US accused of “deliberate offence”

The government of Sudan has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit by a US diplomat to southern Sudan. The letter, sent to the Security Council by Sudanese Minister of External Relations Mustafa Uthman Isma’il, said the visit by Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice violated “the domestic laws and international norms that govern the movement of persons between states”. It said that, without an official visa, the visit was “incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations and all the domestic and international enactments that regulate... the movement of persons”.

Protesting against the visit to rebel-held areas in southern Sudan, the letter said the move was made while Sudan was hosting a regional summit for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), at which Sudan peace talks were at the top of the agenda. The US timing was “irresponsible” and deliberately chosen to cause offence, the letter said. The bulk of the letter to the Security Council emphasised allegations by the government of Sudan that the US government was supporting the southern-based Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). It stressed “the Sudan’s repeated assertions that the United States was biased, that it was providing the rebel movement with financial and logistic support and that it was, therefore, unfit to play the role of mediator in the efforts to bring about peace”.