From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: SUDAN: Human rights abuses take on 'Bosnian dimensions'
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 01:55:58 GMT

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: SUDAN: Human rights abuses take on 'Bosnian dimensions'


an inter press service feature

by moyra ashford

london, sep 23 (ips) -- reports of bodies floating in the white
nile, summary executions and widespread torture in the besieged
southern sudan city of juba, have prompted the human rights
organisation, amnesty international, to launch an emergency
campaign.

in an unscheduled report released wednesday, amnesty accuses
sudan government forces of deliberately killing at least 300
people between june and august, this year.

''we don't normally issue reports in such a rush,'' said
amnesty international sudan specialist, andy mawson, ''but we feel
that the situation is very serious and action has to be taken very
quickly.''

the purge was unleashed after june 7, the day when troops from
the rebel sudan people's liberation army (spla) infiltrated the
city, seizing its military headquarters for a few hours before
recapture by government troops.

the spla, now split into two factions, has since 1983 been waging
a guerrilla war against the khartoum government of northern sudan
in a bid for self-determination. with one faction of the spla led
by colonel john garang and the other by riak macha, the two have
converged on juba in a power struggle.

the government has in the meantime launched a strong crackdown,
and in the weeks following the june showdown, arrested hundreds of
suspected spla sympathisers. civilians who put up resistance
during house to house searches, were taken and shot, according to
the amnesty report.

''relatives were too frightened to remove the bodies of those
killed and many were left unburied for several days'', said the
report.

while amnesty has the names of nearly 50 prominent citizens
swept up in the reprisals, it believes that hundreds more are
still in detention. among those killed was andrew tombe, a
sudanese worker for the u.s. agency for international development
(usaid).

''it appears that they are trying to remove witnesses from the
scene,'' said mawson. ''it is clear that when the eyes of the
world are not on sudan, the government feels it can do as it
likes.''(more/ips)

sudan: human rights abuses take on 'bosnian dimensions'(2)

sudan: human (2)

as the toll of human rights violations mounts in sudan, a
growing number of humanitarian groups, religious organisations and
experts believe the situation has taken on the dimensions of inter-
ethnic strife comparable to that in bosnia-hercegovina.

a spokesperson for the church missionary society, an anglican
organisation, says that the time has come for international
intervention and is calling on britain's foreign office to lodge a
complaint at the united nations: ''it is no longer an internal
matter ... it is like yugoslavia.''

while amnesty has highlighted the critical situation of juba,
human rights abuses are taking place throughout the country in an
offensive which has cast a million non-muslim sudanese from their
homes, the report said.

earlier this month, the london-based africa watch accused the
islamic government of a ''stepped-up campaign of horrifying
dimensions'' unleashed against the million-strong christian nuba
population.

tens of thousands have been forced off their land into
scattered camps, breaking up families. ''the current campaign
appears to be aimed at eradicating the traditional society and
culture of the nuba,'' says the report.

an enclave of non-muslims in the muslim-controlled north, the
nuba have a tradition of resistance and intellectual leadership.
several nuba intellectuals have been arrested or disappeared.

the spla has also been accused of human rights abuses and over
the years an estimated three million civilians have fled to the
north from the battlegrounds of the south, where an estimated
300,000 people are threatened with starvation.

yet, since the military takeover by the muslim fundamentalist
national salvation revolution command council (nrscc) in 1989, the
balance of human rights violations has weighed heavily on the side
of the government.

''what the khartoum government is doing is reasonably close to
what the serbians are doing,'' says john ryle, who specialises in
southern african affairs.

in july an africa watch report documented the ''forcible and
often violent programme of expulsion'' taking place in khartoum in
which an estimated 500,000 of the city's poorest citizens have
been forced out of their homes to camps located outside the city.

hundreds of thousands more have been displaced in the south
where government has since the beginning of the year been pursuing
a ''scorched earth'' policy -- that is, burning villages on well
known spla routes.

either side of the nile, dinka and atuot people have been
forced to take refuge in the ground underneath stilt-homes where
cattle are normally kept. (more/ips)

sudan: human rights abuses take on 'bosnian dimensions'(3-e)

sudan: human (3)

''because sudan doesn't matter in international relations
terms, because it is not strategic, the people get abandoned,''
said gill luft, deputy editor of the london based newsletter
'africa confidential'.

luft would like to see a u.n resolution on sudan on
humanitarian grounds which would protect the ordinary people
caught in the midst of a sectarian civil war. ''unlike bosnia,
unlike somalia, you can't see what is happening because the
journalists, the aid people and the foreigners have all been
thrown out,'' she said.

''unfortunately, i think sudan is quite low down the u.n.
political agenda at the moment,'' said a human rights agency
worker attached to the u.n. in new york. ''officials are taken up
with the u.s. initiative on war crimes in bosnia at the moment and
while what is happening in sudan is just as grave, this initiative
is country-specific.'' (end/ips/ip-hr/ma/cpg/92)
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