Good points, Aggie. // "New-look" Sudan tries to erase image of terrorist supporter
by Michel Sailhan
KHARTOUM, Nov 26 (AFP) - Sudan's Islamist military junta is
stepping up efforts to erase its image as a supporter of
international terrorism and end its isolation, officials and
diplomats here say.
Without denying Sudan had sheltered or supported alleged
terrorists, authorities now say their policy has changed radically
since Venezuelan Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, or Carlos the Jackal, was
arrested here in 1994 and taken to France for trial.
"We believe we have cleaned everything up since 1995," Sudanese
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told AFP in an interview
here.
The United States, however, thinks otherwise.
In 1997, Washington imposed a unilateral economic embargo on
Sudan, for its alleged support for international terrorism.
And in August 1998, US cruise missiles struck a Sudanese
pharmaceutical plant alleged to have been producing ingredients for
chemical weapons on behalf of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden.
The United States has accused bin Laden of responsibility for
the August 7, 1998 bombings against the US embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, in which 224 people were killed.
Diplomats in Khartoum and Europe said however there was no
evidence the factory was involved in chemical weapons production,
and its management is seeking compensation from the United States.
The Sudanese government was allegedly implicated in the June 26,
1995 bid by Islamic militants to assassinate Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak after he arrived in Addis Ababa for an Organization of
African Unity summit.
But Ethiopian government spokesman Hailekiros Gessesse said
Saturday that Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir's visit to Addis
Ababa last week and his support for Ethiopia in its conflict with
Eritrea had thawed relations.
Hailekiros told a press briefing that Sudan's refusal to
extradite three Sudanese allegedly involved in the attempt against
Mubarak was no longer a barrier between the two states.
"We still want the terrorists to be extradited and face trial,
but if Sudan continues to refuse, we will not let it sour relations
between us," Hailekiros said.
He also stressed that Ethiopia had never armed any Sudanese
rebel group, including the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)
southern rebels, and reiterated Ethiopia's commitment to mediate in
the 16-year Sudanese conflict.
Impoverished Sudan, which needs to emerge from its diplomatic
isolation in order to benefit from international aid, is trying
"continuously" to improve its relations with neighboring countries
like Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya, said a European diplomat based
here.
One of the issues that Beshir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi discussed was the need to promote trade and bilateral
relations, including the possible sale of Sudanese oil to Addis
Ababa and the use by landlocked Ethiopia of Port Sudan on the Red
Sea coast.
Sudan's improved relations with its neighbors, and change in
stance toward terrorism, were among five reasons the European Union
announced earlier this month that it was resuming an official
dialogue with the government.
More progress from Sudan in promoting human rights, introducing
democracy, and embarking on the peace process with its political and
armed opposition were the other EU requirements.
"The United States knows there is no terrorist activity in
Sudan, but its policy is to distort the truth," Ismail said.
"If the Europeans want to come and investigate terrorism they
are welcome."
____________________________________________________________
U.S. Weighs Using Food as Support for Sudan Rebels
The New York Times, November 29
By JANE PERLEZ
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton is about to sign a bill
permitting the administration to pursue a contentious strategy
against the Islamic government in Sudan by giving food assistance directly
to rebels who have been fighting the authorities in Khartoum for 16 years.
The plan is intended by its advocates in the State Department and the
National Security Council to strengthen the military operations of the
Sudan People's Liberation Army and to isolate the government, which
Washington has accused of backing international terrorism.
But critics, including some administration officials and major aid groups,
contend that giving food to the rebels is another example of the evolving
administration policy of intervention that inserts the United States on one
side of a civil war as squarely as when the Reagan administration
supported anti-Communist guerrillas in Africa and Latin America.
Further, providing sustenance to fighters -- using food as a weapon of
war -- contravenes the long-held principle of neutrality in food assistance
during conflicts, said Julia Taft, the assistant secretary of state for
refugees and humanitarian assistance. "This is a departure from the way
we should be using food aid," she said.
Clinton is to sign a bill on Monday authorizing direct aid to the rebels,
although no firm action has yet been decided on.
The language was included in the bill by a group of Senate and House
members with the backing of Susan Rice, the assistant secretary of state
for African affairs, and Gayle Smith, the director for Africa at the
National Security Council.
The civil war in Sudan has raised high emotions in Congress and in the
administration because it pits a rigid Islamic government against Christian
rebels. Church coalitions have charged that the government organizes
militias to abduct southerners into slavery and send them north.
John Pendergast, a special adviser to Ms. Rice, said the food aid would
enable the rebels to maintain positions in the parched territory where they
are fighting the northern army and government-backed militias.
"This is so forces can eat more easily and resupply forces in food deficit
areas," Pendergast said. It was hoped that the food would allow the
rebels "to stay in position or expand positions in places where it is difficult
to maintain a logistical line," he said.
Pendergast acknowledged that there would be an internal battle in the
administration over whether to implement the legislation.
Neither President Clinton nor Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
has taken a public position on the issue, although Dr. Albright has
received papers from Mrs. Taft's office arguing against the policy.
Underlying the effort is Ms. Rice's belief that the Khartoum government,
which has been controlled by the National Islamic Front since 1990,
should be isolated and punished as much as possible.
Last year, the United States attacked a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum
with cruise missiles because of suspicions that the factory was involved in
the production of chemical weapons and was linked to Osama bin
Laden, the Saudi-born militant who is suspected of masterminding the
August 1998 bombings of American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Others in the administration said the efforts to isolate the Sudanese
government were futile, as allies, including France, Britain, Canada and
Saudi Arabia, were beginning to seek rapprochement with Khartoum and
to invest in the country's new oil industry. China has taken a major stake
in government's oil company.
The State Department has also harshly criticized the Sudan People's
Liberation Army. In its Human Rights Report this year, the State
Department said rebel leaders were "responsible for extrajudicial killings,
beatings, arbitrary detention, forced conscription, slavery and occasional
arrests of foreign relief workers without charge."
Instead of trying to bolster the rebels, the administration should put more
effort into supporting peace talks, said Peter D. Bell, the president of
Care U.S.A., a major aid group that donates food to both sides of the
war in Sudan.
During a visit to Kenya last month, Dr. Albright met with the Sudanese
rebel leader, John Garang, and discouraged an effort by Egypt and Libya
to broker a peace deal between the government and his forces. Instead,
she gave support to a more narrow and almost moribund peace effort
sponsored by seven East African nations under the umbrella of the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. Bell said the United
States should work beyond that process and use its influence to bring the
parties together.
This is an especially critical time to try to forge a peace deal to end
Africa's longest running conflict because the Khartoum government is
poised to reap profits from its oil industry that could be used to revitalize
its war machine, he said. Giving food aid to the rebels is more likely to
prolong the conflict rather than solve it, he suggested.
"The United States could do much more to put a just peace at the center
of its policy," Bell said. "After two million dead and four million
displaced, we need to end the conflict."
Moreover, Bell said that Care would not take part in food deliveries to
the rebels that might be funded by the American government. "It's a
mistake, because it's to use food as a weapon of war and counter to
humanitarian principles."
A United Nations program known as Operation Lifeline Sudan, which
for 10 years has been distributing food by air, barge and train to civilians
trapped by the war, could also be jeopardized by the American efforts.
Washington has contributed about $1 billion to the United Nations
program, which gives food to civilians on both sides and which is
conducted with the acquiescence of the Khartoum government. United
Nations officials said that if the Clinton administration gave food to rebel
fighters, Khartoum would undoubtedly try to shut down the United
Nations effort.
"We'll have stronger opposition from Khartoum, and there will be greater
risk for everyone involved," said Nils Kastberg, the director of
emergency programs for Unicef, which runs the Sudan food program for
the United Nations.
Another aid organization involved in the United Nations program, World
Vision, would also decline to participate in efforts to support the rebels
directly, said a spokesman, Serge Duss.
Duss said the leaders of 10 nongovernmental aid organizations, including
World Vision, met with Dr. Albright in October and urged the
administration to take a broader approach to the Sudanese war.
Exactly how the administration would organize giving food to the rebels,
who are dispersed across a vast swath of southern Sudan, was not clear.
Pendergast said whatever logistical methods were chosen, they would be
separate from the operation at Lokichokio, in northern Kenya, where an
air field is used by the United Nations program.
One way of getting food to the rebels would be for the United States or
an intermediary to give grain to the government in Kenya and allow
government workers or others there to organize the distribution, a
congressional aide said.
The legislation that Clinton is to sign on Monday overrides a law that
prohibits giving United States food assistance to combatants before they
demobilize, the aide said.
nytimes.com |
