Source: The GoSS Mission-Khartoum

 A senior Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s official from the Nuba Mountains has refuted news report carried by the pro-National Congress Party Arabic daily newspapers, Akhir Lahza and Al-Wifag Arabic daily newspaper that the Nuba people are being marginalized by the SPLM and they are planning to covertly depart the movement!

 On Wednesday 18th November 2009, the Akhir Lahza Arabic newspaper reported that four senior SPLM officials who hail from the Nuba Mountains met in El-Hajj Yousif suburb in Eastern Nile Locality and discussed possibilities of departing the SPLM supposedly due to their marginalization by the SPLM.

Speaking to journalists during a press conference held at the SPLM Northern Sector’s Secretariat in Arkawit in Khartoum on Thursday evening (19th November 2009), a senior SPLM official from the Nuba Mountains and Minister of State for Animal Resources and Fisheries in the Government of National Unity (GoNU), Mj.Gen. Ismail Khamis Jallab refuted allegations by Akhir Lahza newspaper, dubbing it attempts meant to split the SPLM and to blemish its reputation.

 “First of all, I would like to declare that what was published by Akhir Lahza newspaper in its Wednesday issue number “1,180” was completely false, and I would like to affirm that the Nuba people in the SPLM will remain in the SPLM forever”.

 Gen. Jallab said the news report was destined to generate misunderstanding between the Nuba People and the SPLM Northern Sector, adding that the newspaper also intended to blemish the image of the leadership of the SPLM and specially those officials whose names appeared in the newspaper.

 “It was an attempt to split the SPLM, and also it was an attempt to blemish the image of the SPLM. The newspaper was advocating that the SPLM is a communist movement, by naming some SPLM officials that they were remnants of Communism or they are communists”, he disparaged the paper’s report.

 Gen. Jallab, who became the first SPLM Governor to rule South Kordofan State after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 and also a member of the SPLM National Liberation Council, said the Nuba people in the SPLM believe that the SPLM as a liberation struggle movement was born as a --“savoiur”-- to save all the marginalized people of the Sudan.

 He demanded that the Akhir Lahza newspaper must apologize officially and publicly to the SPLM and to the Nuba people for the false information it disseminated.

“When we talk of marginalization of Nuba people, it would have been logical that Akhir Lahza newspaper reports about marginalization of Nuba people in other institutions including Akhir Lahza newspaper itself and other government’s institutions, and should have pointed out explicitly marginalizes these people.”, Jallab asserted.

 He went on to say, “what I would like to affirm through this press conference is that the Nuba in the SPLM are fundamental members of the movement and for this fact, there is no room for talk about Nuba people being marginalized by the SPLM. Now we the Nuba have more than “20,000” soldiers in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) this justifies that we are fundamental in the SPLM and we are not marginalized by the SPLM”, Gen. Jallab maintained.

 He said the Nuba people are represented in all the institutions of the SPLM from the “top to the bottom”, claiming that the Nuba Mountains area is a strong base of the SPLM, and the Nuba people in the SPLM played great role in maintaining the movement during the split that occurred in the SPLM in the year 1991, they never wavered from the movement, remaining firm and committed themselves to the liberation struggle.

General Jallab urged the Nuba to turn out in big numbers for voters’ registrations for elections for the success of the popular consultation, and cautioned that if the people of Nuba Mountains want the outcome of the popular consultation to meet their aspirations, they should hurry to centres for registration before it is too late, and also to proof false that the census results for Southern Kordofan, which he said was meant to rig elections and to also abort the popular consultation.

 Meanwhile, the Official Spokesperson of the SPLM Parliamentary caucus in the National Legislatures, who also hails from Nuba Mountains, Hon. Amar Amun Daldum demanded that legal measures be taken against the two newspapers.

 “An apology alone is not enough. They either reveal to us the source of their information so that we take legal action against that source or we will litigate the case against them, we have no any other option apart from this, because what was published has damaged my reputation badly.” Amun cautioned.