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British MP Saw Immediate Aftermath of Abyei Attack

Diing Magot

   JUBA , SOUTH SUDAN - A member of the British House of Lords says she
   witnessed the immediate aftermath of a massacre in the disputed Abyei
   region last week, and will raise the issue of the U.N. peacekeeping
   force there in the British parliament.

   Caroline Cox, formally known as the Baroness Cox of Queensbury, said
   the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNIFSA) did not
   protect the people of Abyei when armed men killed dozens of civilians
   in the village of Kolom last week.

   The oil-producing Abyei region sits on the border between Sudan and
   South Sudan and is claimed by both countries.

   Cox, who is CEO of an organization called Humanitarian Aid Relief
   Trust, gathered with Abyei lawyers, officials and citizens in Juba
   Monday to mourn the victims in the Kolom attack. More than 30 people
   were killed, according to Abyei's chief administrator, Kuol Alor Kuol,
   who accused armed Misseriya nomads of attacking the mainly Dinka
   village.

   "We were there in the tragic time with the burning homes, the burning
   bodies and their homes, the mass graves already and the burning huts,
   and I think perhaps one of the worst things is that so many children
   were abducted into slavery and that is terrible for their families,"
   Cox told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

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