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Terrorism
and Persecution
Helicopter
gunships and Antonov bombers of the Government of Sudan
have launched repeated intensive aerial bombardments of
civilian centres in Southern Sudan. On some occasions these
aerial attacks were followed up by co-ordinated ground assaults
by the National Islamic Front (NIF) armed forces and Peoples
Defence Force (PDF) militias.
Reports received by our mission include testimonies of ground
assaults (sometimes) at night and scorched earth campaigns
by government forces burning homes and grain supplies, and
looting cattle. On one occasion 4 helicopter gunships and
an Antonov bomber co-ordinated with ground forces to destroy
everything necessary to sustain life in the area.
TESTIMONIES OF TERROR
Traumatised survivors relate heart-rendering stories of
terrible suffering and losses:
“My
father was burned alive in his tukel. My aunt is missing
with her children (her husband is dead) … This suffering
is caused to us by this oil. There are new companies coming
up and they are being established in our former villages.”
“I
don’t know where my parents are. The bombing was too
much on us like a rain. Some people lost their sight.”
“I
was sitting under the tree with my one-year old son. Then,
the gunship suddenly appeared and started to shoot us. My
baby was shot and his leg was cut right from the thigh.”
Another man related how his parents were burned to death
in their tukel during a helicopter gunship attack. He was
severely injured and his wife and daughter are missing.
Another
man described how a night attack by NIF forces was followed
by an Antonov bombing their village and helicopter gunships
searching for the fleeing survivors.
THE OIL CONNECTION
According to investigators commissioned by Canadian and
British NGO’s, whose findings are summarised in the
“Report of an Investigation into Oil Development, Conflict
and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan”
(October 2001):
“The
new (Government of Sudan military) strategy in Western Upper
Nile, is both more violent and more territorially focused
(i.e. in the oil concessions), involving co-ordinated attacks
on civilian settlements in which aerial bombardment and
raids by helicopter gunships are followed by ground attacks
from government-backed militias and government troops. These
ground forces burn villages and crops, loot livestock and
kill and abduct people – mainly women and children.”
The report calculates that over 200 000 people have lost
their homes in the Oil regions of Western Upper Nile since
the Canadian oil company, Talisman, entered in 1998.
“Since
1999, a consortium made up of Talisman of Canada, Petronas
of Malaysia, the China National Petroleum Corporation and
Sudapet of Sudan has been pumping oil. Production is about
220,000 barrels a day, enough to increase the government’s
annual official military budget to $327 million this year,
according to the International Monetary Fund.”
SUDAN’S TERRORIST CONNECTION
The London “Daily Telegraph” published an article:
“Sudan hides its Regime of Terror behind a Mask of
Diplomacy” (19/10/01) which claimed that “the
Sudanese government remains a host to terrorists and continues
to engage in the brutal ethnic cleansing of non-Arab Sudanese.”
The article includes details of “former slaves who
bore scars from burning, slashing and, in some cases, amputations
of fingers … gang rapes at the hands of Sudanese soldiers
… executions, usually of Christians … who refused
to convert to Islam.” In addition, the Daily Telegraph
article deals with the on-going presence of terrorist training
camps and chemical weapons in Sudan.
BIN LADEN AND SUDAN
Various reports continue to reveal an on-going pattern of
co-operation and links between Osama Bin Laden, his Al-Qaeda
network and the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum.
“The
National Islamic Front (NIF) political and security apparatus
is intact, as are the NIF’s and the international Islamicists
control of the economy. Many of those running terrorist
training are still in security and ministerial jobs. So,
well informed Sudanese doubt that the NIF will hand much
of value to US investigators. The NIF is as Islamic as its
friends Osama and the Taliban. This regime believes in what
it does. Any concession is intended only to protect the
greater cause. Secondly, any major betrayal would be suicidal,
just as dangerous as holding free elections.” (Africa
Confidential, 28 September 2001).
The FBI has confirmed that Mohamed Atta, who piloted one
of the commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center,
“wired money to Mr Bin Laden’s former paymaster
in Sudan, Shaykh Sai’iid el Masry, also know as Mustafa
Muhammad Ahmad, on the eve of the terrorist attacks”
(Ottawa Citizen, 12 October 2001).
The
Citizen goes on to report that testimony in the trial of
four men convicted for the embassy bombings in Kenya and
Tanzania reveals: “Shaykh Sai’id (Mustafa Muhammad
Ahmad) controlled the Bin Laden financial network in Sudan
through a company called Taba Investments, and used profits
from related Sudanese banks and businesses to finance and
cloak terrorist training.”
The Citizen noted that British prime minister, Tony Blair,
publicly disclosed in a report tabled in the British Parliament
that: “these Bin Laden companies were key assets
in the Al-Qaeda terrorist campaign. Since 1989, Osama Bin
Laden has established a series of (Sudanese) businesses
to provide income for Al-Qaeda, and to provide cover for
the procurement of explosives, weapons and chemicals, and
for the travel of Al-Qaeda operatives.”
Ali Mohamed, who pleaded guilty of conspiracy in the 1998
East African embassy bombings, has said: “he (Mohamed)
arranged security for a meeting in the Sudan between Hezbollah’s
chief and Bin Laden. Hezbollah provided explosives training
for Al-Qaida and Islamic Jihad, Mohamed said, while Iran
supplied Egyptian Jihad with weapons and used Hezbollah
to supply explosives.” (Associated Press, 12 October
2001).
“Tens
of millions of the $100 million provided by Bin Laden to
the Taliban since he arrived in Afghanistan from Sudan in
1996 has been directly traced to Bin Laden entities through
banking and other transfers.” These transfers would
certainly have involved the Taba Investments Company
and Al-Shamal Bank in Khartoum, which received $50
million in start-up capital from Bin Laden when he was in
Sudan. (The Washington Post, 11 October 2001).
A unit of Islamic mujahedeen in Bosnia has been financed
by Bin Laden “by means of small convoys of recruits
from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan.”
(The Los Angeles Times, 7 October 2001).
Aldy el-Attar, a 53-year old surgeon in Neu-Ulm in Germany,
met separately both with alleged hijacker Mohamed Atta and
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, an alleged financier for Osama Bin
Laden’s al-Qaeda network. El-Attar travelled frequently
between Germany and Sudan. (The Washington Post, 9 October
2001).
“United
States investigators believe they have found the ‘smoking
gun’ linking Osama Bin Laden to the 11 September terrorist
attacks, with the discovery of financial evidence showing
money transfers between the hijackers and a Bin Laden aide
in the United Arab Emirates.” (The Guardian, 1
October 2001). The man at the centre of the financial web
is believed to be Sheikh Saeed, also known as Mustafa
Mohamed Ahmad, who worked as a financial manager for Bin
Laden when the Saudi exile was based in Sudan, and is still
a trusted paymaster in Bin Laden’s al-Qaida.
While
in Sudan, Bin Laden bought his own bank, the Al Shamal Islamic
Bank, with a handful of Sudanese partners linked to the
Islamic regime in Khartoum. Bin Laden and his followers
built up an intricate financial network based on Islamic
practices, and dozens of ‘charities’ raising money
for Jihad from the rich and faithful around the Gulf.
(The
Guardian, 1 October 2001).
“Sudanese
leaders agreed in 1998 to use their embassy staff in New
York, London and Rome to raise funds for Osama Bin Laden,
according to documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS). The documents, filed in Federal Court, also
claim the Sudanese agreed to arrange for diplomatic credentials
for Bin Laden followers, allowing them unfettered travel
around the world. The alleged agreement was struck between
Bin Laden’s top aide, Dr. Ayman-Al-Zawahri, and ‘Sudanese
Islamic leaders’ the CSIS brief said.” (The National
Post, Canada, 28 September 2001).
According to a senior police official, fresh evidence gathered
by them has revealed that Ismail, the first secretary in
the Sudanese embassy, was not only operating as a conduit
of Osama Bin Laden in the Capital (New Delhi) but was also
trying to recruit more operatives for subversive activities
in India. (Hindustan Times (New Delhi), 30 September 2001).
Accordingly, Freedom Quest, in its Sudaninfo, concludes:
“There is overwhelming evidence that Sudan has very
much continued in the business of supporting world terrorism
generally, and Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda in particular.
It forces the obvious question: how likely is it that this
regime will be revealing of its own activities in ‘co-operating’
with the US in the sharing of intelligence on terrorism?
We can be sure that revelations will continue to emerge
about the role of Khartoum and the National Islamic Front
regime in supporting international terrorism. Certainly
the requisite callousness has long been demonstrated in
their brutal conduct of the war against the South, where
the terrorist bombing of innocent civilians is the standing
order of the day. In turn, if the US is not willing to look
honestly at the context for the ‘intelligence’
it is presently receiving from Khartoum, it will be hard
to have confidence in either the acuity of our intelligence
agencies, or the moral foundation of our ‘war on terrorism’.”
Frontline Fellowship and Jeremiah Films are in the process
of completing a new video documentary: “Terrorism –
From the Middle East to America.” This will be a sequel
to the “Sudan
– the Hidden Holocaust” video which was based
on our book “Faith
under Fire in Sudan.” These and other videos and
books on Sudan, Islam and the persecuted church are available
Frontline Fellowship in South Africa (Tel: 27-21-689-4480
or e-mail: admin@frontline.org.za).
Please continue to uphold the Christians of Sudan in fervent
prayer. Do also pray for the Frontline missionaries in Sudan
at this time.
“When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through
the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through
the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch
you.” Isaiah 43:2
Dr.
Peter Hammond
Related Resources:-
Terrorism
and Persecution (video)
Sudan,
the Hidden Holocaust (video)
Faith under
Fire in Sudan (book)
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