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FT 21 AUG 92 / UN begins Sudan airlift
By JULIAN OZANNE
NAIROBI
THE United Nations yesterday flew the first aircraft of food in a month to
300,000 starving civilians trapped in the besieged government-held garrison
town of Juba, in southern Sudan, despite rebel threats they would shoot the
aircraft down.
The successful relief flight came as Africa Watch, an influential
international human rights body, condemned rebel threats to shoot down
aircraft carrying food as showing 'a callous disregard for the welfare of
the people on whose behalf (they) claim to be fighting'.
Mr Paul Mitchell, an official with the UN World Food Programme, said a
Russian Ilyushin 76 transporter aircraft carrying 40 tonnes of food and 5
tonnes of medicines landed successfully in Juba, the first UN aircraft to
land in the town since the UN suspended relief flights due to insecurity on
July 16th.
The 300,000 civilians trapped in Juba, which is under siege by the rebel
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), face death from starvation and are
completely dependent on an airlift for their survival.
'Food stocks ran out 10 days ago, medicines and supplementary foods are
virtually non-existent,' Mr Mitchell said yesterday. 'Reports from the city
tell of sharp increases of malnutrition and related diseases.'
Africa Watch called yesterday for the SPLA to withdraw its threat to relief
flights immediately.
Noting that a year has passed since the SPLA split into two factions after
allegations of human rights abuses against Dr John Garang, the putative
leader of the SPLA, Africa Watch said human rights violations within the
movement 'continue unabated'.
The organisation called on Dr Garang to release all detainees and demanded
that up to 3,000 child refugees - who are believed to have been forced by
the SPLA to return to Sudan, from Kenya, to fight as child soldiers on the
Juba front - be returned to the protection of the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
It also strongly criticised the UNHCR for allowing the children to be
abducted from their protection.
Last night, Mr Lam Akol, a leader of the break-away faction of the SPLA,
confirmed that Commander Mr Silva Kiir, Dr Garang's chief of security, had
forced the children to return to Narus in southern Sudan so that they could
fight on the Juba front.
The Financial Times
London Page 4