South Sudan: Unity State Officials Deny Returnees Attacked
Bonifacio Taban | Bentiu, South Sudan January 31, 2011
Unity state authorities say that reports by a northern newspaper that southerners traveling from Unity state to Khartoum were burnt alive by Misseriya are not true. The newspaper cited a video showing men being burned, but the footage does not appear to be from this area.
Last week, the Hakbar-El-yom newspaper in the north claimed that southerners returning to the north after the referendum were burnt alive at the border between Unity State and Southern Kordofan.
Unity State Minister of Information and Communication Gideon Gatpan Thaor says the story is simply not true.
He accused the media house of spreading false propaganda.
“Hakbar El Yom do not respect the media law, or don’t respect their mandate as media firm,if they are involved in politics and creating problems, Unity State is now able to know and the Southerner Sudanese general is in position of knowing Hakbar El Yom newspaper is intending to provoke the situation and not enduring the peace”.
The Unity state minister warned that such kinds of lies can be very harmful to the people of north and south Sudan.
“We had just completed the peace talks in Kadguli which had very fruitful resolutions and this resolutions are respected by South Kordofan and Unity State as the others states do, and these were signed by high level officials and this is an interference with resolution of the meeting by Hakbar El Yom”.
The state Minister said that he has received so many calls from other media houses seeking to verify the claims by the newspaper.
A video the newspaper uses to confirm its report shows people being burnt alive, but those in the video are speaking Kiswahili and other languages not native to this part of Sudan.
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