08/12/2011

Sudan: Bishop requests UN human rights observers for the Nuba Mountainsactivists arrested during protest against slavery – a call for their immediate release.

Alarming situation in Southern Kordofan

Due to the alarming human rights situation in the Nuba Mountains – located in Sudan's province of Southern Kordofan – the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) supports the urgent demand of the Sudanese Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail towards the United Nations, requesting human rights observers for the area. They are needed to investigate whether war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed.

"We Nuba are afraid of being forgotten and fear that the rest of the world will fail to speak up against the continued killing in the Nuba mountains," the Anglican bishop of Kadugli – the major town in the Nuba Mountains – told the STP. He also reported that Christians found mass graves in his diocese and that many civilians were killed in their homes by Sudanese soldiers during raids. Since the outbreak of war in South Kordofan on the 5th of June 2011, about 200.000 people were forced to escape from the conflict. Villages and cities were bombed, churches and houses looted and burned down.

"The UN Security Council must urgently demand an immediate ceasefire agreement and should send human rights observers," said the STP's expert on questions regarding Africa, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Friday. Last Tuesday (09th of August), the panel held a debate about the situation in the Nuba Mountains – but no joint resolution could be developed during the confidential conference. China, Russia, India and Lebanon had rejected the demand for a ceasefire agreement, on the grounds that the human rights violations were not undoubtedly proven but had only been reported by human rights organizations

"If leaders of Christian churches in the Nuba Mountains have been sending reports about massive human rights violations for weeks, then this must finally be accepted by every member of the Security Council", said Delius. "The international community must put an end to the war in the Nuba mountains, or else the conflict is bound to spread into other regions." The Sudan People's Liberation Movement North (SPLM-NORTH) – which is active in South Kordofan – and the Movement for Justice and Equality (JEM) in Darfur have met an agreement on 7th of August 2011, stating that they will try to overthrow the Sudanese government together.