105 - Sudan - Approaches to Armed Groups Kuol ... - The ICHRP

100. Students, workers, government officials and men from rural areas also swelled the rank and file of
the liberation fighters. The desire of South Sudan to assert and preserve a distinct character was
apparently not protected by the 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement between the Sudanese central
government and the South Sudan Liberation Movement. Whatever shortcomings that agreement
contained were ultimately exacerbated by ill-advised official policies that irritated the South thereafter
putting it in the mood to revolt.
101. The growing war led to immense insecurity in the Lakes Province and undermined the effective
operation of the courts. The rural population that formed the majority of the clients began to stop
using the courts in town.
102. Gradually, the courts in the town were unable to execute their orders in the rural areas because of the
interception of police or court retainers by the forces of the SPLA which were keen to assert their
own authority. The sporadic infiltration into the town for military missions by SPLA units spread
fear and uncertainty among the residents. Many of the residents chose to move to villages to avoid
the cross fire or army reprisals, a situation reminiscent of the first civil war.
103. Meanwhile, judges were dissatisfied with the changes in the laws of the country. The replacement of
the commonly named “1974 Laws” with the 1983 Islamic laws was a threat to non-Muslim judges.
The former laws were the logical evolution of the legal tradition to which judges of different hues
had contributed since the creation of modern Sudan. The province judge, a Southerner, once argued
in private that he intended to enlighten public opinion on the impending danger of Islamic law
despite the ethical issues involved, when he pronounced an Islamic punishment (hand amputation)
on a Southern convict. The outcry generated by the decision subsided only when it was learnt that
the sentence could not hold for legal reasons. Misappropriation of public property does not warrant
an amputation according to the new laws.
104. The distinction in judicial powers on the basis of the judge's religion or faith rather than
administrative grade was read into the ultimate objectives of the September 1983 Laws. Non-Muslim
judges expected that Islamic laws would affect their status in the judiciary.
105. I may not be exact in describing the effects of the subsequent pursuance by the government of
vigorous application of those laws on the judges' powers, as I dissociated myself from the Sudan
judiciary over a decade ago. However, a recent testimony of a former judge and senior politician, Mr.
Abel Alier, who played a major role in realizing the 1972 peace agreement and continued to witness
Sudan's political history from his residence in Khartoum, emphasised that:
106. All Judges have either been retired from service or transferred to Northern Sudan. Judges work mainly as
magistrates for traffic offences. 28
The SPLA Administration of Justice
107. The SPLA mobile units which penetrated Bahr ElGhazal region in 1984 had confined their activities
of recruitment and limited military operations to those necessary for effective political mobilization.
By the end of 1984, however, the SPLA deployed in Bahr ElGhazal a military battalion named Rhino
manned by over a thousand soldiers to set a permanent presence of the movement in the area. The
battalion had in its ranks a number of political officers and former public officials assigned to assist
28 Abel Alier (November 1996) “The Political Charter: Observation And A Commentary”, Sudan Democratic Gazette,
No. 78, p.7.
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