U.S. Tells Sudan It Wasn't Personal
JAMAL HALABY
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Sudan's president said today that the United States has asked to cooperate with Sudanese
security officials and assured him that last week's attack on a Khartoum factory was aimed at terrorism, not at his government.
President Omar Hassan el-Bashir spoke in his first news conference since Thursday's strike on a factory that U.S. officials said
manufactured chemical weapons agents but Sudan insists made only medicines.
He said the U.S. government had communicated with Sudan through a third party, which he would not name, to say that his
country was ''not targeted in the attack, but terrorism.''
''They also said that they wanted cooperation between the Sudanese and the American security apparatus,'' he said, adding
that U.S. officials had refused a similar request Sudan made previously on that issue.
U.S. officials have not said anything publicly about renewing cooperation with Sudan, which they accuse of sponsoring
terrorism. American officials have not made clear if they are accusing Sudan of being linked to the targeted factory.
President Clinton tied the factory to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire blamed for the Aug. 7 bombings of U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 257 people. A second U.S. attack was carried out Thursday against bin Laden's
bases in Afghanistan.
But el-Bashir said that bin Laden ''has no shares at all in the factory,'' adding bin Laden left Sudan before the factory was
opened in 1996. Bin Laden lived in Sudan in the early 1990s but was forced out under Western pressure in 1995.
El-Bashir said Clinton based the attack on wrong information supplied by dissidents who have opposed his Islamic rule since
he came to power in a coup in 1989.
''The American agencies have counted on erroneous information from some groups ... in return for giving them money,'' he
said, calling the opposition groups ''traitors and agents working against their homeland.''
He also said the attack was carried out ''to cover up for the Monica scandal,'' a reference to Clinton's affair with former White
House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Despite his criticism of the Clinton administration, el-Bashir insisted private U.S. enterprises were not threatened in his country.
''We have no animosity towards the American people and non-government agencies,'' he said.
El-Bashir repeated an invitation to a U.N. mission to inspect the factory, said to have supplied 50 percent of Sudan's drugs.
But he said no other site would be open to inspection.
On Sunday, Information Minister Ghazi Salah el-Din said that Sudan insists on a ''public apology'' from the United States.
Also today, the Arab League denounced the strikes against Sudan as an aggression against an Arab country and gave strong
political backing to el-Bashir's government.
In a resolution following an emergency meeting of its council, the 22-member league also urged Washington to refrain from any
further actions ''which may arouse public outrage'' in the Arab world.
Sudan asked for the emergency meeting last week to seek Arab support. |
