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UN Rape accusations to SLM/A …A biased , prejudiced and baseless hearsay account !/Mohamed Basheer Menawy-Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
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Jul 15, 2006 - 3:41:00 AM
UN Rape accusations to SLM/A …
A biased , prejudiced and baseless hearsay account !
During the last week widespread media reports have been
circulated - locally and internationally - stating that
some individuals from the SLM/A (Minni group) had committed
atrocities including rape and killings of innocent
civilians in the area of Korma , a city lies to the west of
Al Fashir , the Capital of Northern Darfur . This is the
first time since the outbreak of Darfur incidents before
more than three years that such accusations are raised
against this group, who had been of a very “clean” record
since it staged this war – with other group - against the
Government. This clean record was not maintained from the
group’s relationship with the civilians, but rather from
dealing with the “ enemy “ itself – the government forces
in the battlefield . The people of Darfur , especially
those of the war –affected areas of Northern Darfur have
been circulating credible stories of highly humane
treatments by SLA forces for the captured and injured
government soldiers . One of these amazing stories is that
the SLA forces after a bitter fight with the government
forces, wining the battle, capturing a number of soldiers,
most of them were injured. The SLA forces took the injured
government forces to a nearby deserted area to Al Fashier
(the capital of Northern Darfur ) and phoned their
headquarter in the city , specifying their location and
told them to come and pick them up . when they felt(the
guerrillas ) that those of the headquarter were hesitant
because they were thinking of a of trick for ambushing ,
they let the injured soldiers introduced themselves and
spoke to their commanders by phone to tell them abut the
seriousness of that call . The SlA forces then left the
area after leaving sufficient food and water to the injured
who were ultimately been picked up by their colleagues who
had been sent to the area from AL Fashir for this
particular purpose. This is not an American movie scenario
but rather a real incident happened during the well known
Darfur war that involved the notorious proxy militia
(Gengaweed ) , the subject of all evils done to the people
of Darfur . I am telling this story purposely to tell the
readers that SLA forces (Minni group) were never ever
practiced such atrocities at any time and place across
Darfur . On the contrary , normally they draw most of
their fierceness and courage in the battlefield from
similar crimes committed against their people by the
government forces and their proxy militias . Since before
signing the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) the Korma area has
been under the control of SLM/A (minni group) . The
majority of the people of this area are from Fur and Tongor
tribes . There is an unfortunate role that Abdulwahid is
playing since he broke up with Minni , is that he is
actively fueling the tribal conflict by instigating his
ordinary ethnic people against Minni forces in the area
telling them that these are(SLA forces ) Zagawa people and
they came to invade this area which is ethnically not
theirs ! Abdulwahid has been doing this cowardly and dirty
job and ignoring the fact that there are considerable
number of SLM/A forces (minni group) belong to Fur tribe,
whose main differences with Abdulwahid is the ethnic
political manipulation , i.e. he always draws his
political supporters and takes adverse political positions
with his foes basing on tribal lines .
Couple of weeks ago a group loyal to Abdulwahid attacked a
small unit of SLM/A forces (Minni group) located in the
city of Korma, killing 5 people including the Commander of
Korma locality who happened to be in the city at that time.
Knowing the complications of ethnic situation in the area
due to the adverse role played by Abdulwahid as we
indicated earlier , the Commander in Chief of SLM/A forces
ordered his forces in the area not to retaliate against the
small factions loyal to Abdulwahid in the area but instead
he sent some commanders to the Elders and tribal leaders of
the area to cooperate and tell the ordinary people not to
respond to the baseless Abdulwahid calls and not to get
engaged in any similar hostilities in the future . The
last week’s unfortunate incidents were continuation to the
earlier hostilities that led to the killing of SLM/A
commander in Korma . The small forces of Abdulwahid in the
area assembled themselves once again and got reinforcements
from individuals local communities that misled by
Abdulwahid and staged a fresh attack on the SLA
forces(Minni group) in the area who have been completely
alerted this time and responded violently and defeated
abdulwahid forces . During the fight most of the attackers
threw down their arms and sought hideouts in the nearby
villages. The SLA forces followed the runaway forces to the
villages, asking firstly from village leaders to let these
people surrender, and this was done by most of them who
were arrested, but few of them have been killed when they
resisted. Due to this fight in the said area some civilians
have fled to save heavens Like Al Fashir. It is these
people who fled the area who fabricated the baseless Rape
stories which were ironically picked up by the United
Nations Office in Khartoum without the least verification.
It’s quite unfortunate that - with the existence of such
ethnic complications in this area , which the UN ought to
be aware of , from it’s relatively longer presence in
Darfur (More than three years) - that the UN takes for
granted such false hearsay stories without verification or
without a flashback to review the moral history of the
accused parties
Mohamed Basheer Menawy
Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
[email protected]
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