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SITREP 9 6 NOV 04
GENERAL SITUATION:
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement talks are moving along
with all apparent deliberate haste. There actually seems
to be hope for a wrap up by the end of the year.
There is discussion of the UN moving in within fifteen days
of signing, which may not be so good. Much needs to be
done between the parties at grass roots level for the CPA to be effective, and
the UN personnel handling the
implementation need to be made aware of the different circumstances that
obtain in different parts of the country.
The Nuba area is not at all like the Darfur area, and tactics that would be
appropriate in one will definitely not be
appropriate in the other.
The development of a joint police force is in its infancy.
This force must be developed and in place before military
control is terminated. If this force is not in place and effective, banditry
and the rise of local warlords will likely follow
any ending of military control.
Joint civil administrations will be required to ensure that
the vast amount of infrastructure development necessary is fair
and seen to be fair. These are just two examples of areas of major concern for
a post CPA Sudan.
SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS:
As a result of the opening of the roads throughout the
Sector 3 AO and a Herculean effort by Frank, Lorenzo and
their team over the last few weeks, the entire backlog of Military Inspections
in the remoter parts of the GOS part
of the AO has been brought up to date.
While they carried this project out, the rest of us have
been dealing with police related matters and laying the
groundwork for the updating of the SPLA M.I.s. Due to the looser militia
oriented structure of the SPLA this can
sometimes seem akin to herding butterflies. Where the GOS soldiers are paid
and housed in barracks, the SPLA are
unpaid and have to work on their farms (or at something) in order to get
by. They also live at home and report in as
and when required. The best analogies I can offer are the Minutemen of
colonial America and the Boer commandos of the
Boer War at the turn of the last century in South Africa. When going to
inspect the GOS units, the entire unit is usually present.
When going to inspect an SPLA unit, one may be fortunate to find the commander
or his deputy at the designated HQ.
The big news locally, of course, is the apprehension of
Achmed Mohammed Al Tang. (See SITREP 8 & Followup) He was transported to the
GOS jail in Kadugli Thursday morning. He will face an array of outstanding
charges in addition to the
latest charges against him involving the explosive devices which he placed in
and around Um Serdiba.
Perhaps even more important than the actual capture and
arrest of this career thug and criminal was the level of cooperation
between GOS and SPLM Police. While he may have been one of the worst of his
sort, he is most assuredly not the only
one out there. The kind of cross faction cooperation displayed in this case
will hopefully lay the groundwork for joint post CPA
law enforcement. The police are going to be thrust to the forefront in the
post CPA Sudan after being minor players for a long
time. How well they function may well determine whether or not a society of
laws, and law and order, will have a chance of prevailing.
MICHAEL’S WORLD
Another birthday and another Thanksgiving passed fairly
quietly. For those who sent greetings for either or both, let me
thank you again. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and that Jim Young
(my first team leader in Vietnam) had a
great 60th birthday. You’ll never catch up to me, Jim! And that’s about it from Sudan for this week. Michael
SITREP 10 3 DEC 04
GENERAL SITUATION
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) talks have slowed
down to crawl due to a high level SPLM
conference in Rombek, Sudan. Hopefully things will get moving again soon and
an agreement will be reached by the
end of the year.
The GOS expulsion order for two NGOs, Oxfam and Save the Children, has been suspended but not rescinded.
SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS
The Sector Commander’s mother in law died suddenly and he
has taken emergency compassionate leave for two weeks.
With the Deputy Commander already on regular leave, I have become Sector
Commander for the nonce.
With the harvest almost all in, and tilling for the next
crop months away, people have much more time on their hands.
Idle hands being the devil’s tools, we are seeing more incidents in the
areas in which the two factions are in close
juxtaposition. Some are relatively harmless, as in one case I will have to
investigate on Sunday.
Some SPLA lads
brought their weapons to a party in Rigifi and manifested their high
spirits by firing them up into the sky.
This occurred despite their having been asked not to fire their rifles by
their hosts. The noise brought the village sheik,
and his approach occasioned a hasty departure by the offenders. Mildly
troublesome, but far short of a Cease Fire
Violation (CFV). Now that I think about it, however, the GOS Police in
Rigifi may not be quite as dismissive as I,
and are probably rather happy that the SPLM sheik was able to sort it all
out before they had to get involved!
I already have the name of one the rowdies which I gave to
his Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) when we spoke a few
days ago. The RSM seemed genuinely surprised to hear about the incident and
assured me that there would be no
repetitions of the incident. I also reminded him of the rules proscribing
the carrying of weapons into the DMZ area.
Far more serious is the incident which I will investigate
on Saturday. We received a complaint today about armed GOS
supporters going into a village along the Al Reika-Frandalla corridor and
harassing the residents who are largely SPLM sympathizers. This incident
mirrors an incident of a few weeks ago in which SPLA troops entered a GOS
village and
caused problems, including driving an Arab trader out of the village. This
area is one of our “never a dull moment” zones.
At least once a month there is some sort of nausea requiring JMC attention.
Our presence and attention keep things in
check in this hot spot, and presence and attention will be rapidly applied
in this case.
The good news is that the Sector 3 Commander, Rainer, was
able to lay the groundwork for reopening the road
from Al Reika through Frandalla to Talodi. This road was officially closed
to all vehicular traffic by the GOS about the
time I arrived at Sector 3. This action was taken as a result of several
incidents that occurred along the SPLM controlled
section of the road. Unfortunately, all the residents in this zone, GOS as
well as SPLM, continue to suffer since this is the
only road. The GOS have presented their demands and the SPLM are meeting
now to determine their negotiating position.
Since both sides seem to recognize the importance of reopening this
approximately 50 km stretch of road as expeditiously
as possible, prospects are hopeful. Sector 3 personnel, of course, have
facilitated the process in various ways.
MICHAEL’S WORLD
R & R to the Land of the Big PX approaches! Just over a
month to go and I will be back among loved ones and friends.
I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.
A “misery” in the ball of my right foot has me off of long
foot patrols for a week or two. Hopefully it will go away with
a bit of light duty. There are enough driving patrols to keep me out of
mischief, even though I will miss my walks in the country.
Take care all.
More next week.