Bashir says army to continue campaign in oil state (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said the army would continue its campaign in the flashpoint of South Korfodan, state news agency SUNA said on Friday, dashing hope of a ceasefire ahead of southern secession.

In his first comments since returning from a visit to China, Bashir seemed to contradict comments by a northern official this week that north and south had agreed "in principle" on a ceasefire in the northern oil state.

Fighting between the northern military and southern-aligned armed groups broke out in Southern Kordofan on June 5 and has escalated to include artillery and warplanes. More than 60,000 people are believed to have fled the fighting, the United Nations said.

Both U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have urged a ceasefire in the state to defuse tensions before the south becomes independent on July 9.

"He directed the armed forces to continue their military operations in South Kordofan until a cleasening of the region is over," SUNA quoted Bashir as telling worshippers during Friday prayers.

The military campaign would only stop with the arrest of Abdelaziz el-Helu, the candidate of the southern ruling party Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the governorship vote there in May.

Helu had accused Khartoum of rigging the vote he had lost. Khartoum denied the charges, and the biggest international observer group called the outcome of the vote "credible."

Bashir called Helu an outlaw that needed to be brought to justice for committing crimes such as killing innocent people, SUNA said.

North and south had agreed during Bashir's absence in China on a demilitarized buffer zone at the joint 2,000 kilometer long border, raising hopes of a ceasefire in South Kordofan.

On Wednesday, a northern state minister said both sides had agreed "in principle" at talks in Ethiopia to hold a ceasefire in South Kordofan pending details that needed to be worked out.

Southern Kordofan is important to the north because it has the most productive oil fields that will remain under Khartoum's control after the split. The south could take as much as 75 percent of Sudan's 500,000 barrels per day of oil output.

Southern Kordofan also borders the disputed Abyei territory and Darfur, a western region that is the scene of another insurgency.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution authorizing deployment of 4,200 Ethiopian troops to the Abyei region for a six-month period.

South Sudan voted for independence under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war but both sides have yet to solve many issues such as sharing oil revenues or assets.

(Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz and Ulf Laessing, Editing by Matthew Jones)

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Sudan's Bashir refuses to withdraw Abyei troops (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan's president on Tuesday refused to withdraw troops from the disputed Abyei region they seized over the weekend, defying international calls for them to pull out and raising the stakes in a standoff with the south.

"Abyei is northern Sudanese land," Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in a speech, adding he had given the green light to the northern army to respond to any "provocation" by the south which also claims Abyei and plans to secede in July.

Sudan's northern army moved tanks into Abyei town, the border area's main settlement, on Saturday, sparking an international outcry and forcing thousands to flee.

Analysts are watching how the south will react, fearing further north-south fighting over Abyei, which has oil and grazing land, could reignite a full-blown conflict that would disrupt the already fragile region.

North and south Sudan fought for decades before a 2005 peace deal that also allowed southerners to vote overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum in January.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it has asked south Sudan to investigate separate attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in Abyei last week by what appear to have been southern security forces.

Such attacks, the U.N. said, amount to war crimes.

"The available information and eyewitness accounts describing the assailants, including their uniforms, strongly suggests that the attackers were members of the southern Sudan police or military forces," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York.

Khartoum accused the south of ambushing northern troops traveling in a convoy with U.N. peacekeepers on May 20 in the Abyei region. The south denied carrying out the attack.

Earlier on Tuesday in Khartoum, Sudan Cabinet Affairs Minister Luka Biong, a southerner, told Reuters he was resigning in protest at the northern seizure of Abyei.

"These are real war crimes. I have never seen such suffering. Houses are burned in Abyei town and south of it," Biong said.

U.N. officials said between 15,000 and 20,000 people fled Abyei, many heading to Agok, just over the southern border.

"We are concerned ... about the grave humanitarian consequences of what's transpired in Abyei. There have been horrific reports of looting and burning," said Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., visiting the southern capital Juba.

KHARTIUM DEFIANT

North Sudanese officials said their army moved in to clear out southern soldiers who it said had broken agreements by entering the area. The south denies this.

The African Union said former South African President Thabo Mbeki had met Sudan's President Bashir and southern President Salva Kiir to try and resolve the crisis.

Abyei remains the most contentious point in the build-up to the secession of the south, the source of 75 percent of the country's 500,000 barrels a day oil production.

The 2005 deal also promised Abyei residents their own referendum over whether to join north or south, but that did not take place as neither could agree who was qualified to vote.

The peace deal created a coalition government dominated by Bashir's National Congress Party and the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), headed by Kiir. Both were also allowed to keep their own armies.

The coalition government is due to be dissolved on the secession of the south which currently has its own semi-autonomous government.

(Additional reporting by Ulf Laessing in Khartoum, Jeremy Clarke in Juba, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Barbara Lewis in Geneva, Wangui Kanina in Nairobi and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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