Khartoum calls on Washington not to fund NDA

The Sudanese government has asked the United States of America to cancel financial assistance earmarked for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the name of maintaining its neutrality on the war in the country, Sudanese media and international news agencies reported this week. The US State Department reached agreement on a proposal to deliver some US $3 million in logistical support for the NDA (a coalition of northern political parties and southern groups, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, SPLM/A), opposed to the government) back in May, the Washington Post newspaper reported on 25 May. The US administration of George W. Bush [which regards Sudan as "a military dictatorship with pro-government parliament"] would provide funding for office space, radios, staff and training to strengthen the NDA's ability to engage in peace negotiations with the government, it said, citing government sources. The $3 million support, initially approved by the Clinton administration, was separate from the $10 million in assistance the US Congress approved in 2000 for the SPLM/A, the report added. "This [proposed] financial assistance casts doubt on the neutrality of the US administration towards the parties in dispute in Sudan," AFP news agency (citing the Sudanese daily Al-Ra'y al-Amm) quoted presidential peace adviser Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani as saying. "The assistance would possibly increase the factors of war and confrontation" in the country, where an estimated two million people had died from war-related events since 1983, the Associated Press agency quoted Atabani as saying. On 6 September, President Bush appointed former Senator John Danforth as his special envoy for peace in Sudan, as part of a renewed effort to find peace and promote development in the country. During a visit to Sudan in November, Danforth presented four proposals to the government and SPLM/A as "tests of good faith" on their interest in peace, which would also improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations. The proposals cover: humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains; a cessation of bombing and artillery attacks on civilians; zones of tranquillity and times of tranquillity in which humanitarian assistance can be offered, especially for immunisations; and an end to the taking of slaves. Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir said at the weekend that his government was "extremely enthusiastic" about renewed American peace efforts, but that the four confidence-building measures proposed were "not basic issues [for ending the war], but... questions in which US public opinion is interested". Danforth is due to return to Sudan this month to gauge progress on the government and the SPLM/A's commitment to and implementation of his four proposals.