Sudan Update 28 Feb 98 (Vol9 No.4) pt 1

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER

SUDAN UPDATE VOLUME 9 NUMBER 4.

28 FEBRUARY 1998

Nasir plane crash / Wau turmoil / Bombing / Flights ban / Vice President Taha /

Clashes in East / Water dispute / HIV-AIDS / Leishmaniasis / Censorship /

Daewoo / Iraqi chemicals

AID / RELIEF

EMERGENCY AMID SUSPENSION OF FLIGHTS: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced on 6 February that `as of 4 February, the Government of the Sudan had denied humanitarian agencies access to recently displaced populations by suspending all flights into the Bahr el Ghazal region of southern Sudan.

`An estimated 100,000 displaced - mainly women and children - were reported to be fleeing the civil conflict that flared up in and around the towns of Wau, Aweil and Gogrial over the past week. The displaced people were said to be gathering in a number of locations in Bahr el Ghazal, but were reported to be weak, hungry and in urgent need of assistance in the form of food, medicines and shelter materials.

`These flight suspensions are putting the lives of vulnerable civilians at great risk. The people displaced have been walking for several days without food and with little water and are exhausted. The Operation Lifeline Sudan is collecting emergency supplies and has positioned them in Lokichokio, ready to be flown to the areas where the displaced have been gathering. However, Operation Lifeline Sudan cannot reach the people without flight clearances from the Government.

`The flights ban covers almost half of the population of southern Sudan and has a serious impact, not only on the war-affected population, but also on hundreds of thousands of women and children living in Bahr el Ghazal, one of the most deprived areas in the South, which was already experiencing a severe food deficit before the current crisis. With little or no medicines on the ground, wounded civilians caught in the conflict have no chance of receiving medical care. Cases of diarrhoeal diseases are already reported among children on the move. Operation Lifeline Sudan is in close contact with government authorities in order to resolve this issue.' (UN New York 6/Feb/98)

NASIR PLANE CRASH

ZUBAIR AND AROK AMONG 26 DEAD: On the morning of 12 February, the Sudanese authorities said that First Vice President al-Zubair Muhammad Saleh and several other government officials had been killed in a plane crash during a two-day visit to southern Sudan.

An initial statement by President Omar al-Bashir broadcast by Radio Omdurman said at least one other cabinet minister [Culture and Information Minister al-Tayeb Ibrahim Muhammad Kheir] was on board [it emerged later that he survived.]

"A number of the cream of the leadership of the nation have been martyred... The nation lost some of its devoted sons and leaders," the statement said. "One of those martyred is the honourable person, the dear brother Lt Gen al-Zubair Muhammad Saleh, First Vice President."

National television and state-run radio began broadcasting verses from the Quran.

CRUCIAL LINK: Saleh, 54, was until 1993 deputy president of the Revolutionary Command Council set up by Bashir's junta when it seized power in 1989.

`Correspondents describe Zubeir as a crucial link between the Sudanese army and the National Islamic Front, the dominant political force in the country. A correspondent for the BBC in Khartoum says the vice-president was the driving force in persuading six southern rebel factions to defect to the SUDAN UPDATE VOLUME 9 NUMBER 4.

28 FEBRUARY 1998

Nasir plane crash / Wau turmoil / Bombing / Flights ban / Vice President Taha /

Clashes in East / Water dispute / HIV-AIDS / Leishmaniasis / Censorship /

Daewoo / Iraqi chemicals

AID / RELIEF

NASIR PLANE CRASH

National television and state-run radio began broadcasting verses from the Quran.

CRUCIAL LINK: Saleh, 54, was until 1993 deputy president of the Revolutionary Command Council set up by Bashir's junta when it seized power in 1989.

INSPECTING DEFECTORS: Initial reports erroneously located the plane crash at the Nile town of Malakal, about 700 kilometres (420 miles) south of the capital. The plane was travelling from Malakal to Nasir, SUNA later said. Sudanese newspapers had reported recently that Zubeir was inspecting rebel defectors this week throughout the country. A resident said the officials would be buried Friday.

PILOT LOST CONTROL: The plane `apparently tried to land on a small runway in the town of Nasir about 435 miles from the capital near the Sobat River [a tributary of the White Nile] and not far from the Ethiopian border.

"The plane crashed into the River Sobat," Radio Omdurman said. State television said the pilot had struggled to control the plane but it crashed in heavy fog. [Other reports said the plane slid off the runway into the river after the pilot failed to cope with strong crosswinds -SU]. Egypt's Middle East News Agency identified the aircraft as a Russian-made transport plane Antonov 32.

Nasir is controlled by Riek Machar, one of the former SPLA rebels who allied himself with the government when he signed the Khartoum peace agreement in 1997.

26 DEAD: Out of 57 passengers, 26 drowned. They included: Lt-Gen al-Zubair Muhammad Saleh, First Vice President Brig Arok Thon Arok, South Sudan United Democratic Salvation Front, signatory of the Khartoum peace agreement

Musa Sidahmed, director of the Supreme Council for Peace Engineer Muhammad Ahmed Taha, head of States' Development & Peace Organization Police Maj-Gen Dirar Abdallah Abbas

Lt-Col al-Fatih Nurein, deputy head of palace protocol Osman Ibrahim Bura'ie, Zubeir's secretary (the above were buried in Khartoum on 13 February); Lt-Col Jamal Fagiri, director of al-Zubair's Office - buried in Nasir Security Lt-Col Abdallah Babikir

Security officer Abd al-Rahman al-Bagir

Police Col Elija Manok

(the above were buried in Nasir on 13 February); Dr Timothy Tulan, Upper Nile Governor (buried in Malakal on 12 February); Abd al-Salaam Suleiman, Islamic Call Organization Officer Abdallah Babikir, General Security Forces Brig Taha al-Mahi

Lt-Col Fath al-Rahman al-Sadiq

Hashim al-Haj, television journalist

al-Hadi Sidahmed, television journalist

Mutasim Rustum

Samuel Fashoda

(Sudan TV, SUNA 13/Feb/98)

S.P.L.A CLAIMS IT SHOT PLANE DOWN: "It was not a crash," Justin Yaac Arop, spokesman for the SPLA's political wing told Reuters. "The plane was on its way to Juba (southern Sudan) and when it was in an area we control we shot it down."

`The Nairobi-based SPLA political affairs secretary said the plane "had actually been hit by SPLA fire," according to AFP.

`"The Sudanese team, including journalists, were due to land at Wau first before going on to Juba, where they were due to tell southern Sudanese at a rally that Wau was all quiet and that there were no SPLA fighters near the town," Arop said. "But our fighters still hold all the areas surrounding the Wau airport and were able to easily hit the plane from the ground," he said, adding that he had spoken to the SPLA field commander in Wau by radio.' (Reuter, AFP 12/Feb/98

AL-TAYIB SURVIVES: The minister of culture and information, al-Tayeb Ibrahim Muhammad Kheir, survived the crash. He appeared on Sudan TV on 12 February and denied all allegations concerning SPLA responsibility in the accident. Dr al-Tayeb confirmed he was well and said a mechanical fault caused the plane crash. He also said that many had drowned in the river. (Sudan TV 12/Feb/98)

S.P.L.A BACKTRACKS ON CLAIM: SPLA official spokesman John Luk Jok told AFP on 13 February that "the SPLA did not shoot down the plane, as it did not have any forces in the Nasir area," where the plane crash-landed. Luk said the Sudanese government team was flying to Upper Nile State to explain to southern Sudanese loyalists the latest situation in Sudan after the return in January to the SPLA side of rebel faction leader Kerubino Kwanyin Bol.

MASS RALLY FOR CONDOLENCES: `The bodies of some of those who were killed were flown back to Khartoum airport late Thursday and loaded onto pick up trucks, witnesses said. Mourners followed the bodies, shouting "He is our martyr." Men in white robes and turbans flocked to a city park after news of the crash and speakers rallied the crowd in mass condolences. Waving their fists or staffs in the air, the crowd shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest). Women in colourful robes held their hands up to the sky.

`"Saleh went to his God, to whom we all will return," said one speaker on the platform.

`Hundreds flocked to the presidential palace overlooking the Nile river and waited in snaking queues to pay condolences to President Lt-Gen Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who received them with a sombre handshake.'

`After the funeral ceremony, mourners walked behind the bodies, transported on a flatbed truck, to the cemetery some three kilometres away.'

Bashir was in civilian dress, accompanied by Assistant President Riek Machar, and uniformed Defence Minister Gen Hassan Abd al-Rahman Ali.

ZUBEIR AND "A MILLION MARTYRS": State television showed footage of the tall, striking Saleh in camouflage uniform inspecting the army or in traditional robe and turban.

"A million martyrs to unite Sudan!" it showed him saying at a rally.

PRAYER FOR THE MISSING: Hassan al-Turabi led the four-hour funeral, `chanting until his voice grew hoarse,' says AP. During the funeral, mourners said the "prayer of the missing" for the 17 yet to be found. (AP 13/Feb/98)

SURVIVORS: Survivors of the crash were:

Brig al-Tayeb Ibrahim Muhammad Khair, Minister of Information Musa al-Mekk Kor, Minister of Livestock

Dr. Lam Akol

Gabriel Lowal - ex-Wali Jonglei province Gen Mamoun Abd al-Rahim

Brig (Air Force) Pilot Kamal El Din El Mubarak, Captain of the crashed plane Lt-Col (Air Force) co-pilot Siddiq Amir

Lt-Col al-Fatih

Hamad Yagoub, Armed Forces

Lt Yassir al-Amin

al-Amin Hamza, Armed Forces

Muhammad al-Obeid Hamid, Minister of Peace, Upper Nile Government Saeed Tera, Governor (Muhafiz), Upper Nile Oyek Otto

Jamal Muhammad Khairi

Dak Yar

Loka Gong

Abdallah Chol

Anig Jack Chol

Garong Toj

Koyet Gang

Sgt Daoud Bushra

Peter Sharlman

Abdallah Abbas al-Nur

Galal Ali Suleiman

Bashir Suleiman

(al-Ittihad UAE 14/Feb/98)

EGYPT OFFERS CONDOLENCES: An Egyptian delegation led by Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzuri and Information Minister Safwat al-Sherif arrived in Khartoum on 13 February to offer condolences for the death of Vice President al-Zubeir Muhammad Saleh. Al-Ganzuri met President Omar al-Bashir and visited al-Zubeir's family.

AFP describes the visit as `ground-breaking', the first by an Egyptian PM since the early 1990s. `Saleh made two fence-mending visits to Cairo last year which led to a thaw in relations.'

SUNA says Ganzuri praised Saleh for his role in "strengthening the brotherly relations" between Sudan and Egypt, adding that his death was "a loss not only to Sudan but also to Egypt."

Al-Sherif described Saleh as "the man of the difficult missions" and pledged to pursue his aim of improving Sudanese-Egyptian relations.

Sudan's Information Minister al-Tayeb Ibrahim Muhammad Khair, who accompanied the Egyptian delegation on their visit to Saleh's home, said: "The visit demonstrates the solidity of the relations between the sisterly countries." (SUNA/AFP 13/Feb/98)

GRAVESIDE CONFUSION: `The four hour funeral highlighted contradictions,' says Africa Confidential. `Arok [Thon Arok]'s coffin had arrived escorted by southern Christian priests but an emotional Turabi, who led the prayers, then announced Arok had converted to Islam. The priests stood forlornly by. His coffin was taken directly behind Zubeir's to the Muslim cemetery then, amid confusion, to a church. Zubeir and Abdel Salaam Suleiman, head of Al Dawa al Islamiya, were later given a "wedding of martyrs" (irs al shaheed), an NIF addition to Islamic tradition: Arok was not.' (AC 20/Feb/98)

CEMETERY DIVISION: Gulf Arabic newspapers reported that Arok Thon Arok was not buried with the six others who were transported from Green Square to Sahafa Cemetery, where the Muslim section is divided from the Christian section by a wall. When the bodies arrived, some of Arok's relatives refused to let him be buried in Muslim cemetery. Although his brother pointed out that Arok's wife knew best about his conversion, the relatives were reportedly adamant and a confrontation was narrowly avoided.

A senior official declared that prayers had been said for

his soul as a Muslim, after which his place of burial was not important; the body was then transferred to the Christian cemetery. A Radio Omdurman commentator noted that one of the bodies was taken away from the open graves.

88 WIVES AND 700 SONS: Animal Resources Minister Musa al-Mek Kor `revealed that his father married more than 88 women,' reported Arabic News on 11 February. `He has more than 700 brothers and sisters, he said, and he is unable to recognize them all due to the huge number.'

[Musa al-Mek Kor was among the survivors of the Nasir crash - SU]. `The minister is from the Shilluk people of Upper Nile, and his father is its spiritual leader. The Shilluk believe that power lies in the soul of their founder, Tikang, whose instructions they still follow.' (Arabic News 11/Feb/98

MEDIA

CENSORSHIP PRESSURE ON THE MEDIA: The annual US State Department Country Report on Sudan, just released, says the Sudan government `strictly controlled the print media, including government dailies, but eased its restrictions in May [1997]. It modified the November 1996 Press and Publications Law. It changed, among other things, the composition of the Press Council, which overseas journalism and media affairs. Some lively discussions of domestic and foreign policy have taken place in the press since then.

`However, in mid-May police detained and released on bail al-Wan reporter Ishraga al-Nour for writing that the inadequate training of the Popular Police resulted in injuries, threatening public safety. The Popular Police eventually withdrew the charges against her.

`At least five privately owned daily newspapers were

operating at the end of 1997. Al-Rai al-Akher resumed publishing in June, having won a court case against the government dating to its closure the previous year. A wide variety of Arabic and English publications are available, but they are subject to censorship. All journalists, even in the privately owned Arabic daily press, still practice self-censorship.' (US State Department Country Report for 1997)

NORTH / EASTERN SUDAN

`WAR FEVER': Sudanese newspapers in mid-February `indicated that the country is in a state of war fever as war reports, especially the build-ups of forces on the borders with neighbouring countries in the east and the south of the country, have been on the front pages for one week now,' says >>>>?????.

SPLA rebels in the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan, led by Yusif Kuwa, were also reported by al-Anbaa to be planning attacks on government positions.

GEDAREF STATE UNDER ATTACK: "Within the context of the conspiracy which targets the country's eastern border, agents and mercenaries yesterday morning launched an attack on the eastern border in Gedaref from inside Ethiopia," al-Wan newspaper reported on Sunday.

It was referring to an attack on Saturday in which a Sudanese opposition commander told Reuters in Cairo that his forces killed 91 government soldiers.

The newspaper said that fighting continued into the night but did not give casualty figures.

Al-Wan quoted a radio report as saying that Muhammad al-Hadi, a state minister, called on "all citizens who are able to hold a gun to immediately join the ranks of the mujahideen (Islamic holy fighters) to protect the faith and the land." The governor of Gedaref also called for mobilisation.

The newspaper said the camp which was attacked was on al-Dud island, located between tributaries of the Atbara river.

The eastern Gedaref state is Sudan's breadbasket, producing most of the impoverished country's staple sorghum grain.

Opposition deputy commander Brigadier Isam Mirghani had told Reuters in Cairo that his Sudan Alliance Forces (SAF) had attacked al-Dud near Gallabat on the Sudan-Ethiopia border on Saturday with artillery and infantry.

"Our forces penetrated Sudan government forces, inflicting heavy casualties. We managed to kill 91," he said but gave no SAF casualty figures. (al-Wan, SAF / Reuter 8/Feb/98)

QADHAFI TO MEDIATE WITH ERITREA? Arriving back from the Regional African Summit in Tripoli, Lt-Gen Bashir said, "We have given our consent to Colonel Qadhafi's initiative to improve our relations with Eritrea and have asked him to continue with it." The Libyan leader had earlier raised the possibility with Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki. (AFP 7/Feb/98)

`ERITREANS' BLAMED: The pro-government daily al-Wan quoted Muhammad Yusif Adam, commissioner of the eastern Sudanese province of Kassala, as saying that the Eritreans had built up their troops after being defeated at the Sudanese positions of Gulsa, Abu Gemul and Leffah.

At Leffah, the two countries' forces were separated by a mere 600 metres and by a kilometre at Gulsa, said the commissioner.

Kassala's Social and Cultural Affairs Minister Arefah Awad al-Karim was quoted as saying: "all indications show that Eritrea is preparing for a new attack on Kassala." (al-Wan / Feb/98)

Feb 8, 1998 Khartoum (dpa) - The Jebel al-Dud district on the border with Ethiopia has been under artillery attack launched from across the border in Ethiopia since Saturday morning, Sudan's official al-Anbaa daily reported.

Al-Wan quoted the spokesman of the eastern state of Gedaref, Muhammad Ahmed al-Hadi, as saying that "the war" was raging on. The spokesman urged every able-bodied person in Gedaref to "get his gun and hurry to the frontline".

He also called for blood donation to help the injured soldiers but he did not disclose the number of casualties. According to al-Wan, the governor of Gedaref state, Ibrahim Obeid-Allah, has declared a general mobilisation... He said the enemy was planning to attack the whole of the eastern border. Elsewhere in the east, al-Wan reported, security personnel foiled an attempt by opposition guerrillas to cut off Port Sudan from the rest of the country by destroying the highway linking the Red Sea port to the Sudanese capital.

BORDER CLOSING: Feb 9 (AFP) - Sudanese authorities are closing the Sudan-Eritrea border to prevent infiltration by anti-government forces. According to Akhbar al-Yom daily on 9 February, the governor of the eastern state of Kassala, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, said "strict measures have been taken in order to prevent infiltration across the border and the planting of mines on the main roads... The state authorities are now working for tightly closing the border with Eritrea."

`But in response to rumours in Kassala town, the governor said it was untrue that there had been an infiltration of Eritrean troops and a renewal of fighting on the border Saturday night. He said a maximum military stand-by in the state that night was "a routine" one and that what Kassala people had heard was the sound of fighting between Eritrean government forces and an Eritrean opposition.'

10 KILLED NEAR GALLABAT: 9/Feb/98 Reuters) Sudan Alliance Forces (SAF) said it killed 10 government soldiers in an attack on an army garrison at al-Ferza near Gallabat in the east of Sudan on 9 February. SAF says it took prisoners and a large amount of heavy weapons.

POLITICS

ALI UTHMAN MUHAMMAD TAHA REPLACES ZUBEIR: `The difficulty of finding a new vice-president [after the Nasir crash in which Zubeir died] highlighted the NIF's problems north and south,' says Africa Confidential.

`Logical but politically impossible candidates were Second Vice President Maj-Gen George Kongor and "southern President" Riek [Machar]. There were no "suitable" northen army officers. This forced the NIF into the open: it chose Ali Osman Mohamed Taha (AC Vol 39 No 1), number two only to Hassan el Turabi. The NIF now has to look harder over its shoulder at the army. After the crash, reports of army discontent abounded in Khartoum.

`A Khartoum Shaigi, Ali Osman, 51, is a former judge. Subtly hardline, he was Social Planning Minister (dubbed "Social Engineering"), then Foreign Minister.

`His successor and ex-deputy at Foreign Affairs, Mustafa Osman Ismail, once headed the Friendship Council (parallel to Turabi's Popular Arab Islamic Conference), which invites foreign enthusiasts, such as Britain's Yousef Islam and Helga Larouche, wife of American right-wing activist Lyndon Larouche) to Khartoum.' (Africa Confidential 20/Feb/98)

UMMA PARTY CONGRESS: `Inspired by the prime target Uniting for Liberation, Unity and Future Building,' the Umma Party held its fourth congress in Asmara, Eritrea, between 31 January and 2 February 1998. The Umma party proposes a `six point blue-print':

`1. Our Islamic stance emanates from and originated in Mahdism as a call for renewal of religion by impeccably revolutionary means; the means in question were modified by the late Imam Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi and converted into

a reformative fashion, espousing and bounded by the basic immutable creed, worship rituals, mutability in respect of transactions and commitment to peaceful coexistence with other religions according to the rule (for different times and circumstances there are different interpretations and different personalities)....

`a) Citizenship shall be the bed rock for constitutional rights and duties; b) Democracy ... shall be the basis for political decision making; c) Political part[ies] shall be the process for organizing political competition and participation; d) Peaceful coexistence [with] other religious denominations and [internationally]. Henceforth, there is no compulsion in religion, no discrimination relating to the other believers in comparison to those who embrace Islam...

`2. Arabism existed in the Sudan and has been assimilated in a mode reflective of tri-parties facets

`3. The Arabs who have expanded across acculturation and inter-marriages, the Arabised who managed to expand as well through the acquired Arabic culture and other national groups who preserved their own languages and dialects and use Arabic as lingua franca.

`Sudan has an inherent African dimension which is composed of cultural, social. artistic. geographic and political components

`4. We do firmly recognize the ethnic, religious and cultural diversity in the Sudan and call for a Sudanese cultural charter with a view to recognizing multi-culturalism and endorsing their coexistence under the banner of national unity.

`5 . We aspire to Sustainable Democracy ... advocating pluralism respecting and realizing the observance of human rights [while avoiding] the conspiracy build-up which bedevilled democracy in the past.

`6 ... to achieve the social free-market economy... to safeguard the property rights, encourage both domestic and external investment and to enable the state to provide inherent conditions of free-market's sustainability, pursue stable economic policies and protect the haves-not and poor social sectors to realize developmental equilibrium, protect the national economy from the negative impacts of globalisation and aiming at attaining the optimum sustainable development.

`7. The foreign policy plan: the common interests of both Sudan and sister Egypt are: 1. Neighbourhood; 2. the Nile; 3. Development; 4. Common security; 5. Culture.' (Umma Feb/98)

NEW CONSTITUTION: President Omar al-Bashir received the final draft of the new Sudanese constitution on 12 February. Leaders of the constitution committee listed areas about which the members were still negotiating and agreed to include the different points of view in a separate report accompanying the draft. They are trying to determine which legislative councils are essential and whether to consolidate or separate the posts of president and prime minister. (Arabic News 12/Feb/98)

PRISONERS OF WAR

STARVING PRISONERS OF WAR RELEASED BY S.P.L.A: The SPLA has freed over 2,000

prisoners of war `captured in battles with government troops since March last year', according to Uganda's New Vision newspaper. SPLA commanders in Yei said the decision was taken early in 1998 as a gesture of goodwill, and they expected the government to do likewise. Meanwhile, `several of the freed PoWs have joined the SPLA and other armed opposition groups in eastern Sudan.'

The SPLA reportedly took the decision because the PoWs were starving and had inadequate medical attention. Its appeal to NGOs to feed the PoWs had `flopped.'

`In Yei... emaciated and half-naked ex-PoWs provide cheap and free labour in order to fend for themselves,' New Vision said.

`"It is not easy for us to feed the prisoners since we also have difficulties of feeding ourselves," one SPLA junior officer told the paper.

`At the end of 1997 a delegation from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) visited Yei and SPLA-controlled areas and reportedly asked the SPLM/A to release northern PoWs so that they could be flown to join the armed opposition in eastern Sudan.

`Last year the SPLA captured about 900 government fighters in Yei and over 1,000 more in Tonj, Rumbek, Yirol and elsewhere.

`Adam Ismail, 34, a former Sudanese soldier from a village about 15 miles south of Khartoum, told New Vision: "I am very weak and unable to fight again. I have no money and I know nobody here who can help me reach to northern Sudan."

`Several of the freed PoWs of Arab origin are in Koboko and Arua seeking clearance to travel to northern Sudan,' says New Vision. `But Ugandan security could not clear many of them because they lacked proper identification papers.' (New Vision 26/Jan/98)

RELIGION

CATHOLIC CLUB CONFISCATED: Government forces have reportedly taken over the buildings of the Catholic Club in Khartoum. Two trucks packed with soldiers and secret police arrived at the club on Friday and occupied the premises, the Comboni Press said. The Roman Catholic Church in Khartoum has officially protested and condemned the act. AFP notes: `The club had been under threat for some time, and the archbishop of Khartoum, Gabriel Zubeir Wako, had to intervene in October to prevent its confiscation by the authorities.' (Comboni Press / AFP 8/Feb/98)

SECOND ANSAR IMAM ARRESTED: An imam of the Ansar sect mosque in Omdurman has been freed on bail pending trial before a regular criminal court instead of a public order tribunal that had begun hearing the case.

Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Feki was arrested last Thursday on charges of inciting hatred against the state and making harmful allegation in a sermon January 30 when he led prayers in the absence of the original imam, Abd al-Mahmoud Abbo, now serving a five-month term after conviction on similar charges. Feki is reported to have repeated what Abbo had said.

According to the Khartoum press Wednesday, Feki, who is also the Ansar sect secretary for external affairs, was set free on bail when the chief of the Khartoum judiciary ordered his case be taken from the public order tribunal for trial before an ordinary criminal court. (AFP 11/Feb/98)

FOREIGN

IRAQI CHEMICAL WEAPONS "MOVED": `Bombing Iraq cannot destroy all its chemical weapons for the simple reason that they have been moved to other countries,' says US News & World Report. `According to a February 10 draft report of the U.S. House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, Iraq transferred chemical weapons and 400 Scud missiles to Yemen and Sudan in the summer of 1991. The following year, Iraq also sent materials from its nuclear program - including 27.5 pounds of highly enriched uranium-235 - to Sudan, some of it in a truck from the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad that travelled through Jordan marked "furniture."

`Since Sudan has no nuclear facilities, the materials were later shipped to the Algerian reactor in Ain Oussera, where they are still being stored.

`In 1995, according to the report, Iraq and Sudan jointly built a mustard gas weapons plant near Wau in southwestern Sudan. Located in a former fruit production facility taken over by the military, it has Iraqi technicians and has produced weapons used by the Sudanese government against rebels in the south. And over the past two years, Sudan and Iraq have completed two far more sophisticated chemical weapons plants in the Kafuri and Mayu areas near Khartoum, using German-made machines smuggled via Bulgaria. The Kafuri facility has made initial test runs of nerve gases and is

producing artillery shells as well as rocket and tactical missile warheads, the report says.' (USHR / US News Online 23/Feb/98)

LIBYA'S TRANS-SAHARAN TREATY: Libya says a regional summit of five heads of state has produced a trans-Saharan cooperation treaty. Libyan radio said the pact was signed by the leaders of Chad, Mali, Niger and Sudan as well as Libya.

`Tunisia and Egypt, neighbours of Libya who attended the meeting and were represented at a ministerial level, did not sign the pact,' diplomats in Tripoli told Reuters. Nigeria, a participant at earlier summits, declined to attend. But Sudanese president Bashir `told Libyan television that he hoped other African states would join the grouping which he said would have effects at the economic, political, social and security levels.'

`Muammar Gaddafi has promised to open his country's Mediterranean ports to Libya's land-locked neighbours across the Sahara. However ... it is not clear how the goods would be transported across some of the most hostile terrain in the world,' commented the BBC. (BBC, Libyan TV / Reuter 5/Feb/98)

ECONOMY

LAID OFF? THAT'LL BE THE DAEWOO: South Korean industrial conglomerate Daewoo faces strike action by Sudanese trade unions in protest at plans to lay off about 600 workers. Al-Usbu newspaper was warned by the head of the federation of trade unions, Hashim Muhammad al-Beshir, that talks due to be held with management were crucial.

Beshir described Daewoo as "stubborn," and treated with scepticism its argument that the planned redundancies were an economic necessity. Daewoo has offered the 600 workers a compensation package equivalent to six months' wages. (al-Usbu / AFP 24/Jan/98)

INFLATION FALLING: January's figures show a slight fall in Sudan's annual rate of economic inflation, State Minister for Finance Sabir Muhammad al-Hassan told al-Rai al-Aam newspaper on 25 January. `Inflation in Sudan peaked at 166% a year in 1996,' notes Reuter. It had fallen from 101% in January 1997 to 27% in November and 34% in December.

`The government, which has given high priority to fighting inflation, has imposed strict policies aimed at rationalising public spending and restricting the money supply.' (Reuter 25/Jan/97)

ARAB-DINKA TRADE ACCORD: At the end of a long journey,a caravan of camels loaded with flour, garish fabrics and clanking pots comes to a dusty halt at the point of an automatic rifle.

Arab trader exchanges greetings with armed rebel, then displays his travel pass, goods list and wares at a makeshift checkpoint on a front that separates Sudan's warring factions. Everything in order, the Northerner is waved through to a busy market where Southerners trade cattle for imported goods.

The routine seems remarkable given that Arab Muslims from Sudan's north and black Christians from the south have been at war for three of the past four decades. But in defiance of the national government in Khartoum, Arab tribesmen of the Rizeigat and Misiriyah clans signed peace agreements in 1991 with southern Dinka chiefs covering broad stretches of rebel-controlled Bahr El Ghazal province.

Under the pacts, Arabs may bring goods to Dinka markets that otherwise would be empty, and in the dry season graze their cattle on river-fed Dinka lands. In return, the Arabs agreed to resist the Sudanese government's call to make war on the southern rebels and also agreed to help return southern cattle and people captured by Northerners.

The accord survived a test in 1994 when government militiamen attacked and burned a bustling market in Warawar, nearly 700 miles southwest of Khartoum. Many Dinkas were killed and enslaved. In the chaos, 37 of Warawar's Arab traders sought protection behind the lines of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army.

A rebel leader, Paul Malong Awan, contends the Khartoum government believed the rebels would kill the traders in revenge, causing such hostility between Arabs and Dinkas that the agreements would be destroyed. But the rebels sent them back north, with their cattle, strengthening Arabs' confidence.

"The government doesn't like the agreement because we have fewer enemies," says Marial Canuong, rebel deputy commander. Jama'a Kuku, an Arab trader, says he is committed to keeping peace between the two communities because "when we were small boys, there was no problem between Dinka and Arab. The government created the problems."

Sadiq el-Mahdi... told the Associated Press in a telephone interview the local agreements were a model for restoring peace...' (AP 7/Feb/98)

WATER

ETHIOPIA "UNDER PRESSURE": Senior Sudanese officials have attacked Ethiopia's demand for a review of its 40-year-old treaty with Sudan and Egypt on the use of Nile water.

Al-Usbu newspaper reported on 27 January that Adam Derousah, chairman of the agriculture and water resources committee in the Sudanese national assembly, accused the United States and Israel of exercising pressure on Ethiopia, in what he alleged to be the "Zionist" interest. He spoke of an "Israeli-American-Turkish alliance (which) bases its policy on the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris and is now considering the Nile sources in the Abyssinian plateau, which has a rich soil."

"The Ethiopian demand for reconsideration of the Nile Water Treaty is part of pressures being exerted for subjugating the Sudanese people and consequently the Arab region," Derousah contended, calling on all Arab states to join hands for maintenance of the Nile sources, according to AFP.

Sudanese Irrigation Under-secretary Ahmad Muhammad Adam said that Ethiopia "does not recognise the Sudanese-Egyptian Nile water treaty of 1959."

The BBC noted: `It was proposed nearly a year ago during a conference hosted by Ethiopia that the countries of the Nile basin reach [a new] agreement. But... Ethiopia is dissatisfied with the outcome of the meeting; it wants to dam the tributaries of the Blue Nile in the belief that Egypt and Sudan are using an unfair amount of the Nile's water. (al-Usbu / AFP, BBC 27/Jan/98)

HEALTH

FACING UP TO A.I.D.S: HIV/AIDS used to be a taboo subject... but now it is receiving a great deal of attention from the state and the media as the realization that it cannot be wished away sinks in.

...people infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, are now coming forward and telling their stories to the media, albeit under the cover of anonymity. The Sudanese Health Ministry said in its annual report for 1997/1998 on the national health situation that at least 1,832 AIDS deaths were registered last year. The report, issued this week, was the first... to give an overview of the HIV/AIDS situation here.

It said Islamic values and traditional norms were the best tools for controlling the "killer disease" which, it added, was spreading and killing people in poor rural communities - although it did not say how and why AIDS was spreading in the countryside.

The head of Virological Unit at the national laboratory, Dr Eissam Muhammad al-Khadir, was reported by the media as saying that the time had come to discuss HIV/AIDS.

"....Let's be realistic in dealing with the matter," he said,

adding that many HIV cases had gone unreported because people considered HIV/AIDS a source of shame for the family.

Al-Khadir, who used to be director of the state-run National Aids Committee, said that the spread of HIV was rooted in poverty which, for example, was forcing many people to indulge in commercial sex in order to survive.

He said that in 1996 alone, HIV had infected 1,990,000 people in Sudan, 40 percent of them women, and that this year the rate of infection was expected to increase in geometric progression.

One 41-year-old who is living with AIDS and whose name was given as O.M. by al-Rai al-Aam newspaper, urged others infected by the virus to speak out so as to give the society an idea of the real impact of the disease. [...] "I first though of committing suicide," he recalled, "but later I had a change of heart and decided to contribute to the campaign against AIDS."

He claimed he lost his job as a public school teacher when the Ministry of Education learned that he had been infected with HIV. O.M. is now a member of the National AIDS Committee. He goes around campaigning for funds for supporting HIV- and AIDS patients who, he said, are shunned by their families....

One young woman ... said she was married but had been practicing commercial sex so as to support her family until she discovered that she was infected with HIV.

"The news that I have AIDS was a great shock to me," she told the newspaper. "I decided to keep it secret so as not to be dismissed from my post but the psychological feeling has reached a point where I could not hide it."

"I was a simple official in the government but now I've lost my job because of this disease," she said. "The problem facing me is how I will feed the children."

Parliament... is considering passing a law that would punish any HIV-positive person who practices unprotected sex, but the idea is strongly opposed by traditional and religious leaders, who say it is against their beliefs.

Deng Atheny, a parliamentarian from Southern Sudan, is among those who feel AIDS must be criminalized in order to prevent its spread... He said any HIV-positive person who practiced unprotected sex should be put to death. Feb. 5 (IPS)

PREVENTABLE DISEASE: More than one million children, most of them from the strife-torn south of the Sudan, have died of polio and malnutrition-related diseases, according to a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official. Henk Franken, who is the UNICEF Representative in Sudan, said the one million children succumbed to the preventable diseases between 1996 and 1997.

"Unless the fighting in the south and east of the country stops, more children will die," Franken was quoted by the state-owned Sudan Standard newspaper as warning this week.

Aid agencies say the conflicts have hampered the delivery of relief food and prevented health officials from carrying out vaccinations in the affected regions.

Man-made calamity is not something new in the south. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, died of famine-related diseases in 1987, prompting UNICEF to launch "Operation Lifeline Sudan" (OLS) in 1988 to prevent similar catastrophes.

But OLS has failed to prevent further deaths as both the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Khartoum government have been using food and medicine as political weapons in their conflict.

[In] Eastern Sudan ... the country's breadbasket, hectares of farmlands have been abandoned, either to landmines or to fears of military attacks on farmers by both sides in the conflict.

Franken pointed out when launching the 1998 State of the World's Children Report that the ongoing war in Sudan had drained the country's resources, hitting health services the hardest.

Similar concern also has been expressed by Sudanese economists working with the "Poverty Research Group," which was formed to deal with the root causes of poverty in the country. The group says, in a report, that Sudan will raise its defence budget by 75 percent in 1998 to meet increasing military expenses.

The report, obtained by IPS, estimates that Sudan's $369 million military spending in 1996-97 will jump to more than $700 million in 1998. The report says such a rise will further hit Sudan's health services the hardest.

Franken said the causes of malnutrition were not only attributed to insufficient food intake, but also to infectious diseases.

"The war and its disruption of normal life and food production is also contributing to cases of diseases among children, especially in the south where more than half of its population is either displaced or forced to flee and live as refugees in neighbouring countries," he said.

A report released last October by the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) says the majority of children born in the main southern town of Juba die under the age of five.

"The infant mortality rate in Juba is a matter of worry to many families," the report said. "Parents of new born babies are in constant fear for the lives of their babies."

The report said the situation is so bad that three children are cramped into one bed in Juba hospital irrespective of what diseases they have.

"Most children die of malnutrition and polio in Juba and the national campaign against the five killer diseases -- polio, diphtheria, diarrhoea, measles and whooping cough, -- has not reached Juba and most of the Southern Sudan due to the fighting between the government and rebels forces," the SCC report said.

Another killer disease is malaria which accounts for 28 percent of all death cases in Juba, a battered city with a population of over 300,000 people, most of them displaced by Sudan's conflict.

The people in the displaced camps live in deplorable conditions, devoid of sanitation.

The local authorities, the SCC report said, cannot cope with the overwhelming sanitary problem in Juba. "There are no trucks and fuel for removing garbage and human wastes mix with stagnant drinking water supplies," said the SCC report.

The state minister and Secretary-general of the National Council for Child Welfare, Mariam Sir El Khatim, told the state-owned Sudan News Agency (SUNA) in late December that lack of nutritious food and poverty have contributed to the high rate of child mortality in the country.

She said the government is providing Vitamin A complex to the children in a bid to reduce the mortality rate.

A lecturer at the University of Khartoum, Hassan A. Abdel Atti, told journalists here this week that children have been blighted by famine, war and corruption. He said poverty among poor families has increased by 90 percent, and they have no access to health services.

"In Sudan, at any point in time, there are another million children under the age of five suffering from ailment," said Franken.

As he spoke, some nine million doses of vaccines donated by the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Rotary International Club were lying in the capital city of Khartoum due to the difficulties of transporting them to the remote parts of the country. Jan. 6 (IPS)

Visceral leishmaniasis, a potentially fatal parasitic disease transmitted by female sandflies, has struck thousands of people in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan since late 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on 13 February. It said there had been a "high mortality rate" as drugs essential for treating the disease were lacking. WHO had no figures for the death toll, but said the mortality rate was nearly 100 percent when the disease was left untreated.

A treatment centre in Gedaref state in eastern Sudan registered more than 2,500 confirmed cases between October and December 1997, a rise of 439 percent over the same period a year before.

"Eritrea and Ethiopia have also reported a sharp increase in cases during 1997 and the Tigray health bureau (in Ethiopia)

has issued an urgent request to WHO for serological facilities and drugs," it added.

The U.N. agency's Dr Philippe Desjeux said an epidemic of the disease killed around 100,000 people in southern Sudan between 1990 and 1992.

Desjeux is among a team of WHO experts who will undertake a 10-daymission to the three Horn of Africa countries to assess the extent of the current outbreak. "Hundreds of thousands of refugees live in the affected area and are at risk," he told Reuters.

With Medecins Sans Frontieres, WHO will launch an emergency plan, including setting up diagnostic facilities in laboratories and remote areas, providing drugs and insecticide-impregnated bednets.

Visceral leishmaniasis causes fever, substantial weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver as well as anemia. With treatment, the death rate is less than 10 percent.

"Visceral leishmaniasis has become an emergency health problem in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, where it has been endemic for years," Dr Ralph Henderson, WHO assistant director-general, was quoted in the WHO statement as saying. "The high mortality rate in this outbreak is mainly due to the absence of diagnostic facilities and the non-availability of first-line drugs at the local level." 13/Feb/98)

LAW AND ORDER

SIX POLITICAL PRISONERS FREED: Six prisoners in [Red Sea state] who have been held for over a year for taking part in an anti-government insurrection have been freed, SUNA reported Sunday.

The state governor, Abu Ali Majzoub Abu Ali, ordered the release of detainees under the terms of a general amnesty declared by President Omar al-Bashir.

It added that more than 70 other prisoners had been previously released and that Abu Ali stated there were no longer any political detainees left in the state. (SUNA/AFP 8/Feb/98)

`ANTI-GOVERNMENT' WOMEN SENTENCED: Ms Samira Karrar and Ms Nafisa el-Milaik, accused of possessing anti-government material and disturbing public order, have been sentenced to two months' imprisonment and a fine of 100 thousand Sudanese pounds. The imprisonment is postponed. The International Secretariat remains concerned over their physical and psychological integrity. (OCMT Case SDN 220198 12/Feb/98)

LAWYERS PREPARE GHAZI APPEAL: Jan 22 (AFP) Sudanese lawyers were Thursday preparing to appeal against the jailing of opposition barrister Ghazi Suleiman for distributing an anti-junta leaflet and failing to comply with a summons for questioning.

Suleiman, the leader of the Lawyers' National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, was arrested on 21 January and swiftly jailed for five months and fined 500,000 Sudanese pounds (300 dollars)

Some 40 members of the Lawyers' National Alliance were preparing an appeal on Suleiman's behalf, reports said, while a public order tribunal specified the charges against Suleiman in its records issued on Thursday. Earlier reports had spoken only of anti-government activity and "agitation".

Suleiman stated after sentencing that "the real question is not my trial or my imprisonment, but that the government no longer accepts alternative opinion nor is it ready to accept into its fold any people other than its wholehearted supporters," al-Rai al-Aam reported Thursday. The tribunal had turned down a request by defence lawyer Kamal al-Jizouli to inform the Sudanese Bar Association of the arrest of one of its members, with the judge arguing that the charges dealt with state security.

Suleiman lost recent Bar Association elections to a pro-government faction and his supporters accused their rivals, led by Fathi Khalil, the re-elected president, of rigging the vote. Khalil denied a claim that he had been notified of Suleiman's arrest but said authorities were not expected to notify the association if the charge levelled against a lawyer was related to security.

Public order tribunals are emergency courts presided over by ordinary judges seconded by the judiciary for trying cases of an urgent nature.

GHAZI SENTENCE CANCELLED: The court of appeal has cancelled a sentence of five months in jail and a fine handed down on opposition lawyer Ghazi Suleiman in January and ordered his release on bail pending a new trial.

Press reports said on 10 February that the court threw out the conviction and verdict in January by a public order tribunal, which found Suleiman guilty of public order offences, jailed him and fined him 500,000 pounds (about 300 dollars).

Presiding court of appeals judge Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, considering an appeal submitted by a group of about 50 lawyers, ruled that the public order tribunal had not been the appropriate forum for the case and ordered a retrial by Khartoum North criminal court, the reports said. [...]

The appeal court ... set Suleiman free on five million pound (about 3,000 dollars) bail.

Suleiman, who had been held at Debek prison about 40km from Khartoum, later told al-Rai al-Akher daily that he had been expecting the appeal court to throw out the charges against him altogether.

He added that, like his colleagues in the national alliance, he would remain "committed to restoration of democracy and respect for human rights in Sudan and to carrying on with the peaceful struggle" for attaining a democratic system.

"Our alliance is not concerned with toppling governments or installing others but is basically aimed at achieving basic liberties and freedom of opinion," Suleiman said.

Asked about the attitude of his main rival, Fathi Khalil, the president of the Sudanese Bar Association, who had said the lawyer's body would not intervene since the Suleiman case related to national security, Suleiman dismissed this position as "marginal".

Suleiman said his own main concerns were "achieving national unity" and the recognition of his alliance "instead of pursuing its members and placing them in prisons". Feb 10 (AFP)

SUDAN UPDATE can accept no responsibility for the truth or accuracy of the original reports reviewed herein nor any claim for defamation or infringement of copyright arising out of their publication. Single quote marks `...' enclose source texts; double quotes "..." indicate direct speech. Information added for clarity by the editors is signalled by square parentheses [SU].

FREQUENT SOURCES: AC = Africa Confidential / AI = Amnesty International / HRA = Human Rights Watch Africa / ION = Indian Ocean Newsletter / MEI = Middle East International / MENA = Middle East News Agency (Egypt) / RSR = Republic of Sudan Radio / SEB = Sudan News (Sudan Embassy Bulletin) / SUNA = Sudan News Agency / SWB = Summary of World Broadcasts (BBC Monitoring Service)

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Sudan Update, PO Box 10, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire HX7 6UX England Tel/Fax: +44-1422-845827 E-mail: sudanupdate@gn.apc.org ISSN 1352-0393

Peter Verney (sudanupdate@gn.apc.org)

Date: Fri, 15 May 1998

From: sudanupdate@gn.apc.org (Peter Verney) Subject: Sudan Update 28 Feb 98 (Vol9 No.4) pt 1

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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