From Volume 37, Issue 19 of EIR Online, Published May 14, 2010
Africa News Digest

Egypt Supports Sudan Sovereignty, Urges Unity as January Referendum Approaches

May 10 (EIRNS)—Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit called for the unity of Sudan in a press conference yesterday in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, after he met President Omar al-Bashir and Sudanese officials, in an effort to counter the British imperial financial cartel's effort to break up Sudan. He stated that "Egypt is in favour of the unity of Sudan as a part of Africa and a member of the African Union. We will do everything in our power to save the unity of Sudan." A referendum on Southern Sudan's independence is scheduled for January 2011.

Abul Gheit is in Sudan with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. They congratulated al-Bashir on his election victory. Later that day, they left for Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where they met South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit, and congratulated him for winning the presidency of South Sudan.

Abul Gheit said in Khartoum that Egypt will continue to support development projects in the South to encourage citizens there "to support unity."

In his press conference, Abul-Gheit stated that in his talks in Khartoum, Egypt proposed a conference in Cairo between the Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the South's ruling party, the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), "to support unity," according to today's Sudan Tribune. He again emphasized, however, that Egypt will respect the choice of the South in the 2011 referendum.

The British empire is playing the water issue against Egypt and Sudan. Because the two nations have been denied nuclear power for water desalination, reliance on the Nile for water is a critical issue. A 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan reserved 55.5 billion cubic meters of water per year for Egypt, and 18.5 billion cubic meters for Sudan, which together reportedly amounts to 87% of the river's water. Other Nile basin states want to make a new water-sharing agreement that would allow them more for irrigation and water projects.

Because of the contentious relationship deliberately created by the British between North and South during the period of British control of Sudan, an independent South Sudan could complicate a diplomatic solution to the Nile issue, although the South receives most of Sudan's rainfall. The British policy kept the South isolated from the North, and thus it was even less developed, and had lower levels of education than the North.

Abul Gheit said in Khartoum that Sudan and Egypt are ready to continue discussions with other countries, and to cooperate to reach a final agreement that will satisfy all the Nile Basin Initiative countries. In April, Egyptian Presidents Hosni Mubarak and al-Bashir sent messages to the heads of the other Nile Basin states, seeking to keep the door open for a new round of negotiations, and to head off a unilateral agreement by the other Nile Basin nations. After the messages were sent out, Egyptian Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab said that "the River Nile provides Egypt with 95% of the country's water needs."

Va. Congressman Wolf Joins British Rice-ists, Demanding Balkanization of Sudan

May 6 (EIRNS)—Virginia Republican Congressman Frank Wolf yesterday launched a campaign to make United States policy toward Sudan much more hostile, so that the United States would play the leading role in implementing the British imperial financial cartel's plan to split up Sudan. He said that Obama's special envoy, Gen. Scott Gration, "has failed to recognize the true nature of Bashir and the NCP."

He approvingly cited the Washington Post, which in an editorial said that Bashir can't be trusted. He also cited John Prendergast, who hates the Sudan government and is a leader of the "Enough" movement. Wolf called for U.S. Sudan policy to be run by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the anglophile U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, who is also a long-time hater of the Sudan government, and advocate of secession of South Sudan.

Yesterday, in his statement and in a press conference, Wolf made the following policy recommendations: that the United States move forward with military collaboration with South Sudan; not recognize the recent elections; make clear that the United States "will honor the outcome of the referendum [for independence for South Sudan] and will ensure its implementation"; begin assisting South Sudan in building support for the outcome of the referendum; appoint an ambassador or envoy to South Sudan.

Wolf cited Rice's attack on Sudan for not being willing to fully engaged in the peace process.

At the end of his press conference, Wolf paraphrased Sudan-basher Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "If President Obama is ever going to find his voice on Sudan, it had better be now."

Wolf has been a long-time active member of the British anti-Sudan government faction inside the U.S. Congress. Wolf previously worked against Sudan in collaboration with Baroness Caroline Cox, a high-level British Intelligence operative deployed against the government of President Bashir. Her organization, Christian Solidarity International (CSI), also linked to Wolf, in the 1990s bilked contributors out of millions of dollars, in an alleged slavery redemption program in Southern Sudan, until it was later exposed as a fraud, by admissions of CSI officials themselves, and shut down.

The whole operation was a deceit, in which some played the role of slave owners, and said they were selling slaves, who turned out not to be slaves at all. It was just a money-making con-job, in which many gullible Americans, and others, were fleeced. A small amount of the money went to the fake slave traders and fake slaves, while the lion's share went to Southern Sudanese commanders and other anti-government figures. After the exposé, Cox split from CSI and formed her own operation, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, in 1997.

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