|
More than 100 people have been killed in clashes in the Jonglei state in
southern Sudan,
9/24/2009
officials have said.The extent of the clashes, which
erupted one day earlier when fighters from the Lou Nuer tribe raided a
rival village, emerged on Monday after officials reached the remote
settlement. Kuol Diem Kuol, a spokesman for the South's Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), said a total of 51 villagers and 28 soldiers,
police and national security officers had been killed.From the
attackers, 23 bodies were found on the ground. These attackers were
found in uniform with arms and organised in a military organisation in
platoons with G3 rifles," Kuol said.
Soldiers attacked
Mayen Ngor, the commissioner of Duk County, said the
attackers had burned down 260 huts, the police station and local
government buildings.This is a campaign against the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement [the 2005 accord that ended Sudan's north-south civil war] and
against the people of Duk," he said.The attack injured 46 people and
forced thousands to flee, according to Ngor.David Gressly, a regional
co-ordinator in south Sudan for the United Nations Missions in Sudan,
said the attack appeared to have targeted SPLA forces based in the
village. It is quite clear that the focus of the attack was on the
organised forces themselves," he said.It is way too early to call this a
civil war, but it is a significant law and order problem and one that
the government of southern Sudan needs to stand up and address," he told
the AFP news agency after visiting the area.A surge of tribal killings
this year has sparked fears for the stability of Sudan's under-developed
south.The United Nations estimates more than 1,200 people have died in
ethnic attacks this year.The Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM),
which heads an autonomous regional government in the south, fought a two
decades long civil war with the northern National Congress Party (NCP),
now headed by Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president.The two parties signed a
peace treaty in 2005, but tensions have remained.
North blamed
Yien Matthew, a spokesman for SPLM, told Al Jazeera that
his movement believed the NCP was behind Sunday's attack.Some of the
civilians who witnessed the attack saw they [the armed men] had big
weapons and thuraya [satellite] phones - a clear indication that they
are directed by the NCP.We cannot expect that in such an area armed men
have satellite phones and big weapons, which proves that they have been
directed by the NCP in Khartoum," Matthew said. All evidence at the
moment proves the NCP is behind this."Southern politicians have
accused the north of arming rival tribes to destabilise the region in
the build-up to elections in 2010 and a referendum on southern secession
in 2011.The government in Khartoum denies the accusation.Analysts say
many of the northern political elite are nervous about the referendum,
and the prospects of losing the south, the source of most of Sudan's oil
reserves |
