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Gold/Mining/Energy : ARAKIS: HIGH RISK OIL PLAY (AKSEF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edward M. Zettlemoyer who wrote (9121)	9/23/1998 12:17:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Respond to of 9164

Ed, Heavy heavy fighting right now in the eastern and southern Sudan- probably in response to the fact that Sudan moved 2,000 mainly Sudanese-trained Rwandan Hutu Rebels into the DRC to support Kabila. Kabila's reneging on his promises to protect various ethnic minorities in the eastern Congo as part of the deal which brought him to power has sent his former friends/neighbors airborne. Sudan a perpetrator of massive genocide themselves has no problems in training former Rwandan Hutu Rebels to help support Kabila's Government. What does this mean for the Sudan? Well Sudan's involvement in the DRC as well as likely Sudanese involvement of the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania virtually guarantees increased Ugandan, Kenyan, Rwandan, and Eritrean (and potentially Ethiopian) support of the SPLA fight to free itself from the Islamic Fundamentalist Military Junta in Khartoum. Indeed recent reports suggest that for the first time ever in the war Ugandan regular troops may be fighting inside of southern Sudan along with the SPLA. Tonight there arealso heavy artillery bombardments of a number of NIF Govenrment Troop positions in the eastern and southern Sudan tonight. Reportedly Eritrean Troops are massing on the Sudanese border- a bluff or possible intervention in the Sudan forthcoming? If you wish to follow the fragmentary "official" news reports from the Sudan, then please see: sudan.net Sincerely, Doug F.

To: Edward M. Zettlemoyer who wrote (9121)	9/23/1998 12:23:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9164

Ed, FYI...BTW "DPA"= Deutsche Presse Agenteur"... ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ News Article by DPA on September 22, 1998 at 20:43:56: Owner of Sudanese factory comes under scrutiny in wake of US strikes By Hans Dahne Khartoum (dpa) - The enigmatic owner of the Shifa pharmaceuticals factory in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has come under intense scrutiny since the U.S. targeted the plant last month, destroying it in a cruise missile attack. Salah Ahmed Idris, the Sudanese-born owner of the plant, has not attended any of the state-orchestrated protest demonstrations that have taken place outside the gutted factory. The U.S. claims that chemical weapons were produced at the plant, and charged that Idris has links to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire who Washington regards as a financier of international terrorism. Little is known about Idris. He is in his mid-forties and now holds a Saudi Arabian passport. Business associates have described him as "very discreet" and as someone who likes to stay out of view. He has been on a veritable shopping spree in Sudan for the past two years, according to businessmen in Khartoum. First he bought Bitar,the country's largest firm, which sells everything from cooking oil and detergents to office supplies and engineering contracts. Idris then bought a textiles and battery factory and invested in a company that produces television sets under licence: He also bought a military-industrial complex on large 25 square kilometre site. "All that must have cost at least 300 million dollars. Where did all that money come from?," asked one businessman who asked not to be identified. The man had a three-month war of nerves of Idris, who bought his factory. "He told me the check would be there in an hour, and then he disappeared by plane for three months." Idris allegedly has good contacts to key leaders of Sudan's Islamic fundamentalist regime. "Who else would invest in Sudan?" another businessman asked."The banks are not solvent and they only give to loans to friends of the regime. Then the taxmen ask for exorbitant taxes. These Moslems make life so difficult that you're happy to sell (your factory), even for a dollar and 50 cents." Businessmen in Khartoum do not believe that Idris is the generous philanthropist that he likes to portray himself as, the man happy toinvest his wealth in his impoverished home country. "This is one huge money laundering operation, maybe even for Osama bin Laden", one contact in the Sudanese capital told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Idris' attorney, Ghasi Suleiman, has rejected any links between Idris and bin Laden. "Idris has never met bin Laden or spoken with him. They are different sorts of people." Another theory making the rounds in Khartoum is that the factory was destroyed because it had been financed privately by people close to the fundamentalist Sudanese regime. The bombing would wipe out these investments, as no insurance company will reimburse the investors under the circumstances. A diplomat who also refused to be cited by name said that the opposition Umma party of Sadiq el Mahdi had put the United States' CIA on to the Khartoum factory. The factory, on the outskirts of Khartoum, was destroyed August 20 in a cruise missile attack in retaliation for the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that is believed connected to bin Laden, a multimillionare Saudi extremist. The U.S. government in Washington said the factory was targeted becase of its links to terrorism and Iraq, and that clandestinely obtained soil samples indicated the plant was involved in the production of precursor agents for VX nerve gas. El Shifa's former export manager, Alamaddin el Shibli, is convinced that the soil samples allegedly taken on the premises was faked. "The factory was tiled throughout, and there was asphalt everywhere outside the buildings. Where could anyone have taken a sample?" Shibli said. Idris now wants to rebuild the factory elsewhere in Khartoum, according to Shibli. The Sudanese government wants to turn the riun into a momument. The factory's owner plans to keep paying his employees for three months. "After that disaster will hit. I supported nine people with my pay," says one former employee, Adam Umbade, an engineer. "How can I feed them? Am I a magician?