Khartoum reacts to Bush call for it to end war

The Sudanese government has said it will send a letter to US President George W. Bush to clarify its position after his call last Thursday, 20 June, on Khartoum to demonstrate more serious commitment to ending the Sudanese civil war.

Minister for External Relations Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said the government welcomed without reservations Bush's call for an end to the war, but was displeased that he had not touched on the need for the other warring party - the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) - to do the same.

Speaking at a public function in Washington DC, USA, Bush said there was no question that the Khartoum government had made "some useful contributions in cracking down on terror" since the 11 September events, but also that it "can and must do more".
[see Bush's remarks at: http://www.state.gov/p/af/]

"Sudan's government must understand that ending its sponsorship of terror outside Sudan is no substitute for efforts to stop war inside Sudan," Bush stated.

"Sudan's government cannot continue to talk peace but make war, must not continue to block and manipulate UN food deliveries, and must not allow slavery to persist," the US president added.

The SPLM/A stated on Monday that an Antonov bombing raid on Malual Kon, northern Bahr al-Ghazal, on Sunday morning (in which four people were allegedly killed and five more seriously injured) was intended to interrupt humanitarian assistance, and was "a blunt response" to Bush's statement.

Isma'il called on the US to direct its call for an to end the Sudanese civil war to all parties involved, and not restrict it to the government alone, the Arabic language newspaper Al-Ra'y al-Amm reported in Khartoum on Monday. He also reiterated the Sudanese government's frequently stated commitment to reaching a comprehensive ceasefire agreement.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter H Kansteiner testified at an American Congressional hearing on Sudan on 5 June that Washington was committed to pushing all the actors involved "to a serious, comprehensive and, hopefully, lasting peace process". [See: http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/rm/10925.htm]

Al-Ra'y al-Amm on Monday quoted the Sudanese presidential adviser on political affairs, Dr Qutbi al-Mahdi, as saying that Bush's statement, which was "prejudiced and biased" against Khartoum, could be understood in terms of "the magnitude of pressure being exerted on the US administration" by rightist Christian groups because of Washington's involvement in peace issues in Sudan.

Al-Mahdi insisted that relief aid was going to the victims [of the civil war] and not the government, in contrast to what he called "the rebels' usurpation of relief food and imposition of taxes on affected war victims, for whom the aid was meant".

He also took issue with Bush's reference to slavery, saying that talk of slavery was "meaningless" since international groups had refuted its existence in Sudan, the report added.

A US-led eminent persons group on slavery, abduction and forced servitude in Sudan reported in late May that "abductions of civilians and forcible recruitment by the armed forces of all sides in the war is commonplace".
[Full story]

Of particular concern, the panel said, was a pattern of abuses occurring in conjunction with attacks by pro-government militias known as murahilin on villages in areas controlled by the SPLM/A near the boundary between northern and southern Sudan.

The experts urged Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir to "take the lead in launching a campaign to make clear to all his government's firm opposition to these practices in all their forms".

Bush said on Thursday that his special envoy for peace in Sudan, John Danforth, had "made progress toward a ceasefire and improved delivery of humanitarian aid to such places as the Nuba Mountains region in Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan.

The US would continue its search for peace in Sudan, seek to end Sudan's sponsorship of terror, and would "promote human rights and the foundations of a just peace within Sudan itself".

Washington wanted all sides to "work diligently" towards peace, delivering deeds rather than mere words, Kansteiner told the US Congressional hearing on Sudan on 5 June. In this regard, he said, the government in Khartoum would have much to prove, since "the US considers the onus of ending the civil war rests squarely on the shoulders of the government".

The surest way Khartoum could now display its peaceful intentions would be to "fully collaborate with US and UN humanitarian initiatives by providing unrestricted international humanitarian access to civilians in need", Roger Winter, Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), told the same US Congressional hearing.