SITREP 9 & 10

GENERAL SITUATION:

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement talks are moving along with all apparent deliberate haste. There actually seems

to be hope for a wrap up by the end of the year.

There is discussion of the UN moving in within fifteen days of signing, which may not be so good. Much needs to be

done between the parties at grass roots level for the CPA to be effective, and the UN personnel handling the

implementation need to be made aware of the different circumstances that obtain in different parts of the country.

The Nuba area is not at all like the Darfur area, and tactics that would be appropriate in one will definitely not be

appropriate in the other.

The development of a joint police force is in its infancy. This force must be developed and in place before military

control is terminated. If this force is not in place and effective, banditry and the rise of local warlords will likely follow

any ending of military control.

Joint civil administrations will be required to ensure that the vast amount of infrastructure development necessary is fair

and seen to be fair. These are just two examples of areas of major concern for a post CPA Sudan.

SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS:

As a result of the opening of the roads throughout the Sector 3 AO and a Herculean effort by Frank, Lorenzo and

their team over the last few weeks, the entire backlog of Military Inspections in the remoter parts of the GOS part

of the AO has been brought up to date.

While they carried this project out, the rest of us have been dealing with police related matters and laying the

groundwork for the updating of the SPLA M.I.s. Due to the looser militia oriented structure of the SPLA this can

sometimes seem akin to herding butterflies. Where the GOS soldiers are paid and housed in barracks, the SPLA are

unpaid and have to work on their farms (or at something) in order to get by. They also live at home and report in as

and when required. The best analogies I can offer are the Minutemen of colonial America and the Boer commandos of the

Boer War at the turn of the last century in South Africa. When going to inspect the GOS units, the entire unit is usually present.

When going to inspect an SPLA unit, one may be fortunate to find the commander or his deputy at the designated HQ.

The big news locally, of course, is the apprehension of Achmed Mohammed Al Tang. (See SITREP 8 & Followup) He was transported to the GOS jail in Kadugli Thursday morning. He will face an array of outstanding charges in addition to the

latest charges against him involving the explosive devices which he placed in and around Um Serdiba.

Perhaps even more important than the actual capture and arrest of this career thug and criminal was the level of cooperation

between GOS and SPLM Police. While he may have been one of the worst of his sort, he is most assuredly not the only

one out there. The kind of cross faction cooperation displayed in this case will hopefully lay the groundwork for joint post CPA

law enforcement. The police are going to be thrust to the forefront in the post CPA Sudan after being minor players for a long

time. How well they function may well determine whether or not a society of laws, and law and order, will have a chance of prevailing.

MICHAEL’S WORLD

Another birthday and another Thanksgiving passed fairly quietly. For those who sent greetings for either or both, let me

thank you again. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and that Jim Young (my first team leader in Vietnam) had a

great 60th birthday. You’ll never catch up to me, Jim! And that’s about it from Sudan for this week. Michael

SITREP 10 3 DEC 04 · GENERAL SITUATION

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) talks have slowed down to crawl due to a high level SPLM

conference in Rombek, Sudan. Hopefully things will get moving again soon and an agreement will be reached by the

end of the year.

The GOS expulsion order for two NGOs, Oxfam and Save the Children, has been suspended but not rescinded.

SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS

The Sector Commander’s mother in law died suddenly and he has taken emergency compassionate leave for two weeks.

With the Deputy Commander already on regular leave, I have become Sector Commander for the nonce.

With the harvest almost all in, and tilling for the next crop months away, people have much more time on their hands.

Idle hands being the devil’s tools, we are seeing more incidents in the areas in which the two factions are in close

juxtaposition. Some are relatively harmless, as in one case I will have to investigate on Sunday. Some SPLA lads

brought their weapons to a party in Rigifi and manifested their high spirits by firing them up into the sky.

This occurred despite their having been asked not to fire their rifles by their hosts. The noise brought the village sheik,

and his approach occasioned a hasty departure by the offenders. Mildly troublesome, but far short of a Cease Fire

Violation (CFV). Now that I think about it, however, the GOS Police in Rigifi may not be quite as dismissive as I,

and are probably rather happy that the SPLM sheik was able to sort it all out before they had to get involved!

I already have the name of one the rowdies which I gave to his Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) when we spoke a few

days ago. The RSM seemed genuinely surprised to hear about the incident and assured me that there would be no

repetitions of the incident. I also reminded him of the rules proscribing the carrying of weapons into the DMZ area.

Far more serious is the incident which I will investigate on Saturday. We received a complaint today about armed GOS

supporters going into a village along the Al Reika-Frandalla corridor and harassing the residents who are largely SPLM sympathizers. This incident mirrors an incident of a few weeks ago in which SPLA troops entered a GOS village and

caused problems, including driving an Arab trader out of the village. This area is one of our “never a dull moment” zones.

At least once a month there is some sort of nausea requiring JMC attention. Our presence and attention keep things in

check in this hot spot, and presence and attention will be rapidly applied in this case.

The good news is that the Sector 3 Commander, Rainer, was able to lay the groundwork for reopening the road

from Al Reika through Frandalla to Talodi. This road was officially closed to all vehicular traffic by the GOS about the

time I arrived at Sector 3. This action was taken as a result of several incidents that occurred along the SPLM controlled

section of the road. Unfortunately, all the residents in this zone, GOS as well as SPLM, continue to suffer since this is the

only road. The GOS have presented their demands and the SPLM are meeting now to determine their negotiating position.

Since both sides seem to recognize the importance of reopening this approximately 50 km stretch of road as expeditiously

as possible, prospects are hopeful. Sector 3 personnel, of course, have facilitated the process in various ways.

MICHAEL’S WORLD

R & R to the Land of the Big PX approaches! Just over a month to go and I will be back among loved ones and friends.

I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

A “misery” in the ball of my right foot has me off of long foot patrols for a week or two. Hopefully it will go away with

a bit of light duty. There are enough driving patrols to keep me out of mischief, even though I will miss my walks in the country.

Take care all. More next week.