Khartoum says it will investigate gunship attack

The Sudanese government announced on Saturday that it would investigate the helicopter attack which killed 17 people during an emergency food distribution in southern Sudan. The announcement followed the US suspension of peace talks with the Khartoum government as a result of the incident.

"The Ministry of Defence has formed a high-level commission of inquiry to investigate what happened in the Bieh region in Unity [Wahdah] State and submit its findings and recommendations quickly to the specialised quarters," the Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement broadcast on Sudan TV.

A Sudanese government helicopter gunship on Wednesday, 20 February fired six to eight rockets during an attack on a food aid distribution in the village of Bieh, western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), killing 17 people and wounding many others, according to the US State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher.

The US would suspend all negotiations with Khartoum about the Sudanese peace process until the government offered a "full and complete explanation" of what happened, he added.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said the Sudanese (government) authorities had given prior approval to the distribution of some 76 mt of food aid for 10,000 people, and that people had gathered at Bieh to receive that humanitarian relief at the time of the attack.

The US peace envoy to Sudan, John Danforth, said in an article published in the St Louis Post (in the United States) on Sunday that the attack on Bieh was part of a pattern whereby the Sudanese government said one thing and did another.

"The history of the Sudan is replete with verbal and written proposals, informal and formal agreements which have been concluded but not really implemented as stated," he said.

"Certainly, the deliberate killing of 17 civilians by a government Sudanese army gunship appears to indicate that the government is not seriously committed to peace," he added.

Danforth has been attempting to improve humanitarian access while ascertaining the seriousness of peaceful intent on the part of the Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) through their reaction to four specific proposals, or confidence-building measures, including the establishment of a monitoring system to help protect civilians from military attack.

According to Danforth, the Bieh attack occurred despite indications by the Sudanese government last week that it would accept an international mechanism to verify the protection of civilians in the Sudanese civil war.

Danforth is expected to submit a report within the next few weeks to US President George W Bush on the feasibility of the US taking an active role in efforts to bring an end to Sudan's 19-year civil war.

The Sudanese foreign ministry statement said the incident at Bieh had arisen as a result of an escalation in hostilities with rebel forces in western Upper Nile.

"In the framework of this escalation imposed on us, there have occurred some regrettable mistakes, which are not intentional, through which innocent civilians have become victims, and we promise to work hard to terminate and not repeat them," it said.

The attack at Bieh was the second clearly verified air attack on civilian targets in the oil-rich region this month. On 9 February the village of Nimne, also in western Upper Nile, was bombed by government aircraft, killing five civilians, including an employee of the international health agency Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Also on 9 February, Sudanese government aircraft attacked a food distribution site at Akuem in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, killing two children.

On that occasion, Khartoum claimed the attack had resulted from a technical error, and said it was determined to "take the necessary steps to guarantee that such unfortunate and unintentional incidents... will not be repeated".

Danforth said on Sunday that the US State Department had acted "correctly" by suspending all peace talks with Khartoum until someone was held accountable for the attacks.

"Again, words alone will not suffice. There must be action taken against those responsible, as well as measures taken to ensure that it does not happen again," he stated.