG said. "The issue will remain a live one until an agreement is reached on a constitution for the central government that is neutral on religion," it went on to note.
The talks, which are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) under the chairmanship of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, are receiving support from the governments of the US, the UK, Norway and Italy. Although this is the first time for the US government to directly participate in the mediation of the Sudanese war, analysts argue that its commitment to the talks is vital to the peace process. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the Sudanese charge d'affaires in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN on Monday that he was optimistic that the second phase of the talks would make further progress. "We are very optimistic that once we have agreed on most of the contentious points, we will agree on other issues as well," he said. "This, of course, doesn't mean the negotiations will be easy. It will be very tough. We are going to have real negotiations."
In order to make the talks a success, mediators would need to "use their authority" to ensure that the line on the self-determination referendum was held, press for compromises that promote national unity, create mechanisms for broader Sudanese participation in the peace process, and craft a multilateral strategy of incentives and pressures to be deployed at the request of the IGAD mediation team, ICG said. 
"A referendum on unity or secession at the end of the agreed six-year transition period remains the best insurance that the government will actually implement its part of the agreement, because it will want to do everything before then to maximise the chances of a southern vote for national unity," the ICG statement noted.
It also noted the need for Egypt to be brought into this strategy "as it has a vested interest in seeing a more inclusive, less extreme government in Khartoum".
Cairo, which has been spearheading a separate peace initiative for Sudan with the help of Libya, has opposed the Machakos Protocol, which, it said, raised the possibility of secession of the south from the north - a prospect which was against Egypt's interests, according to Egyptian media. The Egyptian newspaper, Al-Wafd, on 8 August, published an interview in which Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir said the Machakos agreement had taken his government by surprise and that it felt excluded from the talks. 
"I want to stress that Egypt's relationship with Sudan is vital. Consequently, Egypt cannot forsake Sudan under any circumstances. If the south secedes from the north after six years, it would mean we have failed," he said in the interview. 
"Cairo's opposition to a referendum must be discussed at the highest level between the Egyptian and US governments in order convince Egypt that the unity of Sudan would be best guaranteed if it is voluntary and based on just and equitable political and economic arrangements," ICG stressed in its statement.
"The worst outcome would be an unreformed regime in power in the north and the SPLA alone in charge of the south. This would be a recipe for continued war or eventual secession. To promote democracy and protect human rights in Sudan, the mediation effort should also ensure that the national constitution is neutral on the issue of religion (while leaving open the option of the northern part of the country embracing Shari'ah in whole or part)," ICG said.

Two aid workers abducted in southern Sudan last week have been released following successful negotiations with the militia holding them, the United Nations said on Saturday.
The two aid workers - a German and a Kenyan - were released from captivity in Yuai in Bieh State at 15:00 local time on Saturday and handed over to representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Michael Sackett, said in a statement. A third aid worker had been released by the militia on Thursday.
Sackett called on all parties in Sudan "to ensure the safety of all humanitarian workers in Sudan".
"Until the end it was not clear if we would be released today, but everything went well," Ekkeehard Forberg, one of the released men was quoted as saying by Reuters on Saturday. "All day there were different situations, it wasn't clear."
The three relief workers were abducted during an attack by a government-backed militia led by Cdr Simon Gatwich on the town of Waat on Monday 29 July, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday. All three were employees of international aid agency World Vision, and were working on child malnutrition, immunisation and primary health care in and around Waat, in southern Sudan's Upper Nile State.
A fourth World vision staff member, a Kenyan, Charles Kibbe, was killed during the attack on Waat.
The World Vision team had only returned to Waat in June, having been evacuated in April after Gatwich's militia gained control of the town, according to the World Vision International website. Forces allied to the Sudan People's Defence Forces, a rebel group that in January merged with the main southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, recaptured Waat in June, facilitating the return of the World Vision team, the website said in a report dated 11 June.

A German aid worker abducted in southern Sudan on Monday has been released and flown to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the United Nations reported on Thursday.
Preliminary reports indicated the relief worker, an employee of non-governmental organisation World Vision, was in good health, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters in New York. 
Eckhard said the UN was working with World Vision and the German government to secure the release of two other aid workers still being held captive. "The United Nations is very concerned about the welfare of the two aid workers still missing," he said. 
The three, all employees of World Vision, went missing on Monday during a militia attack on the town of Waat, Upper Nile State. A fourth World Vision staff member, Kenyan national Charles Kibbe, was killed in the attack. 
Although it was unclear who was responsible for the attack on Waat, German news agency Deutsche-Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported that the two remaining captives were being held by members of a splinter militia opposed to the main rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

The Sudanese government on Wednesday denied claims by southern rebels that government forces had killed more than 1,000 people in a major offensive in south Sudan's main oil region.
"This is a figment of someone's imagination. The government has launched no offensive in that area," Muhammad Ahmad Dirdiery, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi told IRIN on Wednesday.
According to news agency reports, the alleged attacks began on Friday 26 July when government forces attacked rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) positions near the village of Tam, some 20km south of Bentiu, the main government town in western Upper Nile (Wahdah State).
Over the weekend, government Antonov bombers and helicopter gunships had been used to continue the offensive, the BBC quoted SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje as saying. 
However, according to Dirdiery government- and rebel- allied militias had been involved in "low-level skirmishes" in an attempt to gain territory ahead of a possible ceasefire agreement. 
"The situation continues to be fragile without a comprehensive ceasefire," Dirdiery told IRIN.
Humanitarian sources told IRIN there was "every indication" to suggest that large numbers of people were killed in fighting over the weekend, but that the SPLM/A's estimates appeared to be inflated. "It is very unusual for 1,000 people to be reported dead as a consequence of fighting over a single weekend," sources said. 
Although the attacks appeared to be targeted against military personnel, rather than against civilians, there were "well-grounded fears" that large numbers of people had been displaced as a result of the fighting, they added. 
The reports come at a time when hopes have been raised for a lasting solution to Sudan's 19-year  civil war. Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir and SPLM/A chief John Garang held their first ever face-to-face meeting on Saturday 27 July, during which they endorsed a framework peace deal. 
Although the deal - named the Machakos Protocol - includes broad agreement on a number of key issues, such as self-determination for the south and the relations between church and state, arrangements have not yet been made for a comprehensive ceasefire.
Remaining issues, including the need for a comprehensive ceasefire as well as the sharing of the country's oil wealth, will be discussed during the next round of talks, scheduled to begin in mid-August, and held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Three international aid workers working with the Christian relief organisation, World Vision, were kidnapped on Monday and one was killed during an attack in Waat, Upper Nile, southern Sudan.
"After fighting in the town, one Kenyan national was killed and another Kenyan and two Germans were kidnapped," Alison Preston, communications officer with World Vision told IRIN on Tuesday. "We don't know who did this, or why," she added.
"We are working with the United Nations to secure their release," she said.
The German news agency DPA quoted an official from Operation Lifeline Sudan - a consortium of UN agencies and international relief organisations working in Sudan - as saying the attack was against a prison which was about 100 metres behind the World Vision compound in Waat. "In the course of the firefight, it was a stray bullet that killed the Kenyan," he said.
UN and World Vision officials contacted by IRIN declined to comment on whether the current whereabouts of the three are known.

Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir and southern rebel leader, John Garang, on Saturday held their first ever face-to-face meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and endorsed the recent signing of a framework peace deal. 
A communique issued by the Ugandan government said Bashir and Garang "applauded the breakthrough" and "undertook to ensure that all efforts are deployed to resolve outstanding issues". 
Siraj al-Din Hamid, the Sudanese charge d'affaires in Kampala, told IRIN on Monday that the two leaders would have discussed peace and "made expressions of seriousness about the Machakos agreement." 
The meeting had served to "break the ice" between the two men after 19 years of war, and had prepared the ground for the next round of talks, he added. 
The two leaders have attended peace talks in the past, but have conducted negotiations through mediators, never meeting face-to-face.
The framework peace agreement, formulated under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), was reached on 20 July in the Kenyan town of Machakos, and included broad agreement on two of the most difficult problems facing negotiators: the right to self-determination for the south, and the relationship between church and state.
Further talks are scheduled in Kenya for the middle of August, during which negotiators will focus on a comprehensive ceasefire, reform of the central administration to include southerners, and the sharing of Sudan's oil wealth. 
While welcoming the Machakos agreement and the leaders' meeting, aid agencies say a workable, comprehensive peace agreement is still some way off. In the coming talks, "the warring parties will be tasked with establishing a peace agreement that makes unity an attractive option for all Sudanese. This will not be an easy task," a spokesperson for CARE International told IRIN on Monday. 
The meeting took place after a recent thaw in relations between Khartoum and Kampala, with the two countries in April agreeing to re-establish full diplomatic ties, severed in 1995 after Khartoum accusing Uganda of supporting the rebel SPLM/A. 
The Sudanese government in March gave the Ugandan army permission to pursue the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in Sudanese territory, and said it had stopped supporting the Ugandan rebel movement. 
In separate talks with Museveni, Bashir reiterated his government's "commitment to continue cooperation with Uganda regarding the current military measures" being undertaken by the Ugandan army against the LRA in southern Sudan.
"The relations with Uganda are quite perfect," Al-Din Hamid said.

A Sudanese "Special Court" has sentenced 87 people to death in Nyala, Southern Darfur province, for their involvement in clashes with another tribe, according to the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA). 
A further eight defendants were acquitted and one sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, the report said on Wednesday. 
Those sentenced are members of the Rizeigat tribe, who were arrested following an attack on a village in southern Darfur which belongs to a rival tribe, known as the Ma'aliya. 
The clashes - a "revenge attack" after a Rizeigat tribal member was killed - left 54 people dead, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdiery, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Thursday.
The advocacy group, Organisation mondiale contre la torture (OMCT), reported on Tuesday that two of those sentenced to death were only 14 years-old. It also claimed 35 detainees were tortured.
Commenting on the allegations, Dirdiery said that according to Sudanese law, people sentenced to death could not be under 18 years of age. "If there is such a case, there would definitely be room to appeal," he said.
He added that the allegations of torture could not be correct as the crimes had been committed in daylight and therefore witnessed.
The lawyer acting on behalf of the defendants, Mohamed Fadl Hamid, submitted an appeal to the district chief of justice on 20 July, OMCT reported, but fears remain that the sentences may be carried out very quickly if the appeal fails. 
Although both the Rizeigat and the Ma'aliya tribes are of Arabic origin, OMCT reported that elements of the Ma'aliya had joined with Sudanese government forces during recent attacks against the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the south of the country. The Rizeigat have reportedly accused the government of supporting the Ma'aliya as a result.
Sudanese Special Courts were established in accordance with the State of Emergency Act 1998, by the governors of Southern and Northern Darfur Provinces, to deal with crimes of armed robbery, crimes against the state, as well as crimes relating to drugs and "public nuisance".

The United States and the United Nations have both hailed a framework peace deal signed between the Sudanese government and southern rebels in the Kenya town of Machakos on Saturday.
"The signing of the Machakos Protocol by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a significant step in moving towards a just and lasting peace," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news briefing.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who met Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir in Khartoum earlier this month, welcomed the progress made in the peace negotiations. 
In a statement released by spokesman Fred Eckhard, the Secretary-General expressed the hope "that the parties to the peace talks will be able to build on the momentum so that they can reach a definitive agreement in their next round". 
The talks have been taking place in Machakos, Kenya, under the auspices of the Sudan Peace Committee of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Negotiations are expected to resume in Kenya in August to reach agreement on remaining issues, including how best to distribute income from oil reserves, and arrangements for a comprehensive ceasefire.
"The interim measure is a strong indication that the parties are both willing and capable of reaching a negotiated settlement to Sudan's civil war," Boucher said. 
The framework deal includes broad agreement on two of the most contentious issues that have faced negotiators working in Sudan: the right to self-determination for the south, and the relationship between state and religion.
A referendum on self-determination for the south is planned after a six-year interim period, and the southern states have secured exemption from the imposition of Sharia'ah (Islamic) law. 
During the interim period, an independent assessment and evaluation commission will be established to monitor implementation of the agreement, which will include representatives of the Sudanese government, the SPLM/A, and observer states such as the US, Boucher said
The agreement also provides for a pre-interim period of six months, during which the parties would cease hostilities, establish institutions and mechanisms agreed in the Protocol, implement mechanisms to monitor the peace agreement, and establish a constitutional framework in accordance with the peace agreement, he said. 
The accord was also broadly welcomed by analysts and aid agencies. "This is a great first step, but it is only a beginning in terms of the work that needs to be done," a regional analyst told IRIN. It was important, however, that the international community, and the US in particular, maintain pressure on the parties, and also bring on board other interested governments.
The IGAD peace process, which started in 1993, has previously been criticised by many analysts and aid agencies for its failure to achieve tangible results. However, the process had become much more effective in recent months as a result of the closer involvement of observer countries, including the US, the UK and Norway, regional experts told IRIN.
During his recent visit to Khartoum, Annan and Bashir discussed the IGAD peace process, and the importance of a peace deal for the improvement of humanitarian access to conflict-affected populations in the south. 
Annan said on Monday he was confident that "once a definitive peace agreement is reached, the international community will be ready to provide the necessary assistance for its full implementation."

The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Saturday said they had agreed on a framework deal for ending the country's 19-year civil war
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdiery, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Monday that the parties had "agreed on a framework that addresses all the major issues".
In particular, agreement had been reached on two of the most contentious issues - the relation between church and the state, and self-determination for the south.
SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN on Monday both sides had agreed that southerners would be given the opportunity to vote in a referendum on self-determination after an interim period of six years. People of the south would be given two clear options - to maintain the unity of Sudan under the interim arrangements, or to vote for secession of the south, he said.
During the interim period, Sudan would be governed with a "federal set-up", under which south  Sudan would be given special status, making it exempt from the imposition of Shari'ah (Islamic) law. A central, national constitution would also be established to guarantee freedom of belief, he said.
Implementation of the agreement would mean a large degree of devolution of power to the south, and the establishment of a bicameral legislature, which would include opposition parties from the north as well as the south, Kwaje said. 
"We are talking of a new Sudan," Kwaje said. "There will be an overhaul of the central administration."
The agreement comes after five weeks of talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos, under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). 
According to Kwaje, talks would resume on 12 August to work out details of the agreement. These would include discussions on wealth sharing, the precise forms of governance during the interim period, security, and a comprehensive ceasefire.
The peace deal would only come into effect after a comprehensive ceasefire had been agreed, Kwaje said. The SPLM/A has repeatedly rejected government offers of a comprehensive ceasefire, claiming Khartoum would take advantage of a cessation of hostilities to "further its war aims".
The contentious issue of the distribution of oil revenues would be included in discussion on wealth sharing, as well as how best to utilise the country's forests and to divide income from customs duties, Kwaje said. 
The agreement has been favourably received by many in the humanitarian community. 
"We are very encouraged by the news and hope that when negotiations resume in August that the parties will build on the accord," Will Day, Executive Director of CARE UK, said in a statement on Monday. 
"Ultimately, humanitarian agencies look forward to a sustained and just peace, which brings an end to the human suffering which Sudanese have endured for nearly 20 years," he said. 

Government warplanes dropped 12 bombs on the town of Ikotos, Eastern Equatoria, on Friday, seriously wounding two people, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Torit.
"Our place has been targeted on three consecutive bombings and we don't understand why," Jervasio Okot, of the Nairobi Social Communications Office of the Diocese of Torit, south Sudan, told IRIN on Tuesday. "These are social places, they are out of the military area."
The bombers had also attacked Ikotos on 26 June, demolishing the house of a local priest, and again on 29 June, when another building in the church premises was destroyed, the Nairobi office of the Torit Diocese stated on 12 July. 
"Consequently, the civil population in Ikotos is in a constant state of fear", it said.
The Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi had no immediate comment.
Okot said the Antonov bombers were also seen over the area on five occasions on Monday, but did not drop any bombs. "The people had to go into hiding and could not even prepare food during the day," he said.
The government could, he said, be targeting Ikotos and the surrounding area as a result of the capture by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in June of the garrison town of Kapoeta, some 120 km east of the town of Torit. Government aircraft could be hoping to target rebels in the villages around Kapoeta, he added. The Sudanese army denied, last week, bombing civilians in Kapoeta after losing control of the town. 
"According to information obtained by the armed forces, there are no civilians inside Kapoeta top be a target for bombing," AFP quoted military spokesman Gen Muhammad Bashir Sulayman as saying on 6 July. 
Southern Sudanese Catholic church officials claimed that government aircraft had bombed Kapoeta on 1 July, killing five people and injuring seven, AFP said. The attacks come at a time when preparations are being made for the creation of a US-led international team to monitor attacks on civilian targets.
The head of the monitoring mission, a former US army general, Herbert Lloyd, visited Khartoum last week to begin setting up his office, news agencies reported. The team would comprise 23 to 25 people, and would be based in Khartoum and the southern town of Rumbek, diplomatic sources told IRIN on Monday. "But as of now we don't know who the members of that international coalition will be," sources said.
Okot called on the international community to provide protection for the people of south Sudanese people against further attacks.
"The bishops, the clergy, and the laity strongly appeal the IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development], and the International Community for intervention, and to declare a no fly zone for the protection of the downtrodden Sudanese", he said. 
 
 

Annan secures partial lifting of aid restrictions

The Sudanese government has agreed to relax restrictions on humanitarian access to all but 18 sensitive locations in conflict-affected south Sudan, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week.
"We have agreed that there is a need for comprehensive access, except in 18 locations, where for security reasons, the government believes it is not safe for them to operate," Annan said at the end of a two-day visit to Khartoum on 11 July. 
However, he added that these locations would be kept "under review". "As the situation changes, those will be looked at and hopefully opened up," he said. Annan did not give details of the areas. 
He said Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir had agreed on the need for "comprehensive" humanitarian access for aid deliveries. "The president and I agreed that food needs to get to the needy, and that humanitarian workers must have free and unfettered access," Annan said.
Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that, following Annan's visit, access restrictions had been lifted on 23 locations. Although agencies had been allowed to access these locations by road or barge (but not by air), the Sudanese government had previously told aid workers it could not guarantee their safety, the sources said. 
However, all "at risk" populations in Sudan should be given unimpeded and sustained access to humanitarian assistance according to the provisions of International Humanitarian Law, the Geneva Conventions and the OLS Beneficiary Protocol, an aid worker told IRIN on Monday. 
"We find it unacceptable that violations of these fundamental rights and humanitarian principles are occurring," she added.
Annan said his talks with Bashir had also paid close attention to the current state of peace talks underway in Kenya to bring an end to the country's 19-year civil war. Five weeks of peace talks, held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are scheduled to end on 20 July. 
"I think we do have a very good climate at the moment," Annan said. "There are very, very encouraging signs."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday concluded a two-day visit to Khartoum, during which he discussed humanitarian access and the ongoing peace process with the Sudanese government and major aid agencies.
"I come at a time when the peace process has been re-energised, and we see some good signs," Annan said.
Aid agencies have expressed hopes that Annan's visit would improve their access to conflict-affected populations in south Sudan. Repeated denials of humanitarian access by the Sudanese government and an escalation of the conflict in several areas of south Sudan have renewed concerns about the humanitarian situation of up to 1.7 million people. 
Asked whether he was concerned about government flight bans in the south, Annan said on Wednesday the UN was always "extremely disturbed if we do not have free and unfettered access to those in need". He also expressed confidence that the Sudanese government would "share my concern that we do not want to see anyone in need deprived" of assistance. 
During his visit, Annan met Sudanese government officials - including President Umar Hasan al-Bashir and Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il, - UN staff, and representatives of non-governmental organisations, including CARE, Oxfam, and Save the Children UK.
A spokeswoman for CARE International told IRIN on Friday that the inability to secure unimpeded access meant aid agencies had been unable to assess accurately the extent of human suffering, and were unable to provide ongoing assistance to those in most need.
"The UN's leadership role in securing access is crucial and needs to be given immediate and high level attention," she said. 
The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Friday said the government of Sudan had declared a "scorched earth policy" in large areas of oil-rich western Upper Nile, and was using humanitarian access denials as "one of its weapons" in the country's 19-year civil war. 
Elijah Malok Aleng, executive director of the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA) - the SPLM/A's humanitarian wing - called on Annan to visit SPLM/A-controlled areas to "see the human devastation that has been done by the GOS [Government of Sudan] since the start of this war".
Five weeks of peace talks being held in Kenya under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are scheduled to end on 20 July. 
While the talks were initially hailed as a key opportunity to advance the peace process, the recent escalation of fighting has led some observers - including Kenyan legislators and civil society groups - to call for their suspension.
"Like all concerned, I am hopeful that the parties will come to an agreement before they conclude their meeting on 20 July, and then build on it," Annan said.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has agreed to the extension of a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains region of south-central Sudan, sources close to the rebel group told IRIN.
"They [SPLM/A] have agreed to the extension for a further six months following the SPLM/A-Nuba congress," the sources said. 
In June, the Sudanese government agreed to an extension of the initial six month ceasefire period, Usamah Mahjub Hasan, Second Secretary at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Tuesday. The government also agreed that the ceasefire provisions would remain unchanged for the additional period.
The government and SPLM/A-Nuba signed the renewable six-month ceasefire in the 80,000 sq km Nuba Mountains region, Southern Kordofan State, on 19 January this year. The agreement followed six days of closed-door negotiations facilitated by the US and Swiss governments in Burgenstock, central Switzerland.
The ceasefire agreement states, among other things, that both parties should "facilitate humanitarian assistance" by opening up humanitarian corridors and creating conditions "conducive to the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance".
However, humanitarian agencies have warned that bureaucratic issues and delays in implementing some aspects of the agreement had contributed to an erosion of confidence in the ceasefire agreement, particularly in SPLM/A-controlled areas. 
The government agreed in January to "unfettered humanitarian access to Nuba" but had continued to delay and deny flights into SPLM/A-controlled areas until mid-May - just weeks before the rainy season would make airstrips inaccessible there, Roger Winter of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) told a US Congressional hearing in June.
However, humanitarian flight clearance had subsequently been placed under the aegis of the body charged with overseeing the ceasefire - the Joint Monitoring Commission - and not the Sudanese government, leading to "an overall feeling of optimism" in the Nubas, Winter added.
Philip Nuer of the Nuba Relief and Rehabilitation Development Organisation told IRIN that although some tools and seeds had been delivered to the Nuba people ahead of the rainy season, delays meant many people had not had time to clear land in preparation for planting.
"It [the ceasefire] has been extended, but it doesn't mean people are happy," he said. "Not enough has been done up until now."