VZCZCXYZ0020
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKH #0546 0611314
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021314Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1707

UNCLAS KHARTOUM 000546 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/SPG, AF/PD (A. JOHNSON, P. EHRNMAN), RRU-AF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OIIP PREL SCUL PINR PHUM SU
SUBJECT: JUBA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS RIOT IN KHARTOUM 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  On Feb 11, a serious student riot occurred 
at the University of Juba's Kadoro Campus in Khartoum 
following the refusal of university officials to 
establish as student union.  Many observers, however, 
believe that the true purpose of the riot was to force 
the University to return to Juba.  END SUMMARY. 
 
------------- 
Riot Rashomon 
------------- 
 
¶2.  Newspapers reported violent rioting at the Univeristy 
of Juba's main campus in Kadoro, on the outskirts of 
Khartoum.  Students set fire to nine vehicles belonging 
to the university and its staff, vandalized the chemistry 
lab and a new computer lab, and damaged two generators. 
The staff was able to intervene and save the library from 
being burned. 
 
¶3. Two days earlier, the Juba University's Alliance of 
Political Associations had given administrators a Feb 11 
deadline to reestablish a student union.  When the 
university missed that deadline, the group said the riots 
started when their meeting "got out of hand" (Al-Hayat 
daily, Feb. 12). 
 
¶4.  Another student group, the African National Front 
(ANF), claimed the riots began because southern students 
were angry that the university was not working to return 
to the south, and was even building new facilities in 
Kadoro (The Citizen, Feb. 13). The ANF felt any new 
facilities should be built in Juba. 
 
¶5.  University officials said that the riots started at a 
meeting to discuss revising the student constitution to 
allow unions.  The university claims the Dean of Students 
was attacked upon entering the meeting room, which 
ignited the pandemonium and rioting. 
 
--------------------- 
Aftermath And Comment 
--------------------- 
 
¶6.  Press reports that 51 students were arrested (Al- 
Hayat, Feb. 12) and the University has been closed until 
further notice.  Many southerners believe that returning 
the university to Juba will help cement southern 
legitimacy; during CPA celebrations Government of 
southern Sudan (GoSS) President Salva Kiir called for the 
immediate return of all three southern universities 
(Juba, Upper Nile and Bahr al-Ghazal).  It is now unclear 
when, and where, the university will re-open. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶7. The university has been resistant to forming student 
unions because of their history of leading radical 
political movements in Sudan.  Student elections have 
frequently been a source of violence. 
 
¶8.  The university was founded in 1977 in Juba, but moved 
to Khartoum in 1989 because of the war.  The Kadoro 
campus opened in 2002.  The university has greatly 
expanded in Khartoum, and now has about 10,000 students. 
Many of the students, teachers and administrators are 
northerners.  Some facilities and faculty members are 
shared between different Khartoum universities.  In Juba, 
there is currently only a small arts and associate degree 
program, and the facilities are extremely limited after 
being looted and occupied as militia barracks during the 
civil war. 
 
STEINFELD