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Pastimes : From A to Zeev" -- SI Sacks Zeev -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (227)	1/31/1998 8:05:00 PM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 708

Zeev, Heavy fighting has resumed in the Sudan: Most interestingly this CNN Report today states that Bol has returned to fighting with the SPLA Freedom Fighters.... Heavy fighting erupts over key Sudanese airport January 31, 1998 Web posted at: 1:38 p.m. EDT (1338 GMT) KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- There were reports of heavy fighting Saturday between government and rebel forces for control of the airport at Wau, the country's second-largest southern city. Both the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army claimed they were in control. SPLA spokesman Justin Yaac said government troops launched a counterattack in a bid to regain control of the airport and the army barracks from the SPLA. Rebels seized the airport in the regional capital Thursday, after thousands of fighters, pretending to defect, attacked the heavily fortified town from within.. Background: There has been almost continuous civil war since 1956 between the north and the south in Sudan. When Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir assumed power in 1989, he began enforcing stricter Islamic law, banned opposition parties and jailed dissidents. As a result, rebels representing the south's Christians and animists renewed their battle for greater autonomy from the Muslim north. "They were using artillery ... the fighting was very heavy," Yaac said of Saturday's battle. State television reported Friday that 500 SPLA rebels had tried to "attack Wau at around midnight on Wednesday, but were repulsed, and heavy losses were inflicted on them." The government army said Friday that it had lost 23 men in the fighting, but maintained it still controlled the town. Africa's longest-running insurgency pits the Khartoum government in the mainly Arab and Muslim north against rebels who claim to represent the mainly Christian and black African south. Wau is also the southern end of the main railway linking southern Sudan to Khartoum, the capital, in the north. Yaac gave no details of the situation at the railway station, which the SPLA also claimed to have captured. A government spokesman said the rebel attack on Wau airport coincided with attacks on Gogrial and Aweil, two towns north of Wau, the capital of Bahr al-Ghazal state. Yaac said the SPLA forces in the latest attack were commanded by Kerubino Kuanyin Bol. Bol founded the SPLA in 1983, but was removed as a leader the same year by Col. John Garang, who has since headed the rebel movement in the south. Bol defected from the SPLA in 1991. Earlier this month, he was offered a vice presidency in Khartoum's Southern Coordination Council, but rejoined the SPLA after apparently rejecting the offer. At peace talks in Nairobi last November, the government said it wanted a federation of north and south and agreed to a proposed referendum on self-determination. The SPLA wants a much looser link between the northern and southern regions and a vote on self-determination in two years. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. I will be asking your question Monday as to possible French Government involvement in the Genocide in Rwanda...... and also clarify the Status of Commander Bol. Apparently in the Sudan East is East and West is West, and never the Twain shall meet.... Sincerely, Doug F.