EU urged to review proposed aid programme

The European Union, recently urged by a southern grouping to reconsider its aid policy on Sudan in light of a government attack on a food relief centre in western Upper Nile on 20 February, said on Monday that development assistance had not been restored to the country and that conditionality had been built into proposals to do so.

European Union (EU) proposals on the progressive normalisation of relations and restoration of development assistance would take place in parallel with the continuing EU-Sudan political dialogue, according to European Commission Delegate to Sudan, Xavier Marchal.

Marchal also referred to an EC statement on the matter, which stated clearly that "future developments are dependent on continuing good progress in the political dialogue begun [with the Sudanese government] in 1999", and that these would be reassessed later this year. The European Commission is the secretariat of the European Union.

A grouping of eight southern Sudanese politicians recently urged the EU to reassess its aid policy in light of the 20 February helicopter gunship attack on a relief centre in Bieh, western Upper Nile (Wahdah, or Unity State) on 20 February, as well as the general human rights situation in Sudan, according to news reports.

In a statement signed by Joseph Ukel, head of the Union of Sudan African Parties (USAP), former Sudanese Vice-President Abel Alier and six other politicians, it said the 20 February attack and other such incidents had made Sudan "exceedingly well known for its bad human rights record", Agence France Presse (AFP) reported on 2 March.

After the Bieh attack, in which at least 24 people were killed (and more than 47 met their deaths, according to some reports), the US government announced it was suspending peace discussions with Khartoum until it offered a satisfactory explanation.

The EU also expressed its deep concern and called on Khartoum to provide a full explanation and urgently uphold its agreements with the United Nations on the humanitarian operation in Sudan.

The government expressed its regret for the incident, which, it said, was a mistake. Although it was government policy to ensure that civilians were not targets, "unforeseen casualties happen to innocent civilians" in war situations, it added.

The Bieh atrocity was special in that it followed "the recent certificate of good character given by the EU to the government of Sudan", AFP quoted the southern politicians as saying.

After 11 years during which formal EU development assistance to Sudan was suspended due to peace, governance and human rights concerns, the EC announced on 31 January that it intended to embark on a progressive normalisation of relations.

The Commission would now begin the process of working with Sudan to prepare a country strategy for assistance, at the same time as political dialogue with Khartoum continued "to address enduring concerns about the internal armed conflict in the country", it said.

The Sudanese government had been invited to work with the EC to determine the programming of European Development Fund (EDF) support, and the measures to be undertaken in the fields of concern which had led to the 1990 suspension: human rights, democracy, rule of law and progress on achieving peace, it added.

Following commitments given by Khartoum during a high-level EC visit in December, Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Poul Nielson announced that preparations would begin this year to resume normal relations under the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

The EC also announced on 23 January its adoption of a 'Global Plan' of humanitarian aid to Sudan, worth 17 million euros (almost US $15 million) as a measure of European solidarity with the innocent people caught up in the ongoing tragedy of the Sudanese civil war. "The plight of the Sudanese people is seldom in the headlines nowadays, but we have a duty to stay the course," said Nielson.

However, the eight southern politicians maintained in their statement that it was "known by all except the EU governments that [Khartoum] has not changed its plans and aggressive intentions against the south, and its oppressive and ethnic-cleansing policies", AFP reported.

Within the Cotonou framework, two grant allocations totalling some 155 million euros (about $136 million) are envisaged for Sudan from the 9th European Development Fund, according to the EC statement of 31 January.

For the next five years, 135 million euros (about $118.4 million) have been allocated for development operations, with a view to reducing poverty, it said; another 20 million euros (about $17.5 million) is potentially available for emergency assistance, debt relief initiatives and measures to mitigate the adverse effects of instability in export earnings.

The EU's decision to plan closer ties with Sudan without signposting clear expectations on Khartoum's commitment to peace was recently decried by John Prendergast, co-director for Africa of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The EU had "shot its bolt" by announcing that Sudan could expect to join Cotonou, work towards normalised relations and secure access to debt relief (something for which Khartoum was desperate - having a heavy debt overhang as a result of forward spending against anticipated oil revenues), Prendergast told a recent briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

In this regard, the EU had shown "unbelievably bad timing" and appeared to have indicated that it would tread its own path, when what was needed was a serious, coordinated international effort "to create leverage for a serious peace process", Prendergast said.

The EU would do better to address the key issue - a comprehensive peace - and focus its constructive engagement with Khartoum on "peace process benchmarks" to achieve that, rather than on individual issues which did not necessarily contribute to that overarching goal, he added.

Prendergast had it wrong in relation to the EU and Sudan, because the European statement had outlined conditionalities, the EU was still engaged in a political dialogue with the Khartoum government and had not restored its development assistance, Xavier Marchal informed IRIN on Monday.

For its part, the European Commission stated on 31 January that the amounts in development assistance envisaged for Sudan were "indicative" and not "entitlements", and that they could be revised subject to Sudan's needs and performance. Those figures would also be "substantially increased by releasing Sudan's unused allocations from previous funds", it said.

The EC would not be pursuing the normalisation of relations with Sudan in isolation but in parallel with continuing political dialogue, the progress of which would be evaluated by the end of this year, it said.

"Disappointing results in this area could have a negative impact on the expected resumption of our partnership under Cotonou, but early indications [for example, the government's signing of a local cease-fire agreement with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the Nuba Mountains area of Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan] were "encouraging," it added.