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Sudan Rejects Dubious U.S. 10 Million Dollar Funding For NDA
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| Bashir
says U.S. should show neutrality
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KHARTOUM, Dec. 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Sudanese President, Omar el-Bashir, has revoked the 10 million dollars in funding that the U.S. Congress has allocated for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), reported Agence France Presse (AFP).
"This financial assistance casts doubt on the neutrality of the U.S. administration towards the parties in the dispute in Sudan," presidential peace advisor, Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani, was quoted as saying by the daily independent newspaper, Al Rai Al Aam.
"The assistance will escalate the war and confrontation" in the country, which has been wracked by an 18-year civil war, said Atabani.
The United States has signed a 3 million dollar contract to provide training and other aid to upgrade the ability of Sudanese rebels. The money, pledged in May, will be provided to the NDA, according to Associated Press (AP).
"We renew our call that the United States should show neutrality and fairness in its method and that its efforts should work toward resolving the root cause of the problem and not its symptoms and side effects," El-Bashir said in a televised speech.
The U.S. Congress has allocated the 10 million dollars to the NDA, but U.S. President, George W. Bush, has yet to ratify the funding, reported AFP.
Atabani said the Sudanese government was aware that the Bush administration had not recommended the funding and of "the conflicting trends" within the different branches of the U.S. government.
The opposition -- Christian and animist rebels opposing the government -- had called for an escalation in the fighting, prompting the Sudanese government to bar NDA officials from traveling to Cairo for a meeting of an Egyptian-Libyan committee brokering peace in Sudan, reported AFP.
Atabani said the decision was in line with the government's promise to create an atmosphere conducive to peaceful negotiations with the opposition.
"Such an atmosphere requires the opposition political parties to operate inside Sudan in accordance with the law and constitution instead of carrying arms, obtaining foreign assistance, laying landmines and killing the innocent," said El-Bashir.
"We hope our dialogue will result in common understanding on the reality of the situation," he added. "This could help in finding a way to address problems and to realize our country's interest in achieving peace and stability, and which will lead to building just and fruitful relations with the United States."
The National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella movement for mainly southern and northern rebel groups, has demanded that any peace process in the Sudan include the principle of self-determination for the south and the separation of religion and government.
Sudanese rebels in the mainly Christian and animist south have been fuelling the civil war in the Sudan and fighting against Arab and Muslim northern governments for 18 years.
The evangelical Christian right and the Roman Catholic Church, both of which the White House is courting for the next presidential election, want President Bush’s administration to deal with all parties in the Sudan to try to quickly end the fighting while arming the Christian rebels in southern Sudan so they can press their fight for separation from the northern government, which is Islamic and has been fighting to extend Islamic law throughout the country.
Up to two million people have been killed in the nearly two decades of Sudanese conflict – mainly through war-related famine, while a further four million have been displaced.
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