Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) denies presence of Kony in Darfur or Khartoum

SAF Denies Presence of Kony in Darfur or Khartoum
Report from SRS (Sudan Radio Service) Tuesday, 16 March 2010:

16 March 2010 - (Khartoum) - The official spokesperson of the Sudan Armed Forces, Khalid al-Sawarmi has denied a report by the French news agency AFP that members of the Lord’s Resistance Army are in Darfur.

Speaking to SRS on Tuesday from Khartoum al-Sawarmi strongly denied the presence of LRA rebels in the region.

[Khalid al-Sawarmi] “They are not in Darfur, that is not true and it is not right, the information did not come from a credible source. You can investigate to find out whether the issue is true or false. And we are going to also find out although Darfur is very far away from Uganda. Saying that the LRA can go up to there is not true.”

Khalid al-Sawarmi added that Uganda and Sudan enjoy good bilateral relations, saying that GONU is now looking for Joseph Kony and his hideouts.

[Khalid al-Sawarmi]: “It is not true at all to say that Joseph Kony ran to Khartoum. Kony is neither in Khartoum nor in Darfur and we don’t have any relationship with the LRA, we are even looking for Kony by all means. He can not hide in Khartoum or in Darfur. The relationship between the Sudan Armed forces and Ugandan Army is very excellent and we have somebody that’s in charge of our military affairs in Kampala and there’s also a Ugandan official here in Khartoum who handles all the affairs of the Ugandan Army and anything to do with armies of the two countries is alright.”

Sudan Armed Forces spokesman Khalid al-Sawarmi was speaking to SRS from Khartoum on Tuesday.

Malicious Rumors of LRA in Darfur Undermine Peace in Sudan

Press Release
Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan:
Malicious Rumors of LRA in Darfur Undermine Peace in Sudan
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2010 /via PRNewswire-USNewswire

Outrageous rumors about Uganda's "Lords Resistance Army" (LRA) apparently relocating to South Darfur to establish a safe haven in the region have suddenly cropped up. The source alleges that the Sudanese government is abetting the embattled group, which is purportedly in need of regrouping. The intention of these malicious speculations isn't in the least bit difficult to discern. It's a desperate and feeble attempt at yet again maligning the Sudanese Government and undermining the progress made towards peace. It is indeed convenient and most opportune for the enemies of peace in Sudan to peddle such alarming news, for it is clear they've lost the battle of Darfur as peace is at last dawning in that region, and now are in frantic search for a novel pretext that allows them to perpetuate their military-interventionist campaign in Sudan.

Foremost, they should remember that the Sudanese Army has long signed a protocol with the Ugandan Government that enables the latter to freely pursue the rebel group within the Sudanese territory where the border with Uganda lies. This is a clear and unequivocal declaration of support by Sudan to the Ugandan Government in this urgent matter of security, and hence perplexing to read the statements attributed to President Musevini. Secondly, the Sudan People's Liberation Army has been actively engaged in military operations against the LRA in that region, including one operation in which it coordinated efforts with Ugandan and Congolese forces. It is therefore utterly absurd to claim that the Government is sustaining the very problem it is clearly plotting to eradicate.

Moreover, to believe that the LRA trekked all the way to Darfur to establish itself is an insult to common sense and betrays a lack of fundamental knowledge of the geography of the region. The LRA is a rebellion force primarily against the Ugandan Government, not Sudan. Its operations target Uganda, a country situated nowhere close to the area of Darfur it is alleged to have moved to. The risks in launching its operations from such an extensive distance are profound given the many forces going after it, including international ones. It would be nothing short of a fatal error for the group to commit to such an elementary course of action. Besides, Darfur is the site of a vigorous campaign for peace where effort to pacify all armed groups is underway and therefore isn't the ideal region for any such malignant groups.

Sudan has made a vow to combat terrorism in all its forms and has accordingly marshaled the necessary resources to fight it. Its record, which continues to be noted by the U.S., with which it has joined forces in this effort, speaks to the level of its commitment. Having identified and defined the LRA as a rogue and outlaw group that terrorizes citizens, including some incidents with our own, Sudan has an obligation to pursue the dismantling of this group and has so been doing. And any rumors that insinuate otherwise are simply malicious and detrimental to the wider peace efforts in the country and the region.

CONTACT: Embassy of Sudan Press and Information Office, phone: +1-202-338-8565, or fax: +1-202-667-2406

SOURCE Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan

While Kony may be in South Darfur, the LRA has divided into three independent factions, one headed by Dominic Ongwen

From Peter Eichstaedt's blogpost Sunday 14 March 2010:

Deja-vu, all over again

The famous New York Yankees baseball player Yogi Berra once said, "It's like deja-vu all over again," the kind of statement that makes you pause, clear your throat, then chuckle.

That was my reaction to last week's flurry of statements from various corners that Joseph Kony, the notorious leader of the vicious Lord's Resistance Army, was settled somewhere in south Darfur.

Curiously, that information has been published and commented on for about six months, going back to an attack first reported last October: "Ugandan rebels attack Darfuris, kill five - army."

The story was reported by intrepid journalist Skye Wheeler, a Reuters correspondent in Juba, who rips around the gritty capital of South Sudan on a dirt bike.

The LRA attack was in the border regions of South Sudan and Darfur, targeting displaced Darfuris, and quoted South Sudan's army spokesman Kuol Diem Kuol.

Subsequent reports fueled speculation, including mine, that Kony had taken up refuge inside Dafur, helping himself to Sudan's hospitality just as he had done a decade earlier while fighting in northern Uganda.

Then Uganda President Yoweri Museveni said Friday that Kony had apparently "disappeared into Darfur," quoting his military sources.

Museveni then made his typical bravado comments about how the Uganda army has all but eliminated Kony, again revealing a short-term memory of his army's botched attack on Kony's camps in the Congo in December 2008.

That failed operation is largely why the world is still dealing with the Kony problem.

Museveni went on to say that while Kony may be in Darfur, the LRA has divided into three independent factions, one headed by Dominic Ongwen, who like Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court. Leadership and location of the third unit is unknown.

Just a day before Museveni spoke, the tireless people at Enough, also announced that Kony had found a safe haven in Darfur.

Now doing something about Kony and the LRA has only become more difficult due to the inexcusable delays to a bill regarding Kony that was finally acted on this past week by the U.S. Senate.

These needless delays in the bill, which requires the Obama administration to develop a plan to stop Kony, are the kind of inaction that has allowed Kony to survive and keep on killing, looting, abducting and mutilating.

With Kony now in Darfur, any overt action against him becomes all the more complicated, unless and until Kony decides to venture from his safe haven into South Sudan to disrupt the country's coming elections.

It will require constant pressure from groups like Invisible Children, Enough, and Resolve Uganda to keep up the pressure and insist that a plan and then action be taken to capture Kony and his marauding rebels.

--
Posted By Peter Eichstaedt to Peter Eichstaedt at 3/14/2010 12:19:00 PM

Uganda’s Kony may have moved to Darfur, Musevini says

Uganda’s Kony may have moved to Darfur, Musevini says
Report from Sudan Tribune, Saturday, 13 March 2010:

March 12, 2010 (KAMPALA) — The notorious leader of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) Joseph Kony may have relocated to Sudan’s Western of Darfur, the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni said at a press conference in Kampala today.

"Central African republic allowed our troops to operate there. Our troops have been successfully hunting the LRA rebels and a good number of them have been killed. The rebels have been operating there in three small groups. The Ugandan troops operating there have told me that the group comprising Kony has fled into Darfur," Museveni according to local media.

The Ugandan leader further said that he is not concerned if the intel turns out to be true because it means that the LRA figures have settled in Darfur far away from his country and sparing it the havoc they are known to create.

The fugitive LRA leader has been on the run since December 2008 when regional states launched a hunt to nab him after he refused to sign a peace deal with Kampala.

Since the operation, remnant LRA fighters have been moving in the jungles of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, south Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Kony and two of his lieutenants have been charged with atrocities in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, which under international law requires they be turned over immediately upon capture or surrender. Past attempts to ink a peace deal between LRA and Kampala has failed primarily because the rebels wanted to persuade the Hague based court to drop the case.

The Ugandan president vowed today that he would see that Kony gets hanged once he is captured despite a legal obligation as an ICC member to send him to the Hague.

"If our troops get a chance of capturing Kony, he will be tried here and be hanged. We will not take him to ICC court in Hague court because there they take such people in hotels. Here, we will hang him" Musevini said.

He also did not rule out the possibility that LRA are receiving support from Khartoum as the case was in the past during the civil war years between North and South Sudan.

"If the Sudanese want to accommodate him in Darfur, that makes no difference to us" Musevini said.

"It makes no difference because they supported him much more in the past but whatever they gave him, we captured," he added.

Earlier this week, the Washington-based Enough Project said today that a contingent of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has taken refuge in areas of South Darfur controlled by the Government of Sudan.

Accordingly, an LRA reconnaissance team in late 2009 sought to make contact with the Sudanese army at their base in Kafia Kingi, near south Darfur’s border with CAR, according to Enough Project. Now, based on field research and interviews with government and United Nations officials in several countries, Enough says that it can "confirm that LRA units have reached south Darfur."

A similar claim was voiced by the official spokesman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, who asserted last year that LRA leader Joseph Kony himself was in Darfur. This was denied by Salah Gosh, presidential advisor and ex-chief of the intelligence and security service.

However, senior members of the rebel group’s political wing in the Kenyan capital Nairobi dismissed the claims.

"This is part of continued fabrications and guesswork about LRA whereabouts and we would like to dismiss this baseless report with all the contempt it deserves," Colonel Michael Anywar, who acted as LRA military liaison, told Alertnet in Nairobi.

"It’s true that Khartoum once supported LRA but that kind of support stopped in 2002 after which we chose cut those ties," said Justine Labeja, who said he is the head of LRA peace delegation.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir is also wanted by the ICC for war crimes he allegedly masterminded in Darfur.

According to the U.N. refugees agency, the LRA caused most of the displacement in central Africa in 2009 with hundreds of thousands uprooted.

The rebels have looted, killed civilians and abducted children from three countries, forcing many to flee their homes, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. (ST)

Somalia: AU wants country declared no fly zone

World Food Programme has reported that Al Shabaab militants are stopping convoys of food reaching more than 360,000 displaced people in Somalia.

Al Shabaab says World Food Programme is ruining local farming by forcing Somalis to rely on imports. But the UN says Somali farmers cannot supply enough food.

Source: Somalia: AU wants country declared no fly zone
From New Vision (Uganda) -March 1, 2010 (via Afrika.no)

Kampala (Uganda) - The Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) has asked the UN to impose a no-fly zone on Somalia and block sea ports through which foreign groups supply logistics to the insurgents.

Eritrea, in particular, has been accused of serving as a conduit for arms, logistics and foreign fighters to the Islamist group Al Shabaab in Somalia.

On December 23 last year, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Eritrea and vowed to slap financial and travel restrictions on its leaders for arming Al Shabaab.

The resolution, which was introduced by Uganda, passed by a vote of 13 to 1 in the 15-nation council, with Libya voting "no" and China abstaining.

At its meeting held in Addis Ababa on Thursday, the council hailed all the countries and institutions providing support to the AU peace keeping mission, especially Uganda and Burundi, calling on other member states to join.

Uganda and Burundi are the only countries that have contributed soldiers to the AU peace keeping force, known as AMISOM, but the 5,000 strong force falls short of the 8,000 soldiers required to secure the capital Mogadishu alone.

The AU council stressed that the deterioration of the situation in Somalia is proof of the increased internationalisation of the conflict.

It, therefore, called for the deployment of UN staff to help stabilise the situation and support the reconstruction of the country.

"The council noted that the current support remains below what is required on the ground and called for more mobilisation of the international community," an AU release said over the weekend.

The group reiterated its support to the Somali government and asked for more support, including military, to enable the government neutralise the armed element and deliver basic services.

In that respect, it welcomed the recent commissioning of eight battalions of the Somali security forces, who had been trained by AMISOM.

It also welcomed the completion of the induction course for the AMISOM police trainers from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda who will in turn train the Somali police.

The council again condemned the acts of violence and terrorism by Islamist militant groups Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam "with the active support of foreign elements in defiance of the peace overtures of the government and the international community".

It reiterated its call to all the Somali parties to join the peace process without any precondition and delay.

It also demanded that armed opposition groups ensure unrestricted access and assistance to needy civilians in areas under their control.

Meanwhile, World Food Programme has reported that Al Shabaab militants are stopping convoys of food reaching more than 360,000 displaced people.

Al Shabaab says World Food Programme is ruining local farming by forcing Somalis to rely on imports. But the UN says Somali farmers cannot supply enough food.

Coup attempt underway in Niger

See reports at Niger Watch, Thursday, 18 February 2010.

Inspector 'broke' door of Mbeki's plane

Inspector 'broke' door of Mbeki's plane
From www.iol.co.za February 12 2010 at 07:30AM
By Craig McKune

An official South African aviation inspector has landed himself in hot water after he climbed aboard Thabo Mbeki's charter plane in Khartoum without permission and "forced and broke" the door on his way out.

It is understood damage caused by the inspector ran into millions of rands. He was flown home immediately and a relief aircraft was sent from South Africa with an engineer aboard to repair Mbeki's plane, which was chartered from the SA Air Force.

The incident reportedly interrupted Mbeki's African Union mission in north Africa, where he is chairing the AU High Level Implementation Panel on Sudan and visiting north African leaders.

According to the SA Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the inspector, who was not named, was in Sudan because the country's authorities were concerned that a high number of South African-registered aircraft using their airspace were not airworthy.

The inspector was auditing companies mandated by the CAA to maintain South African planes, and he was inspecting all South African-registered aircraft as well.

"The inspector noticed the Gulfstream II aircraft parked on the civil apron with a South African registration. There was no indication that this was an Air Force charter," CAA spokesperson Kabelo Ledwaba said.

He boarded the craft immediately. No crew was present.

Having checked the plane's documentation, he "experienced technical difficulties" when he tried to close the door.

The inspector immediately called SA Air Force officials who talked him through closing the door from the inside. "When the exercise was repeated from the outside, it failed to close properly. It was then decided not to continue in case further damage was caused."

Ledwaba said the inspector did not need the crew's permission to board in their absence, according to Civil Aviation Regulations or CAA procedures.

He denied rumours on online aviation forums that the inspector had been arrested for "breaking and entering".

It is understood the incident is being investigated by the National Intelligence Agency. "The inspector is expected to submit a comprehensive report to the SACAA," Ledwaba said.

craig.mckune@inl.co.za

UK gov't job vacancy: A2 Statistics Adviser based within World Bank Nairobi Country Office, Kenya

Seen on twitter:

RT with correct link #DFIDjobs New vacancy: Statistics Adviser, Kenya. Apply now: http://ow.ly/12ExI Closing date: 27 Feb
6:29 AM Feb 5th from HootSuite
dfid_uk

Based within the World Bank Nairobi Country Office, you will support the KNBS reform process, the design/implementation of the next KNBS strategic plan, and lead the sector's donor co-ordination. The closing date for applications is 27 February 2010. LAST UPDATED: 28 JAN 2010. Click here for specific vacancy information [PDF - 88 KB] and apply online.

Uganda - Land disputes at the root of African wars

Land disputes at the root of African wars

A selection of the African continent's fights over land that have turned into violent, conflict, or threaten to.

From The Christian Science Monitor
By Jina Moore Correspondent, 30 January 2010

Land battles that sparked African conflicts

Western Sudan (Darfur) In the 1970s, the government eliminated the country's native administration – a quasi-government and colonial holdover of traditional elders – and rejected traditional land rights, depriving Darfur's pastoralists of access to grazing lands. When famine exacerbated disputes about land in the 1980s, violence broke out. Land grievances were never resolved, and in 2003, a rebel movement made up in part of disenfranchised former landholders revolted against the Sudanese government, which retaliated by arming bands of camel herders known as janjaweed to repress the rebellion – and promising them hefty tracts of the land, emptied in the course of the violence the militia unleashed.

The Democratic Republic of Congo Often called Africa's most deadly conflict, violence in parts of the northeast started over grazing cows in1999, when Hema herders evicted Lendu farmers after purchasing their land. Eviction grievances led both tribes to pick up weapons. As violence spread, the value of other mineral-rich lands contributed to the chaos in which 5 million people have died.

Ethiopia and Eritrea A 1998 dispute over the dusty border town of Badme turned into all-out war, with 80,000 deaths in two years. The town became the flash point of an older argument over the border between the two countries. Both sides saw Badme as a symbol of their real economic concern: power over the port of Assab, the Red Sea trade gateway. Despite international court rulings, the countries consider the border dispute unresolved – and their presidents often rally support by threatening to resume the fight.

Kenya Many indigenous tribes lost rights to traditional lands when the British privatized land holdings. When Joseph Kenyatta, the first postcolonial president, sought land redistribution, he gave the most fertile to his Kikuyu tribe. In a later backlash, many Kikuyu were pushed off their pastures. This created ethnic land grievances that have inspired violence during Kenya's elections since the 1990s, most recently after President Mwai Kabaki, a Kikuyu, was accused of stuffing ballot boxes in 2007.

Rwanda The 1994 genocide may have been catalyzed as much by land scarcity as by ethnic tension. Africa's most densely populated country found itself nearly without enough land to make farmers trust that they and their children could support themselves. Though the slaughter of minority Tutsis was also ethnically motivated, land fears played no small part in the violence.

Zimbabwe Land grievances helped fuel the 12-year war that led to independence in 1979. But recent violence stems from land reform efforts. In the name of economic fairness, President Robert Mugabe seized white farms and turned them over to blacks, primarily government officials who knew little about farming. As a result, agricultural production plummeted, food became scarce, and inflation spiked. Mugabe held power in a 2008 election only with violent intimidation of Zimbabweans.

Combustible land disputes that could erupt in conflict

Burundi The past decade brought the return of more than a half-million refugees who'd fled violence that began with independence in 1963. Many found their homes occupied – and because laws give ownership to anyone who has peacefully occupied land for at least 30 years, many refugees lost their homes and livelihoods. Experts fear the grievance could spark renewed conflict.

South Africa At the 1994 transition to democracy, the government planned to redistribute 30 percent of white-owned farms to blacks within 20 years. Transfers are behind schedule, and more than half have failed. After an outbreak of racial violence last year, observers fear the status quo – with expectations so high, progress so slow, and livelihoods at stake – is combustible.

Southern Sudan The 2005 peace agreement that ended a 20-year fight for the south didn't resolve tensions between the nation's two land systems. Private property reform implemented in the north was rejected in the south, which continues to use traditional rules. Danger of a potential clash between parallel systems is amplified by what's at stake: The south is oil-rich.

Uganda After 20 years of violence in the north, peace is bringing people home – and disputes are erupting over who owns property. Eighty percent of Ugandans have property claims based on the traditional land system, but a generation of conflict has weakened the traditional authority, of elders to resolve disputes or enforce land rules. As the government steps in to fill the power vacuum, experts fear a backlash.

Zambia White farmers forced off land in neighboring countries, found fertile soils here, and were initially welcomed by the government (five years ago). The tone changed as some immigrant farmers agitated locals by putting down roots on traditional lands. New arrivals, especially those fleeing Zimbabwe, are closely scrutinized. Observers fear deepening tensions.

Related Stories

• In Africa, inheriting a field ... or a feud?
• Africa's continental divide: land disputes
• Rwandans: a reeducation in how to live together
• Blog: New ideas in fighting violence, finding forgiveness
• Africa After War: Paths to Forgiveness – Why Jeannette employs her family's killers

Khartoum refutes U.S. warnings on threat against flights between Sudan, Uganda

Khartoum refutes U.S. warnings on threat against flights between Sudan, Uganda
Report from www.chinaview.cn by Mu Xuequan, 10 January 2010:

KHARTOUM, Jan. 09, 2010 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government Saturday rejected warnings by the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum that terrorists were planning to launch attacks on flights between southern Sudan capital of Juba and the Ugandan capital of Kampala, the official news agency SUNA reported.

The report quoted Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Muawiya Osman Khalid as saying that the Sudanese authorities concerned, during their following up and monitoring, did not find any threat emerging from Sudanese territories against regional or international interests.

The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum late on Friday released a warning on its website of a potential threat against commercial aviation between Juba and Kampala, saying it "received information indicating a desire by regional extremists to conduct a deadly attack onboard Air Uganda aircraft on this route."

Khalid said, "The United States, if having received any information or having any concerns in this regard, should have discussed them with the Sudanese authorities concerned so that required measures would be adopted, instead of circulating baseless information," according to the report.

The Sudanese official also said the movement of international aviation between Sudan and other countries were progressing "normally and safely."

He added that "the concerned security organs in Sudan are always following up with a highest level of alert the safety measures and are efficiently living up to their responsibilities," according to the report.

- - -

Crashed Ethiopia plane 'flew into Beirut storm'
From BBC News at 11:56 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010 - excerpt:

The UK Foreign Office said there was one British national and one person of dual nationality on board.

The other passengers included citizens of Turkey, France, Russia, Canada, Syria and Iraq, Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement on its website.

Among them was Marla Pietton, the wife of the French ambassador in Beirut.

Some of the foreign passengers are reported to be of Lebanese origin.

- - -

British investigators say Ethiopian Airlines plane crash 'similar' to earlier disaster
From Daily Telegraph by David Harrison British, 4:59PM GMT 30 Jan 2010 - excerpt:

British aviation lawyers have launched their own investigation into last week's Ethiopian airliner crash and are examining similarities with another air disaster less than three years ago.

Aviation experts said that each crash could have been caused by a technical fault which combined with other factors.

James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer with London-based Stewarts Law, said: "Based upon our research and investigation into the Kenya Airways crash, the aircraft's spoilers and/or altimeters may have been faulty."

Pass this on: Missing Persons Registry - Haitian Earthquake January 2010

Copy of message today on Twitter from Ushahidi's Erik Hersman:

Pass this on. Missing persons registry for #haiti is http://www.haitianquake.com
about 4 hours ago from twhirl
ushahidi

Further reading

Patrick Meier's report at Ushahidi's blog, 13 January 2010: Our Efforts in Response to Haiti’s Earthquake - We’ve launched Haiti.Ushahidi.com

Ethan Zuckerman's blog post at My Heart's in Accra, 13 January 2010: Following the Haitian earthquake online

Ugandan troops killed a top LRA commander in CAR

Ugandan rebel leader killed in Centr.Africa: army
(AFP) – 2 January 2010

KAMPALA — Ugandan troops killed a top commander of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in the Central African Republic, a military spokesman said Saturday.

"Bok Abudema was killed north of Ndjema in the Central African Republic on Friday", defence and army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye told AFP in Kampala by telephone.

"This was a New Year's gift to Uganda," Kulayigye said. "He was a notorious commander but his life has come to an end."

Kulayige said Abudema was the only casualty of the raid, but two women who had been with him were recovered by the troops.

In November Kulayige said Ugandan special forces had killed another senior commander of the LRA, Okello Kutti, in the Central African Republic near its eastern border with Sudan.

And in September he said the army had captured a top bodyguard of LRA chief Joseph Kony during a similar operation in the same country.