4 - 10 October 2001
Issue No.554
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 - 10 October 2001 Issue No.554 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Plastering over the past
As it bids to hunt down the terrorists, the US is reassessing its relations with Sudan. Gamal Nkrumah writes
This week, the United Nations Security Council lifted its sanctions against Sudan. The United States abstained in the crucial vote, but all other 14 countries opted to end the embargo. The UN imposed the sanctions on Sudan in 1996 to try to force Khartoum to hand over suspected terrorists involved in a plot to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa during an Organisation of African Unity summit in 1995. The sanctions have been in place for five years, and their removal has excited much comment.
Recently, there have been conflicting reports of a secret deal between Washington and the Sudanese authorities. The deal reportedly ended the traditional trajectory of US-Sudanese relations, which began when the Islamist-oriented military government of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir forcibly came to power in 1989 after toppling a civilian administration.
Last week, a meeting which Western reports painted as a long-overdue tryst, was hurriedly convened in London between US Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner, FBI and CIA representatives and top-level Sudanese intelligence officers, including Sudanese deputy intelligence chief Yehia Hussein Babikar. While US officials have been remarkably candid, Sudanese authorities are tight-lipped. Officially, Khartoum hotly denies reports of military collaboration with Washington, but acknowledges the political rapprochement with the US, and welcomes news that the Sudanese government has been absolved of its past association with international terror.
"We have been vindicated! The US administration has finally understood that the damning attestations about Sudan harbouring terrorists and supporting international terror have been proven wrong. These wrongful allegations should now be laid to rest," Ambassador Hassan Abdel-Baqi Abdallah, the permanent representative of Sudan to the Arab League, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
He promptly added, "No deal has been struck between the Sudanese government and the Bush administration. We do have an ongoing dialogue between the two governments which has been under way for a year and a half now. There has also been a marked improvement in relations between the two countries, which is in no way linked to the unfortunate incidents of 11 September that the Sudanese government strongly condemns." Abdallah also pointed out, "We have stated that we are willing to participate fully in the international fight against terrorism."
The Sudanese government has been quick to make political capital out of the warming of relations with Washington. "Sudan has been a victim of terror. We have long suffered at the hands of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), who terrorise the civilian population in southern Sudan, shoot down civilian aircraft and have kidnapped humanitarian aid workers. International relief agencies testify to this and have roundly condemned SPLA atrocities," argued Abdallah. He also claimed that current friendliness with the US was not related to a secret deal. "We have not received any notification to hand over terrorist suspects and there are no terrorists in Sudan at present. The lifting of the sanctions was not a reward for a secret deal with the US. Rather, the UN Security Council was originally scheduled to discuss the lifting of sanctions against Sudan on the 13 September, but the meeting was postponed following the attacks on New York and Washington. After intense diplomatic consultations the international community has become convinced of Sudan's innocence and decided to lift sanctions."
Officials in the US State Department also seem keen to praise Sudan. They applauded Sudan's recent arrest of suspected terrorists believed to have links to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, though it is unclear whether those arrested are actual Bin Laden associates, or simply Sudanese political dissidents and followers of chief Islamist ideologue Hassan Al-Turabi, who is currently under house arrest.
According to Western reports, US intelligence agents have been working closely with the Sudanese authorities for the past 15 months inside Sudan to track suspected terrorists. Khartoum is also supposed to have given the US access to its banking system and has helped Washington choke financial support to suspected terrorist groups.
Sudan's Al-Shamal Islamic Bank, ostensibly set up by Bin Laden in 1991, is currently under investigation by the Foreign Terrorist Assest Tracking Centre set up by the US Treasury in the wake of the 11 September attacks on Washington and New York.
Sudan's ambassador to the US, Khidir Haroun Ahmed, said, "US operatives have been given free access to different parts of the country." While US investigators are welcome in Sudan, US facilities are not. "There are no Sudanese-US military ties in the first place," Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Othman Ismail said. "Such reports are totally unfounded. Such facilities have not been requested and we have not granted them."
Bin Laden himself and many of his close associates resided in Sudan between 1991 and 1996, when the Sudanese authorities asked them to leave. From Sudan, they moved to Afghanistan. But Bin Laden may still have interests in the East African country. While in Sudan, he had access to special facilities in the port and airport of Port Sudan, Sudan's second largest city and chief outlet to the Red Sea. Bin Laden is known to have had thriving businesses in farming, industry and trade, including the trade in gum arabic, a substance used widely in confectioneries and soft drinks.
"We've had some serious discussions with the government of Sudan about ways to combat terrorism," said US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "They've worked with us to illuminate the presence of terrorist groups which could threaten American interests," Boucher added. "They've provided information on the past doings of terrorist groups in Sudan; they've recently apprehended extremists who might threaten people."
Khartoum's hopes for any deal are clear. It wants the "Sudanese Peace Act," which Congress passed in June, to be scrapped. The act earmarks $10 million for the Sudanese umbrella opposition group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA which includes the SPLA), the northern-based Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and several smaller regional-based political groups. The money is to be used for "humanitarian and logistical support." In addition the US State Department pledged an additional $3 million in logistical support for the NDA apart from the $10 million approved by Congress. The US Senate adopted a watered-down version of the act, not including sanctions. Further legislation, originally scheduled for 11 September, was postponed in the wake of the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in Washington and New York.
But there are still some obstacles to Khartoum having its way. Abdallah noted that unilateral US sanctions against Sudan are still fully enforced. Sudan still seeks compensation for what it says was the unprovoked bombing of Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical factory on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, ordered by former US President Bill Clinton in 1998, in retaliation for the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. The US authorities later conceded that the privately-owned Al-Shifa plant, which produced 60 per cent of Sudan's medical supplies, produced neither chemical nor biological weapons.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page