Sudan: Debate grows on Islamist regime - Financial Times, Dec.7
By Mark Huband in Khartoum and Stephen Fidler in Washington
The terrorist camps that Sudan denied ever existed appear
to have been vacated, US intelligence officials say. Two
notorious killers, Illyich Ramirez Sanchez - known as Carlos
the Jackal - and Osama bin Laden, are also long gone from
the country.
The US has other evidence that Sudan's Islamist
government's enthusiasm for sponsoring international
terrorism has waned. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
has been given access to an alleged terrorist training
camp, but found little evidence to support Sudan's
inclusion on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Doubts have also been raised about US claims that
Sudan was involved in the manufacture of chemical
weapons - which prompted the US's bombing of a
pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum in August 1998. The
plant was producing a constituent of VX nerve gas and
was linked to Mr Bin Laden, Washington said.
But research by Kroll Associates, the London-based
investigative agency, as well as admissions by senior
US diplomats and well-placed US intelligence officials,
strongly suggest those claims were wrong. The factory
owner's $24m assets in the US have since been
unfrozen, though there has been no official admission of
a mistake.
Nevertheless, the US State Department keeps Sudan on
its terrorism list and Washington has intensified efforts to
isolate the government.
In the past few weeks, the possibility has increased of
US action to help rebels in the south. Legislation tacked
on to an appropriations bill, signed by US President Bill
Clinton last Monday, would permit (not compel) the US
to provide food aid to help the rebels.
The law, which has strong backing in Congress and
among leading Africa policymakers in the administration,
has set off an intense debate about whether the US
should use food aid as a political weapon.
It has also intensified a broader debate over
Washington's hard line towards Sudan even as its allies
are attempting to better relations. The European Union
has entered what it calls a "critical dialogue" with
Khartoum and the UK is seeking to reopen the embassy
it closed a year ago. Canada is to appoint a mediator to
assist in finding a solution to the military conflict in south
Sudan.
"There was a debate in the Sudanese government
between the hardliners and those who wanted to meet
legitimate US concerns. The problem for the moderates
was that the US didn't sufficiently respond," said one
senior US official.
"What is the best way to deal with a government like
that? I always felt that contact was the way to move it
forward."
For now, though, another view holds sway in
Washington. There is also an intensifying public
campaign to discourage foreign investment in Sudan,
which became an oil exporter this year.
"We have real concerns about the role foreign investment
plays in Sudan and the possibility that revenues from oil
will convince many in the regime that this war can be
won," said a Washington official. "We don't believe there
is a military solution to this conflict."
In Khartoum, though, the government argues US actions
are prolonging the war. Mahdi Ibrahim, Sudan's
ambassador to the US and a liaison between the
Sudanese and US intelligence services, said: "They have
postponed peace, and destroyed the lives of millions of
people by encouraging the war. For what purpose? We
think there is a chance for the US to engage Sudan and
establish peace."
In 1997, the Sudanese government accepted the
demands for self-determination of southern Sudanese. A
referendum is due to be held in 2001, allowing the largely
Christian and African south to vote for federation with or
secession from the largely Moslem and Arab north.
The referendum pledge has been greeted sceptically by
the US. "We need actions, not just words and empty
promises," said a US official. |
