News Article by REUTERS posted on October 26, 2000 at 18:53:24: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudan rebels say govt breaks truce with bombing
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - Sudan rebels accused the
government
Thursday of bombing a camp housing thousands of
war-displaced civilians, in
violation of a special truce agreed
by both sides in their 17-year-old civil
war.
George Garang, spokesman for the main rebel group, the
Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), said government
warplanes bombed the camp near the
southern town of Ikotos
Wednesday.
"We believe there were a number of casualties, but we are
still assessing
the damage," Garang told Reuters.
"Thirty bombs were dropped in two sorties. This is a
civilian camp. It
serves no military purpose to bomb it."
There was no immediate comment from the government, but a
spokesman for
Norwegian Church Aid, which runs medical
programs at the camp, confirmed the
attack. He said one bomb
struck a food distribution center.
Both the government and the SPLA have agreed to a 12-day
truce to allow
for a United Nations polio vaccination program,
which began Saturday.
But earlier this week, aid agencies said the government
bombed the
rebel-held town of Nimule, west of Ikotos and close
to the Ugandan border.
"This is supposed to be a period of tranquillity and they
are still
bombing us like crazy," Garang said.
Wednesday, President Clinton criticized Khartoum for the
attack.
"I am deeply concerned by reports that the government of
Sudan is bombing
innocent civilians in the southern part of the
country," Clinton said in a
statement. "Such egregious abuses
have become commonplace in Sudan's ongoing
civil war."
The SPLA has been fighting the Islamic government since
1983 for greater
religious and cultural freedom for the mainly
Christian and animist south of
Africa's largest country.
An estimated 2 million people have been killed in the
conflict and the
famines it has fueled.