Sudan: Bashir Ready for Talks with the South

Khartoum---Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has agreed to commit towards security agreements with his southern rivals in the ongoing border dispute, African Union says.

The AU mediator in the Sudanese conflict Thabo Mbeki who has been in Khartoum in attempts to resume stalled negotiations told reporters that President Bashir confirmed the need of peace between the two nations.

He said Khartoum has agreed to one of the UN’s key demands of creating a 10km buffer zone on the contested border between the two states that has been source of recent clashes that threatened outbreak of an all-out war.

The former South African leader is expected to tour the newly independent South Sudan to hold talks with leaders in Juba over striking a deal as drawn in the recent AU plan that seeks to end hostilities between the two nations.

The call to resume of negotiations comes after the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding commitment from the two Sudans in the AU peace talks aimed at resolving all outstanding issues, or face sanctions.

Recent clashes over border ensued in April after southern forces occupied the oil-rich region of Heglig claimed by the north for ten days, but later withdrew following mounting international pressure.

The fighting saw fierce battles inside each other’s territory in several disputed border regions that saw heavy air raids by the Khartoum forces inside South’s territory.

Tension still remains high as the two sides gear towards resuming talks, though fighting along the contested border has been reported to continue. The south accuses Khartoum of continuing to carry out air strikes even after two sides have agreed to commit in the negotiations for peace.

Since the South’s independence last year, conflict has been simmering between the two states following unsettled matters including a possible border region and sharing of oil resources.

 Kampala, Uganda

 Captured LRA Commander Seeks Amnesty

The recently captured senior commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels Caesar Achellam wants to be granted amnesty under the law.

His defence lawyer Caleb Alaka wants Achellam to be pardoned under the amnesty law introduced in 2000 that primarily pardons those fighters who surrender and denounce the rebellion.

But Uganda’s public prosecutor Richard Butera says the law does not apply to Mr. Achellam because he did not hand himself in and also because of his seniority in the control and command of the LRA.

Mr Alaka refuses the account by the Ugandan army on capture of Achellam, saying that he was going to hand himself over.

 "But whether he did or he did not, he should be entitled to amnesty because it [the amnesty law] covers both those who are captured and those who surrender," Mr Alaka told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Achellam, a major general whom the Ugandan army says is a top military strategist in the rebel outfit was captured two weeks ago along the banks of River Mbou in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR), after a struggle between the Ugandan troops and a group of about 30 LRA fighters.

Alaka expressed need for justice on victims which he said even with his release there still could be justice.

 "He gets amnesty, he settles amongst them, and maybe he looks at what he did wrong and he is haunted by it - that will be justice in the African sense."

The Ugandan army says the arrest of Achellam, “a big fish” currently being held in their base in South Sudan, would encourage other fighters to abandon the movement and also cause an opinion shift.

Last year in September a Ugandan court pardoned Thomas Kwoyelo, a former LRA fourth in command leader charged on counts of war crimes and other abuses against humanity.

Kwoyelo, captured two years ago in DR Congo during a Ugandan army operation, had been charged with 53 counts of murder and other war crimes, making him the first LRA rebel commander to face trial under Uganda’s special war crimes tribunal set up in 2008 following peace talks between the government and the LRA. The talks which later collapsed had sought for a local trial of the rebels rather than at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

LRA under Joseph Kony, who the ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest, recently gained worldwide attention after the Kony 2012: Invincible Children video on the group’s atrocities and pillaging made by a US charity the went viral on the internet. The LRA, currently estimated at between 200 and 500 fighters, continues to rein terror on local communities in the border regions of DR Congo, South Sudan and CAR in trademarked attacks of mutilating victims’ ears and lips.