US pressure group urges tough line on Khartoum

A coalition of more than 100 religious and civil rights leaders in the United States has this week urged President George W Bush to take a stronger stance towards the Sudanese government and regretted that, in its efforts to secure Khartoum's cooperation in its international coalition against terrorism, the US may have gestured that it would overlook terrorism within Sudan's borders. In a letter dated Monday 19 November, they warned Bush that his efforts to forge an alliance against terrorists with Sudan could so compromise basic commitments to religious freedom and human rights that its national credibility and security would be undermined, the Washington Times newspaper reported on Wednesday. The campaigners particularly criticised Bush for having apparently prevailed upon the US Congress to put aside any work on the Sudan Peace Act, which passed the House of Representatives and had terms which would have allowed for foreign oil companies doing business in Sudan to be barred from selling shares and other securities in the United States. The Senate passed a different version of the Act in August, which did not include the stock-market sanctions. In September, the Congress [House and Senate combined] in September backed off on establishing a committee to reconcile the differences betweens the two versions of the bill and differences between the House of Representatives and the State Department over its contents. The oil industry publication 'Oil Daily' at that time quoted congressional aides as saying it would have been difficult for the US government to pass a less stringent version of the Act as this could have been perceived as a failure to impose sanctions on Sudan. Even before the 11 September terror attacks on the US but particularly in their wake, American pressure groups, including the Congressional Black Caucus and conservative Christian groups, have called for a stronger stance against Khartoum from the American administration. Since 12 September, the Sudanese government had increased its bombing of southern Sudan, the Washington Times quoted Monday's letter as saying. Its distribution was organised by Freedom House - http://www.freedomhouse.org - , the Center for Religious Freedom, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy - http://www.ird-renew.org - , the report added. "By rewarding and praising Khartoum at the very moment it is stepping up its bombing, starvation and literal enslavement of religious minorities, the US appears to be willing to tolerate religiously based internal terrorism," the letter stated. In its "International Religious Freedom Reports for 2001", released on 26 October, the US Department of State characterised Sudan as a state which showed hostility towards minority or non-approved religions. While not necessarily determined to implement a programme of control over minority religions, Sudan was nevertheless hostile to certain minority religions or to elements of religious groups identified as "security threats", it said. In this regard, it had implemented policies designed to intimidate certain religious groups, cause their adherents to convert to another faith, or cause their members to flee, it added. In Sudan, the [Islamic] government continued to restrict the activities of Christians, followers of traditional indigenous religions and some Islamic groups, according to the US report. "Non-Muslims are forbidden to proselytise, and apostasy [religious conversion] is a capital offense," it stated. See http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001 Khartoum's treatment of Islam as the state religion "contributed to an atmosphere in which non-Muslims are treated as second class citizens," according to the report. There continued to be reports that security forces harassed and arrested persons for religious beliefs and activities, though such reports had decreased in the year to the end of June 2001, it said. "Exacerbated by the civil war, the government and government-supported forces were responsible for intentional bombings of civilian targets, the burning and looting of villages, and the killings, rapes, and arbitrary arrests and detentions of civilians, most of whom were practitioners of traditional indigenous religions or Christians," the US religious freedom report stated. "The forced abduction of women and children and the taking of slaves by slave raiders supported by the government in war zones, and their transport to parts of central and northern Sudan and sometimes beyond, continued and was due in part to the victim's religious beliefs," it added. Beyond merely the private or public airing of violations, in 1999 and again in 2000, Sudan drew US censure when the Secretary of State designated it a "country of particular concern" for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act in the US mandates presidential action - including sanctions - in cases of particularly serious violations of religious freedom, although it grants considerable flexibility in deciding on the actions to take. Washington has continually raised the issue of religious freedom in Sudan in press statements and international forums, including the UN Human Rights Commission. It has also made it clear to the Khartoum government that "the problem of religious freedom is one of the key impediments to developing a more positive relationship between the country and the United States," the report added.