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[Courtesy Sudan Society]
ISRAELI
HAND IN SUDANESE BLOODSHED
KHARTOUM, April 28 (AFP) -- Sudanese officials
have accused southern
separatists and Israel of assisting rebels who
attacked a city in west
Sudan's Darfur region last week, press reports
said Monday.
The government newspaper Al Anbaa said Southern
States Coordination Council
Chairmman Riek Gai accused John Garang's Sudan
People's Liberation Army
(SPLA) of sedition in Darfur.
"The rebel movement (SPLA) is behind the recent
events in al-Fasher," Gai
said in a statement Sunday.
On Friday, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said
it had seized al-Fasher,
capital of Northern Darfur state, but Khartoum
rejected the claim, saying its
forces had beaten back the rebel attack.
Gai called the alleged SPLA aid to Darfur rebels
"a hurdle in the peace
process".
Several rounds of peace talks have been held in
neighboring Kenya in a bid to
end a 20-year civil war that pits the Khartoum
government, representing
mostly Islamic Arab northern Sudan, against the
SPLA, based in the mainly
Christian and animist south.
North Darfur State Governor Ibrahim Suleiman
accused both the SPLA and Israel
of having a hand in recent events there, in an
interview published Friday by
the daily Akhbar Al-Youm.
"We firmly believe Garang's movement coordinates
and communicates with this
(Darfur) group, particularly since the (SPLA)
movement has been blocked from
doing anything in the south by concluding a
ceasefire with the government,"
Suleiman told the newspaper.
"The movement has decided to transfer operations
to other areas," said
Suleiman, who also holds the rank of general.
He added: "We believe there was an Israeli hand
in those criminal acts."
The general said his government was holding talks
on how to prevent more
attacks, adding: "All political parties,
including those of the opposition,
except the Popular Congress (of Hassan
al-Turabi), are taking part in those
meetings."
He withheld accusations against any specific
party or tribe of involvement in
the attacks, but said nine people had been
arrested since Friday.
Asked where the rebels were based, the governor
said: "They are fortified on
Jebel Sin (a mountain) between Jebel Marrah and
the Shawal region" in north
Darfur.
"They are beseiged and the armed forces are
determined to annihilate them
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2003-05-03 Sat 13:12ct