Frank, On this day of remembrance do not forget our African brothers and sisters in the Sudan who also fight the evil of Arab fundamentalists:
News Article by The Observer posted on September 08, 2002 at 01:33:03: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudan's rebels show no mercy
James Astill became one of the first reporters to witness the savage combat still raging in southern Sudan. Here he recounts a battle as Khartoum's forces hunted defiant guerrillas
The Observer (UK)
Sunday September 8, 2002
The savannah in Western Upper Nile shakes as 3,000 rebel fighters jog around in a giant ring. They are sweating heavily in the midday sun, drenching their motley fatigues. Dust clouds trail from their flashing white gym-shoes. A bugle blows and they start to sing. 'Our leader is in the field! The enemy is coming! Gather young men!'
For almost two decades, the young black men of southern Sudan have been gathering to fight the Arab government of Khartoum. The war has been unwinnable for years, claiming two million lives and tearing Africa's biggest country in two, pitching the Islamic-led government of the north against largely Christian and animist rebels in the south.
But now oil is starting to break the deadlock. From its few wells in the country's centre, the government is pumping enough oil to purchase hi-tech weapons. And with these it is beginning to push the rebels back.
In Western Upper Nile, a remote oil-rich region on the border between north and south Sudan, the ring of jogging rebels are fighting at the turning-point of the war.
Last Monday the government pulled out of peace talks with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels, pledging to redouble its military effort. Its gave as justification the SPLA's recent capture of Torit, a garrison town close to the Kenyan border. Meanwhile, it denies its own much bigger recent offensives in Western Upper Nile.
As the rebels run and sing, Peter Gadeat, their commander, watches in silence, unsmiling under a red beret and red-rimmed shades. The enemy is coming. And Gadeat's fighters - young men, and many boys - are working up courage for the fight. 'Our leader is in the field!', they sing, their bullet belts jingling in time. 'Our leader is stopping the oil!'
Word comes that about 1,200 government militiamen are approaching, and briskly Gadeat deploys the rebels along a mile-long front. There is no singing now. 'This will be the final battle,' Gadeat predicts. 'We will win, or we will be destroyed. Either way, many men will die.'
Hours later the government troops emerge from a huddle of grass huts, 300 yards in front of the rebels' position. Gadeat's pickets are leading them on, firing short bursts and quickly retreating.
Then, with a thunderous roar, mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades and bullets from heavy machine-guns sleet through the government line and battle begins. Maddened by the bombardment, militiamen charge the clouds of gunsmoke, gambling that behind them a lesser force is hiding. At his command post behind the front line, Gadeat smiles: 'The battle has begun well.'
The militiamen close to less than 100 yards away. And suddenly the rebels rise from the grass and blaze away with sub-machine guns, emptying their magazines in a single ratcheting burst. Then there is chaos: a storm of swirling white smoke and random gunfire.
But, within half an hour, the militiamen are running off and the rebels are pursuing. Laughing with relief, Gadeat and his senior officers shake hands and retire to drink sugary black tea in the shade.
Meanwhile, on the savannah, men are dying. One militiaman stumbles blindly about; a red welt across his face where a bullet has passed, pulping both his eyes. Another sits dumbly in the grass, as the blood flows from his groin and a rebel fighter beats him.
'Why are you fighting us? We are your people,' shouts the rebel, stunning the wounded man with a bamboo stick. The militiamen are black mercenaries, from the rebels' own tribe.
David Matwok, a 31-year-old militiaman, lies on his back, chatting with three SPLA fighters. His feet rest at neat right angles to his body; as if he has set them aside to lie down.
'Give me some water, mister,' he asks in English. But it is difficult to know how to respond. To alleviate Matwok's suffering would only prolong it; because there is no hope for him. The International Committee of the Red Cross is barred from the Western Upper Nile by the government and Gadeat's men do not help the enemy wounded.
'Leave him alone,' warns Lieutenant Simon Gadwel. 'Wild animals can have him.' An educated man, Gadwel hopes to become a priest after the war.
Thirty SPLA fighters are dead and about 100 seriously wounded. The militiamen's losses are much heavier, although difficult to estimate. A few dozen corpses lie scattered and stripped. But there are many more like Matwok, lying in the long grass, waiting to die.
Despite Gadeat's bold prediction, this was not a decisive victory for the rebels, but a minor riposte to the government's latest offensive.
Last month government militias supported by high-flying bombers and helicopter gunships routed Gadeat's fighters and drove 100,000 civilians from Western Upper Nile. Though Gadeat denies it, his young fighters say that they are powerless against such weapons.
At Mayen Jur, an airstrip in neighbouring Bahr al-Ghazal state, thousands of the displaced have gathered to await foreign aid.
One of them, Peter Gol, says four people were killed in his village by the gunships, and 15 children taken by the militiamen as slaves. Gol's six-year-old daughter was drowned crossing a river during the flight. 'The Arabs only want our cattle, our children, and our oil,' declares Gol, a middle-aged tribesman who has a face deeply lined with ritual scars. 'Black people are nothing to them.'
Even as the war slowly turns the government's way, some analysts remain hopeful that the peace talks will resume. With debts of $17 billion and dissent mounting against its autocratic regime, Khartoum needs peace - and the rapidly increased oil production this would bring.
'Clearly the government doesn't like the way the talks were going,' said David Mozersky of the International Crisis Group, a think tank focused on the conflict. 'But it still has strong reasons to come to an agreement.'
The rebels offer another reason - despite their weakening position, they show no sign of giving up.
'If the government is joking about peace, fine, we will fight them,' says Gadeat. 'If they bring a thousand helicopter gunships against us, we will fight them. Even if it is impossible for us to beat them, we will still be fighting the Arabs.' |
