Statement from Brigadier Telefuun Kuku Abu- Julha

July 31, 2006

1. It so happened three months ago that a rumor was released by some opportunists, who have joined the movement recently in the Nuba Mountains. The rumor accuses me (Telefuun) of having joined the NCP. Those opportunists did so because they thought they would be absorbed in my position in the SPLM/A. The fact that this rumor is three months old as I mentioned above, indicates that I have ignored it completely because I'm immune against such rumors; in fact, I have gained immunity against such rumors over the years in the SPLM/A and since 1993 when I was accused of collaboration with the SAF upon their capturing of my garrison in December of that year. I was sentenced to death upon that accusation, but was later altered to three years imprisonment and expulsion from the Nuba Mountains. I was then taken to Bahr el Ghezal for imprisonment, but Cdr. Uyai Deng Ajak, the present Chief of Staff, intervened and I was released. After then I was appointed as Chief of Military Productions of the SPLA.

2. I want to tell the truth, however, for whoever wants to know it, specially, after the recent humiliating interrogation which was conducted by SPLA.'s Officers (7 in number) who came to Khartoum yesterday from Kouda- Nuba Mountains. The delegation did ask me of the circulating rumor in SPLM/A's HQs in Khartoum, but instead of answering their questions there I invited them to the house of my brother in law who is and Arab. After the services, which were nothing but plain drinking water, we started the discussion of the accusations. I told them to ask their questions, so the senior officer among them, a colonel, started and said: we in the Fourth Front, rank and file, are worried about the rumor that says you have joined the NCP/NIF; hence, we want your real position apart from the rumor.

3. So I explained to them that I did not join the NCP/NIF and you can even see for yourselves how miserable my living conditions are; in fact, I invited you to this place where I put up so that you see for yourselves these miserable conditions. Of course this would not have been my situation, had I really joined the NCP. A Brigadier in my shape would have been highly welcomed by the NCP because they care for their cadres unlike the SPLM's leadership which only care for opportunists i.e. those who did not walk and did not sleep in the mud, waters, and grasses in the bush, those who have never heard the sounds of gunfire and barrages, those who played no role in the SPLM/A; instead, were in the side of the SAF and the NCP during the war. Worst, these opportunists didn't come to join the SPLM/A in a dignified way; instead, they came when they couldn't find any sanctuary after their defection from the NCP but the SPLM/A. They ran away from the NCP like women, and in disguise they came wearing the Muslim's women dresses that cover the whole body except the eyes. They came with their enlarged bellies like pregnant women.

4. I told these young officers that there is no reason that could make me or even encourage me to join the NCP/NIF because the same reasons that convinced me in 1985 to join the SPLM/A are still there. Marginalization is still there, underdevelopment is unchanged, and ignorance is still ubiquitous. So I think the first bullet in the coming revolution will be fired in the Nuba Mountains if God wills, unless the mentality of GoNU, which has put the Southern Kurdufan in the Freezer, is totally changed.

5. I told them that if I have the intention to join the NIF/NCP, I would have done so in May 1, 1992 when I was delegated to negotiate with the NIF in the Nuba Mountains, the NIF delegation was headed by Suleiman Musa. The negotiation took place in Belinja near Kadugli, with twenty five members in each delegation. The negotiation was secrete by then as I was instructed by late Yousif Kua. Late Yousif Kuo highlighted the agenda for that negotiation, and then I left with the other members from Korji.

Shortly after that we heard Omer al-Bashir speaking over Umdurman's Radio preaching to the people in Al-Ubeid that peace is about to be reached in the Nuba Mountains. I laughed at him then because the agreement was only between late Yousif Kuo and the commissioner of Kadugli colonel Mohamed al-Teib Fadul concerning the relief to the Nuba people, and was secrete. We came to the venue of the meeting which was prepared and funded by the government. And as soon as we arrived, the meeting opened and speeches were given by the chairpersons of the two delegations.

In the break time which was at about 12 noon, Mahomud Fadulla, the head of the NIF delegation who was a Colonel by then and a Major General now in a sensitive position, came and took me by hand to an isolated area and told me that the President wants to meet me! But I told him that it will not work that way. Anyway, he insisted that if I gave him the green light, he will take me to the President secretly and bring me back to the meeting without anyone's knowledge even those in my delegation. Actually, I told him that I'm delegated only to discus specific issues with my counterpart in your side, but if your side wants to upgrade the delegation to a high level, I will have to report back to my Boss. Mahomud Fadul got annoyed as I could see in his face then, and that was the end of negotiation. I tell this now for historical accuracy only since it will not disadvantage anyone.

6. In the end, my presence in Khartoum that worries you in the Nuba Mountains doesn't worry my HQs in the South because they know why I'm here. Actually, I'm not happy with the GoSS and its President because they marginalized their SPLA comrades in the Nuba Mountains; in fact, without the sacrifices of Nuba people, southerners alone wouldn't have liberated Western Equatoria … and so forth.

In a meeting in November 2005 in which more than 2000 SPLM/A officers attended, I asked the C-in-C of the SPLA and the President of the GoSS Salva Kiir the following question: why have you given shares to other parties, even the parties that was fighting against us, and didn't give the Nuba, your first allies, any share in the GoSS? Not only that but you brought two battalions mostly from the Nuba Mountains to Juba to Guard your government while Nuba people has no representatives in that government. Kiir's answer, however, was painful; in fact, the excuse was uglier than the guilt itself.

He answered me saying that the Nuba had two ministerial posts in the GoNU; in addition, they have their share in the government of Southern Kurdufan. Furthermore, he said he couldn't do what is not in the CPA. Of course that was not the truth nor was it a diplomatic answer either; instead, that was a humiliation and a provocative answer to the freedom fighters in the Nuba Mountains and the Nuba people in the SPLM/A in general and further, to the whole Nuba population in the Sudan. We didn't have the CPA in 1985 yet we struggled together. As a matter of fact, most commanders in the SPLA favored the battalions in which Nuba people were the majority. After all, the share of the Nuba people in the CPA is dismal.

This statement is firstly addressed to those trouble-makers and opportunists and secondly, is addressed to the Nuba freedom fighters in the SPLM/A, thirdly it is addressed to those in the GoSS and its President and for those who got promoted to the top positions using the bloods of the Nuba martyrs who fell during the struggle, and it is also addressed to those in the Southern Kurdufan Region and for the Sudanese in general.

Brigadier Telefuun Kuku Abu Julha
Chief of the Military Productions in the SPLA- HQs

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