Africa News Digest
Washington Post Demands Invasion of Sudan
The Aug. 1 Washington Post lead editorial is a demand for immediate military intervention in Sudandescribed as a "UN peacekeeping force." "Sudan's government is responsible" for everything happening in Darfur province, the Post editors lie. The unsigned editorial dismisses Sudan's sovereignty, citing Henry Kissinger's statements that the Treaty of Westphalia system has to be scrapped; claim that American public opinion might be for intervention (reporting a poll of only 800 Americans), and dismiss any danger of a backlash among other southwest Asian nations by saying that Egypt merely fears the "democratization effect" of alleged human rights actions in Sudan. The Post again goes on record supporting the Cheney-Blair imperial doctrine.
Neo-Con Fascists Want Regime Change in Sudan
Neo-con warmonger William Kristol, the chickenhawk editor of the Weekly Standard, campaigned for a regime change in Sudan, at an Aug. 6 American Enterprise Institute seminar entitled "Sudan: Genocide, Terrorism, and America's National Interest." Speaking alongside John Prendergast (International Crisis Group), Ronald Sandee (Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands in The Hague), and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Kristol repeatedly said that if we cannot modify the Khartoum regime, then "one wonders if regime change shouldn't be the policy," but we must keep the sending of U.S. troops as the "ultimate threat."
Frank Wolf, the featured speaker, showed a film taken by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) in Sudan, which allegedly shows the burning of villages and raping of African women by the Janjaweed militia in the Darfur region of Sudan. Wolf insisted that the Administration must officially label the conflict in Darfur as "genocide."
Kristol ranted that Bush Administration cannot allow itself to be perceived as soft on Sudan in the months ahead, either because of the November election, or because things in Iraq proved more difficult than anticipated.
Prendergast, who opened the event, praised the effectiveness of the last three U.S. Presidents, for having successfully increased pressure on Sudan for its alleged sponsorship of terrorism, but that little has been done to stop Khartoum's so-called policy of genocide. Prendergast refused to call for "U.S. boots on the ground" in Sudan, and praised President Bush for the peace process in the South, but "we have to stop barking and start bitinghard." He advocated locating and freezing assets of Sudanese companies.
Sandee attempted to show that Sudan has always supported terrorism since the Muslim Brotherhood was created in 1956, and Al-Turabi has always been its leader.
Egypt, UN Intervene To Stop 'Implosion' of Sudan
Foreign intervention into Sudan would create "an implosion," according to Mursi Attallah, editor-in-chief of the semi-official Egyptian daily, Al-Ahram Al-Massai, AFP reported Aug. 1.
AFP added, "Mustafa Allawi, a political analyst at Cairo University, agreed that any such intervention 'would turn Sudan into a new breeding ground for terrorism and instability in the region.' "
Egypt has begun airlifting food, tents, vaccines, medicine, ambulances, and a medical team into Darfur in C-130 cargo planes, according to AP Aug. 2.
In addition, the UN World Food Program began air-dropping food into Darfur. WFP headquarters in Rome said Aug. 2 that it expects the air-supply effort will exceed in size the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. However, the WFP office in Nairobi said that 50 metric tons of food being carried by truck to Nyala in Darfur were highjacked July 29 by armed men who said they belonged to the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
Sudan Army Says It Will Fight UN Troops
"The Security Council resolution about the Darfur issue is a declaration of war on the Sudan and its people," Armed Forces spokesman Gen. Mohamed Beshir Suleiman told the official Al Anbaa daily, Aug. 2. "The Sudanese army is now prepared to confront the enemies of the Sudan on land, sea, and air," he said. Suleiman claimed the 30-day deadline set in the July 30 UN resolution was "a preparatory period" for war against Sudan and that his country was "being targetted by foreign powers."
Khartoum Willing To Share Power, Resources with Darfur
The Sudanese government has reportedly said it is willing to share power and resources with Darfur, and called for genuine negotiations with the rebels. Information Minister Al-Zhawi Ibrahim Malik told AFP in an Aug. 3, "We are ready to reach an agreement as we have done in resolving the conflict in southern Sudan." referring to the Kenyan peace talks with the SPLA.
Malik, a former mines minister, noted that foreign firms had found oil, and copper and uranium deposits in Darfur, creating a potentially strong resource base for any autonomous administration in the region. He said the "United Nations and the African Union should force" the Darfur rebels to the negotiating table if necessary.
Asked about UN demands for disarming the Janjaweed militia, Malik said that under an agreement struck with Secretary General Kofi Annan last month, it would be "carried out simultaneously with the confinement to camp of the rebels under the supervision of an African force." "As soon as this coordinated operation begins, we will resume contact with the tribes to disarm them," he said.
"We will be able to buy back from them the weapons they bought to defend themselves," he said, warning that the government would deal with "extreme severity with those who refused to hand over their weapons."
Malik said that conditions in Darfur were already improving, with some displaced persons returning to their homes. "Two camps, near Nyala and near Gineina, which held 27,000 and 32,000 people, respectively, are now empty, and other camps are 60% empty," he claimed.
Malik said the government was prepared to deploy up to 12,000 police to Darfur if necessary to assure security for the returnees, more than doubling the current numbers.
Huge Demonstration in Khartoum vs. Foreign Intervention
More than 100,000 Sudanese rallied in Khartoum Aug. 3 against foreign intervention. The demonstration, backed by the government, carried signs saying, "Darfur will be a foreign graveyard." BBC reported that the show of popular support would strengthen the government, several members of which, at the ministerial level, took part. Demonstrators went to the UN building, and presented a memorandum to the UN envoy, demanding Kofi Annan apologize for misleading statements he has made about the crisis in Sudan.
Sudan Opposes Foreign Forces, Organized by Anglo-Americans
Sudan's ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Usman El-Said, charged in an Addis Ababa press conference July 31 that, "The Eritrean government has been and is training Sudan's young Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) fighters." He added, "Quite recently, the Eritrean government pressured the rebel leadership not to fly to Addis Ababa to attend the July 15 peace talks, when the U.S. had already sent an aircraft to pick them up." The government of Eritrea was one of the first to join Washington's Coalition of the Willing against Iraq.
Meanwhile, the governor of Kassala Province in Eastern Sudan unmasked a sabotage plan supported by Eritrea. Gov. Farouk Hassan Nour stated that the sabotage plan envisioned cutting Sudan's national highway, blowing up its main pipeline in eastern Sudan, and perhaps attacking its port. He said that his province was fully mobilized, and considers eastern Sudan a hostile front. The Sudanese army is ready, he went on, to confront any sabotage by the Beja Congress and the Free Lions Association (a faction of Beja rebels), which are supported by Eritrea.
In a broader attack on Sudan, the African Union (AU) says it may send troops to Darfur. "The AU plans to increase the troop strength of its protection force for Darfur from 300 to 2,000, with Nigeria and Rwanda offering to send 1,000 troops each," AU spokesman Adam Thiam told Reuters Aug. 4. The force's mission could also be broadened from protecting ceasefire observers to a wider peacekeeping role, if given official AU approval.
Discussions with Nigeria and Rwanda, the only African nations that have confirmed that they will contribute troops, "are very advanced," he said, adding that the force "is evolving into a mission to maintain peace ... with probable logistical support from the United States." The role of the new force will be "to protect (AU) observers and civilians returning to their homes," he said, but there is no sign that Sudan accepts the mission.
U.S. Special Forces Sent to Hunt Al-Qaeda in Sudan
U.S. Special Forces have been sent into Sudan, allegedly to hunt down al-Qaeda terrorists, the London Telegraph reported Aug. 1. Al-Qaeda has allegedly reestablished secret training camps in remote mountain ranges in the northeastern quarter of the country. The men, who are thought to take orders from Saudi Arabia's most wanted man, Saleh Awfi, have reportedly taken refuge in at least three locations in the Jebel Kurush mountains, which run parallel to the Red Sea coast of Sudan. The Telegraph cited an American Delta Force officer, who recently spent a week in Sudan.
Awfi went to Sudan in the early 1990s, according to the Telegraph, then to Afghanistan, and last year, to Iraq, before the war. Now back in Saudi Arabia, he emerged as the local al-Qaeda leader earlier this summer.
Western diplomats in Saudi Arabia cited by the Telegraph, said that the new Sudanese camps, which were established in the last nine months, have become a vital staging ground for al-Qaeda. "There is significant traffic from these camps to the peninsula across the Red Sea," one said. "There is no real Sudanese government or army control over the mountains. The terrorists slip through the cracks, up into the hills where they can train, rest, and build up the spirit of jihad."
Sudan has resisted western and Saudi Arabian pressure for it to deploy an army battalion in the area where the al-Qaeda are said to be. It has, however, allowed small teams of American soldiers to pass into the country as part of official visits, such as last month's trip by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. A team of five Special Forces soldiers broke off from the Powell entourage for a week-long mission in the Kurush mountains, where aerial surveillance had established a list of villages where suspicious activity had been detected.
France Deploys Troops to Chad-Sudan Border
France is deploying 200 soldiers to help secure the border that Chad shares with Sudan, and to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Darfur, French Ambassador to Chad Jean Pierre Bercot told BBC Aug. 1. France has about 1,000 troops in Chad, who until now, have been promoting stability and training Chadian forces for peacekeeping.
Ambassador Bercot told the BBC: "The French government and President Chirac wanted our troops here in Chad to assist the African Union in its observation role, as well as in securing the area on the Chadian side of the border." In response to a question on whether French troops would engage the Janjaweed if they crossed the border, he said that for the time being, the French contingent would remain inside Chad. He stressed that the French troops would work alongside Chadian forces "with the complete authority and co-operation" of the Chad government.
The French military presence adds to the impression that the rest of the world is becoming more willing to take action over Darfur, BBC commented.
Belarus Offers Farm, Oil Technologies to Sudan
Belarus has offered agricultural and oil technologies to Sudan, Reuters reported July 28. "The President of Sudan has noted that his country needs new technologies and needs new economic sites to be built. Belarus is ready to take part," said President Alexander Lukashenko July 28, during talks with Sudanese President Umar Hassan al-Bashir. According to Reuters, "Belarus has proposed sales of tractors and farm equipment, and Lukashenko said that if both sides moved quickly, good results on a deal could be achieved within 18 months. It has also suggest helping to develop Sudan's oil industry."
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