Peace talks suspended after alarming gunship attack

The United States government on Thursday suspended peace discussions with the Sudanese government after forces loyal to it attacked a relief centre in southern Sudan, killing 17 people.

"We have demanded from the Sudanese government a full and complete explanation of what happened," US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement. "Until we receive a full and complete response from the Government of Sudan, the United States is suspending all discussions with Khartoum about the peace process."

Sudanese government officials were unavailable for comment because of the Muslim religious festival Id-al-Adha.

However, the Sudanese army on Thursday issued a statement denying that it was deliberately targeting civilians and alleged that accusations to that effect were "lies" being put out by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). It insisted that its forces were engaged in protecting the country's oil-producing regions and the people who worked there, AFP news agency reported from Khartoum.

According to Boucher, a Sudanese government helicopter gunship on Wednesday fired six to eight rockets during an attack on a food aid distribution in the village of Bieh, western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), killing 17 people and injuring many others.

The Sudanese authorities had given prior approval to the distribution by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) of some 76 mt of food aid for 10,000 people, and people had gathered in the village to receive humanitarian relief, WFP said in a statement.

The incident at Bieh was the latest in an "alarming pattern" of recent attacks by the government of Sudan and associated militias against civilians at or near humanitarian facilities, according to a joint statement from UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima, WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini and UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy.

Following a Sudanese government bombing attack on a food distribution site at Akuem in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, on Saturday 9 February, which killed two children, the US said it was "outraged" and called for the establishement of a "verification mechanism" to help prevent further attacks.

Khartoum subsequently expressed its "profound regrets" over the attack at Akuem, saying it was the result of a technical error and not a premeditated act.

In addition, on 9 February the town of Nimne, also in western Upper Nile, was bombed by government aircraft, killing five civilians, including one employee of the international health agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

"These attacks are especially shocking when set against the backdrop of a population in dire need of assistance", the joint UN statement said.

The US, through peace envoy John Danforth, has been working to build confidence in the Sudanese peace process with four specific proposals, including a proposal for ending the targeting of civilians in the country's 19-year civil war.

Although Danforth has been unable to reach a formal agreement with Khartoum on the bombing of civilians, Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir pledged verbally in January to call a four-week halt in aerial bombardments to test the willingness of rebel factions to end the war.

Sudan's offer was conditional, however, on rebel forces suspending their own military activity, which was unlikely in the absence of a comprehensive cease-fire, the 'St. Louis Post' quoted US officials as saying at the time of Danforth's second visit to Sudan in January.

Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the SPLM/A, claimed on Thursday that the attacks were an attempt to force the displacement of people living near the oilfields of western Upper Nile. Attacks in the area had been increasing recently as part of a "dry-season offensive" by government forces, he added.

The region of western Upper Nile, the site of most of Sudan's oilfields, has seen continued fighting between forces loyal to the Sudanese government, and different rebel groups at various times in recent years, causing the repeated displacement of local people.

Kwaje claimed the Khartoum government was not serious about Danforth's four confidence-building measures nor about the peace process in general.

"Anyone who is talking about peace in Sudan should take a look at this attack," he told IRIN on Thursday. "They are telling the Americans to go to hell."

"These attacks raise serious questions about the Sudanese government's commitment to peace and the lives of its people," US spokesman Boucher said on Thursday.