Sudan Complains of JEM Role in Abiad Lake Attack, from South Sudan: Mbeki Briefing Aftermath?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 1 -- With Sudan emboldened by a February 27 closed door briefing of the UN Security Council by Thabo Mbeki that several Council members tell Inner City Press was either "anti South Sudan" or "more balanced" than before, Khartoum on Wednesday filed another letter of complaint with the Council. With the letter not yet circulated, Inner City Press obtained a copy and puts it online, here.

In the letter, Sudan links an attack on February 26 at Abiad Lake with the Justice and Equality Movement fighters it previously complained fled into Tumsaha in South Sudan along with weapons from the fallen Gadhafi government of Libya.

Sudan has now repeatedly complained, as first reported by Inner City Press, that a UN Sanctions monitor, a "British Mister Bryan," was blocked by South Sudan from going to confirm or disprove the presence of JEM and Gadhafi weapons in Tumsaha.

The February 29 letter says the South Sudan's army transported the fighters from Tumsaha toward Abiad Lake for the attack; it seems to claim that South Sudan has acknowledged transporting SPLM-North but not JEM personnel.

After the February 29 closed door briefing about fighting in Jau, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said not a word to the media, but diplomats told Inner City Press the US is charged with drafting a Presidential Statement to deal with the Mbeki briefing and Jau. Will it now include Abiad Lake as well? What is the trend here? Watch this site.