- Title: SUDAN: REBELS CAPTURE KEY GARRISON TOWN FROM GOVERNMENT FORCES.
- Date: 12th June 2002
- Summary: (U7) KAPOETA, SOUTH SUDAN (JUNE 11, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/MV: GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN SOLDIERS' BODIES IN TRENCHES; SUDAN PEOPLES LIBERATION MOVEMENT (SPLA/SPLM) SOLDIERS GUARDING BODIES (5 SHOTS) 0.21 2. GV/PAN/CU: PAN SOLDIER WALKING PAST TO AMMUNITION; CLOSE UP OF GRENADES (2 SHOTS) 0.29 3. GV/MV: SPLM SOLDIERS SINGING PRAISE SONGS (2 SHOTS) 0.40 4. MV/GV: SET-UP OF SPLM LEADER, JOHN GARANG; VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS SEATED (2 SHOTS) 0.47 5. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN GARANG, SPLA/SPLM CHAIRMAN: "This is the biggest offensive since 1992. They attacked SPLA positions in Western Upper Nile and attacked civilians and civilian targets with the aim of driving the civilian population from the present and prospective oil fields further south." 1.06 6. GV/MV: PRISONERS OF WAR; CLOSE OF PRISONER GRIMACING WITH PAIN (2 SHOTS) 1.14 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 27th June 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KAPOETA, SOUTH SUDAN
- Country: Sudan
- Reuters ID: LVA1SVYJU5Y9CK3KOZ76TIA4MDSV
- Story Text: Sudanese rebels said they had seized a key garrison
town in a surprise attack on government forces, describing it
as their biggest battlefield triumph for two years.
The Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLA/SPLM) said it
had captured Kapoeta, about 80 km (50 miles) from the border
with Kenya, and seized tanks, artillery and heavy machine
guns.
Two days on, they are still collecting the bodies in
Kapoeta. The stench of rotting flesh wafts through the air, luring
vultures who circle purposefully over this southern Sudanese
town captured by rebels in a lightning attack on government
troops at the weekend.
Most of the 3,000 government soldiers stationed in this
desolate garrison escaped into the desert, where they are
likely to have been attacked by armed militias or died of
thirst.
Others clung on in outlying trenches as soldiers of the
Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA/SPLM) stormed through the
town in less than an hour in the early hours of Sunday
morning.
"This is the biggest offensive since 1992. They attacked
SPLA positions in Western Upper Nile and attacked civilians
and civilian targets with the aim of driving the civilian
population from the present and prospective oil fields further
south," SPLA chairman John Garang said on Tuesday, sitting in
what used to be a Christian missionary compound until the
government captured Kapoeta 10 years ago.
Rebels, who have been fighting Khartoum for more autonomy
for 19 years, say 200 government soldiers and 13 SPLA died in
the attack on Kapoeta, the capital of eastern Equatoria
province which had served as a government garrison for a
decade.
The bodies of government soldiers, frozen as they tried to
flee or defend their town, bloat in the burning sun. Mostly
naked, shielding their faces or still clutching their guns,
they lie in trenches, or scattered about in the thorny scrub.
The capture of the town, whose trenches and roads are now
littered with empty shell cases and scrap metal, has given the
SPLA control of the Kenya border region to the south, and the
chance to cut off key government supply lines to the north.
The rebels have also won a large amount of heavy weaponry,
vehicles, food and ammunition.
The conflict in Sudan has already killed around two
million people. Renewed interest from the international
community in recent months has revived hopes for peace, but
despite some progress at the negotiating table, the fighting
has recently
intensified.
Often portrayed as a fight between Muslim north and
Christian South, the war has been complicated by oil,
ideology, money and politics, and religious lines are
increasingly blurred.
In the battered remains of a Catholic Church in Kapoeta,
whose bricks were used to build trenches and a small mosque,
the northern soldiers have branded the walls with graffiti.
But today, the SPLA too have added their mark.
Back in a town they lost but always considered rightfully
theirs, no other words are needed - the SPLA soldiers proudly
guard a group of prisoners of war, most of them obviously in
pain.
CAH/RB
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