News Article by THE EAST AFRICAN posted on October 07, 2000 at 04:02:55: EST (-5 GMT)
US Tells Africa To Dump Sudan for Mauritius in UN
The East African (Nairobi)
October 5, 2000
Kevin J. Kelley Special
Correspondent
Nairobi
The United States is intensively lobbying Kenya and other key
African
states to reverse their support for Sudan's bid to win a seat on the
United
Nations Security Council.
Sudan was nominated as the sub-Saharan region's candidate for the
seat
at the Organisation of African Unity's (OAU) summit in Togo in
July.
Support for Sudan was said to be unanimous, but there were reports
of
concerted behind-the-scenes debates in the OAU regarding
Sudan's
suitability for the prestigious two-year post.
Washington announced in early September that it would attempt to
block
Khartoum's confirmation by the UN General Assembly, which is
expected
to act on the issue in the next few weeks.
"Until Sudan addresses international human-rights and counter-
terrorism
concerns," said State Department spokesman Mr. Richard Boucher, "it
is
difficult to see how the government of Sudan could be an effective voice
for
Africa or play an effective role in the Security Council."
Boucher's remarks were followed by face-to-face efforts by Secretary
of
State Madeleine Albright to persuade African foreign ministers to
switch
their support from Sudan to Mauritius. Dr Albright raised the matter
in a
series of talks that took place during the UN's Millennium Summit in
New
York in mid-September.
US officials say that several of the 14 nations that belong to
Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC) have privately agreed to back
its
member, Mauritius.
But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir insists that his country's
candidacy
continues to be favoured by countries all over the continent.
"The US has
failed in dissuading Arab and African nations from supporting
the nomination
of Sudan to Security Council membership," Mr. Bashir said
two weeks ago.
Washington's diplomatic drive against Khartoum contradicts hints of
a
developing rapprochement between the two long-time antagonists.
American
officials let it be known a few months ago, for example, that the
US was
considering reopening its embassy in Khartoum, which had its
operations moved
to Nairobi four years ago due to what the US described
as security concerns.
Moves to unfreeze relations may not resume until after the US
presidential
elections in November. That is also when the Security Council
is
scheduled to take up a proposal to lift the sanctions it imposed
against
Sudan in 1996. But Sudan will not take part in that scheduled
November
debate regardless of whether it wins General Assembly approval for
a
non-permanent seat on the 15-member Security Council.
The post in question is currently held by Namibia, whose two-year
term
does not expire until the end of this year. The United States cites the
UN's
sanctions as a key reason why Sudan should not be permitted to hold
one
of the 10 rotating seats on the Council.
Washington also points out that Sudan government forces have bombed
UN
relief sites in the south of the country.
The State Department and the US Congress have repeatedly
condemned
Khartoum's conduct of its 17-year-long war against rebels in the
south. Up
to two million people are estimated to have been killed in the
fighting, in
attacks on civilians, and because of war-related starvation.
Relations between the US and Sudan hit rock bottom in August 1998
when
American cruise missiles destroyed a factory in Khartoum. The attack
was
said to be in retaliation for the factory's links to Osama bin Laden,
the
exiled Saudi whom the US had accused of masterminding the East
Africa
embassy bombings earlier that same month.
US officials have had to backtrack, however, in their explanations for
why
the factory was hit. Initially, the CIA claimed that the plant was
involved in
producing an agent that could be used to manufacture nerve gas.
But US
intelligence officials now acknowledge that the factory did
make
pharmaceutical products, as the Sudan government had claimed all along.
Washington also now accepts that there are no links between bin Laden
and
Salah Idris, the factory's owner, who is seeking $50 million
compensation
from the US government for the attack.