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Gold/Mining/Energy : TLM.TSE Talisman Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (286)	5/11/1999 12:17:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 1713

Sudan group reports more clashes in oil-rich state May 11, By Alfred Taban KHARTOUM, May 11 (Reuters) - A southern Sudanese faction on Tuesday reported fresh clashes with Khartoum government forces in oil-rich Unity state. ''Fighting is currently going on at Mayen Dit, an area to the north of Ler, because the Sudanese army is still pursuing our forces commanded by Tito Byel,'' said Makuac Youk, spokesman of the political wing of the Southern Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF). Ler is the second largest town in Unity state, whose oil fields are crucial to Khartoum's plans to start exporting crude via pipeline to the Red Sea next month. The SSDF comprises former rebel factions that made peace with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's Islamist government in 1997. Elements of the SSDF are now fighting the army. Youk, who is a state minister in Bashir's government, said SSDF forces were forced out of Ler on Thursday, but vowed they would return once they had been resupplied with arms. He said the fighting had displaced much of the civilian population and blamed government troops for starting the fight. ''According to the (1997) Khartoum peace agreement, the oilfields in Unity should be under the control of the SSDF, but government troops provoked the situation on May 2 by replenishing their armed forces at Ler,'' Youk said. The government says oil is a strategic resource to be protected by its own armed forces. Youk said Paulino Matip, a militia commander who broke away from the SSDF in 1997, was fighting alongside government troops and had installed himself as governor of Unity state. Francis Gatlouk, Matip's deputy operations commander, had said on Sunday that clashes in Unity had stopped. He said the state was calm after Byel's men were driven from Ler. sudan.net