US says it still has issues with Khartoum

The American administration appreciates the efforts Sudan has taken steps to support its battle against terrorism [suspected mastermind of the 11 September attacks on the US, Osama bin Laden, lived in Sudan from 1991 to 1996] but continues to have serious humanitarian concerns it was raising with the government, according to the US State Department. The bombing of civilian targets, among other issues, continued to be on Washington's agenda in its talks with Khartoum, according to department spokesman Richard Boucher this week. This statement followed the Khartoum government's bombings of WFP food operations to displaced people [in Mangayath, near Raga, western Bahr al-Ghazal] in southern Sudan on Friday, Saturday and Monday (5, 6 and 8 October). "Part of our search for a just peace in Sudan includes the profound concern that we have expressed before over the senseless bombing of civilian targets, the practice of slavery, denial of humanitarian access, religious discrimination and the need for a just peace," Boucher said on Tuesday. [see briefings] Asked if the bombings bore out some of the concerns of critics of allowing Sudan into the international coalition against terrorism, Boucher said: "We have seen them carry out these kinds of attacks on defenseless civilian aid workers before, so I am not sure you can actually say that they did this because there is a global coalition going on." He denied that any indication had been given that if Khartoum was with the US on the terrorism issue, it could go ahead and do whatever it wanted in the Sudanese civil war. At the same time, the US was not going to say, "We won't accept your information on terrorism unless you stop bombing civilians," Boucher said.