Sudan Rebel Leader Eyes Juba, Rejects Talks

Sudanese rebel Jahn Garang said yesterday that his forces had escalated a military effort to topple the government in Khartoum and were now circling Juba, the capital of the war-torn South.

Garang, head of Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), told a news conference in the Kenya capital Nairobi that opposition groups in Africa’s largest country had also managed to consolidate political and diplomatic pressure against Khartoum.

Asked why his forces had not seized Juba, Garang said it was because of humanitarian considerations.

Garang’s forces and northern allies in the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have launched a series of successful offensives this year and recaptured a string of towns and villages.

The NDA launched attacks into Sudan in January, initially capturing several towns and prompting Sudan to order a general mobilization which halted the rebel advance.

Garang dismissed Sudanese media reports that the he would hold direct talks with military leader Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

The Sudanese government newspaper, Al-Anbaa, reported that American, European and African efforts were a way to arrange a meeting between Garang and Al-Bashir at the regional IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) summit to take place in Kenya on July 8 and 9.

In April Sudan signed an accord, intended to end the civil war, with a number of factions.

In the Eritrean capital Asmara, a representative of the SPLA said a Sudanese government official along with several administrators, had fled the town of Damazine and joined rebels in the southern Blue Nile area.