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U.S. Begins Diplomacy in Sudan
WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States is to launch a major diplomatic initiative this week with the goal of mediating between Sudan's Muslim government and Christian and animist militias, U.S. officials told the
Los Angeles Times.
The White House is expected to announce the appointment of former Sen. John C. Danforth, possibly as early as Thursday, as special envoy to lead the peace effort, U.S. officials said.
The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is also planning to unveil a major aid program of as much as $30 million for humanitarian relief and development for the nation, which has been ravaged over the past four decades by two wars, at least four coups, periodic famines and ongoing political instability, the
Los Angeles Times reported.
According to the paper, U.S. State Department officials concede that the initiative is fraught with risks, especially after the failure of at least four earlier U.S. attempts to end the 18-year war that has claimed more than two million lives.
But new realities on both sides of the conflict - most notably major new oil finds - make the prospects of a U.S.-brokered deal more feasible than at any juncture in the past, the paper reported.
Oil is the new variable and could make the difference over the past failures, U.S. officials said.
Sudan began exporting oil from the north in 1999, with significant revenue expected to begin next year. But larger reserves may be in the south.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir is receiving pressure from oil companies and foreign governments to negotiate. His government also faces internal pressures over the prospect of another famine and recent military inroads by the southern opposition.
In the south, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, led by John Garang, faces the possibility that Sudan's new oil income next year will pay for major new arms purchases by the government, diminishing or eliminating the group's viability.
"Oil could make both sides realize that they'll be better off if they can take advantage of this new income," a well-placed U.S. official said. "It may make the government willing to hold its nose and give political concessions to the south to get those economic benefits."
The new U.S. intervention reflects Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's interest in increasing American involvement in Africa.
However, the move is also the product of mounting pressure from an unlikely coalition of evangelical Christian groups, congressional conservatives and black politicians and activists. The coalition shares a common concern over the fate of Christians in southern Sudan.
U.S. officials predict that it will take Danforth, who is also an ordained minister, at least a couple of months to determine how serious both sides are about making peace.
The job is considered so difficult that Chester Crocker, a former assistant secretary of State and ambassador who now teaches at Georgetown University, turned it down.
To encourage the process, the U.S. will pledge between $25 million and $30 million, with roughly half going to food aid primarily in the north, and the other half to two development programs to help prepare the south for peace.
The U.S. will also provide assistance to help the Sudanese move off food aid and produce their own crops. Nongovernmental and international organizations - not Sudan or the opposition - will administer the assistance.
U.S. officials say the administration is also expected to agree not to renew U.N. sanctions on foreign travel by Sudanese officials when restrictions expire this month, although this decision is still being finalized.
But the U.S. will maintain its own tough economic sanctions on Sudan because of what it considers the African nation's poor human rights record and practice of providing safe haven to what the United States considers "extremists".
The U.N. sanctions against Sudan were imposed after gunmen opened fire on Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as he drove through the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, five years ago.
The U.N. Security Council voted in favor of diplomatic sanctions and restrictions on air flights after Khartoum failed to hand over three suspects in the assassination attempt.
But now both Egypt and Ethiopia are arguing that Sudan has complied with the Council's demands to end its support for "terrorism", BBC's online service said.
African, Arab and other non-aligned states, are backing a resolution calling for the sanctions against Sudan to be lifted.
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