Sudan's 18-year war getting U.S. attention

["Yunan" <yunan@tiscalinet.it>]

News Article by AP posted on March 09, 2001 at 04:56:30: EST (-5 GMT)

Sudan's 18-year war getting U.S. attention

By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2001 (AP) -- The Bush administration is turning a
spotlight on one of the world's most sorrowful conflicts the grinding,
18-year-old war
in Sudan.

Secretary of State Colin Powell was meeting Friday with senior State
Department
officials to talk about crafting a U.S. policy for ending a war long
accompanied by
starvation, disease, the taking of slaves and egregious human rights abuses
by both
sides. An estimated 2 million people have died.

''There is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the Earth today than
the tragedy
that is unfolding in the Sudan,'' Powell told a congressional panel this
week.

In office only five weeks, Powell said he set aside time to focus solely on
Sudan to
help him understand the complex mix of issues driving the conflict in
Africa's largest
country.

He promised that ending the war ''will be a priority.''

Powell was answering a question from Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who had
just
introduced legislation that would condemn Sudan for abuses, authorize U.S.
resources
to pursue peace and require President Bush to report on oil revenues that
finance the
war.

A similar bill passed the House last year but was not considered in the
Senate. This
year a bill has been introduced in each chamber.

''America must not continue to turn a blind eye to the atrocities in
Sudan,'' Tancredo
said.

There is no shortage of suggestions on what the administration should do in
Sudan,
where allegations of rape, torture of civilians and forced recruitment of
children are
common.

Washington's private Center for Strategic and International Studies recently
recommended the United States organize a new peace effort in Sudan and
enlist
Norway, Britain or others to help. It noted that two competing initiatives
by Sudan's
neighbors have not worked.

And the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is planning soon
to add
recommendations to some made last year.

Sudan has been at war for most of the 45 years since independence from
Britain in
1956. Civil war first broke out in 1955 when rebels seeking secession for
the south
took up arms against the government. A shaky peace reached in 1972 ended
that
conflict but war broke out again in 1983 when rebels of the Sudan People's
Liberation
Army began fighting for autonomy and a larger share of national wealth for
the south.

Religion also figures in the war, which pits the government in the Sudan's
predominantly Muslim North against a South populated mostly by people
following
indigenous religions. About 5 percent of the population is Christian,
according to U.S.
data.

With reports of government bombings of churches, relief stations and other
civilian
buildings, the commission for religious freedom recommended a comprehensive
12-
month U.S. effort. It said the Bush administration should step up diplomatic
efforts
and pressure the government for an end to abuses. If that's unsuccessful
after a year, it
said, the U.S. government should give non-lethal aid to the South for roads,
bridges
and other necessities.

On another recommendation, the Clinton administration started giving more
aid to
independent charities working in southern Sudan rather than channeling it
through the
U.N. relief program, said Lawrence Goodrich, spokesman for the commission on
religious freedom.

The U.N. program is sometimes manipulated by the warring parties under an
agreement that either the government or rebels may veto relief flight plans,
Goodrich
said, adding such vetoes have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The United States is the largest donor to Sudanese relief operations. Since
1983, it has
spent more than $1.5 billion, some aid going to civilians in
government-controlled
areas but most to areas held by or fought over by rebels.

Sudan has been under U.S. sanctions since 1997 because the U.S. government
says it
sponsors international terrorism.

President Clinton froze Sudanese government assets in the United States and
barred
most U.S.-Sudanese trade and most U.S. investments there.

''What we didn't see was the White House and State Department with a
comprehensive plan saying, 'This is awful and it's got to stop,''' Goodrich
said.