-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
Sudan refuses to stop civilian bombing U.S. envoy got some concessions but major obstacle to peace remains ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- By Art Moore � 2002 WorldNetDaily.com Humanitarian bases and civilians in southern Sudan will continue to be the bombing targets of Khartoum's militant Islamic regime, despite the efforts of U.S. special envoy John Danforth, who left the country this week. The former U.S. senator, sent to help prepare a path for ending more than 18 years of civil war, said he had made progress on three other "confidence-building" proposals put before Khartoum and the opposition Sudan People's Liberation Movement. The reaction from Sudan observers is mixed, according to Paul Marshall, a senior scholar at the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House in Washington, D.C. Halting the government's bombing of civilian targets, including hospitals, is an essential step toward peace, Marshall told WorldNetDaily. "Danforth is coming back and saying we've got three out of four, but the fourth is a big one," he said. "You've got some people thinking, 'Oh, Danforth's selling out,' and others saying there is some momentum right now." In any case, "there is a lot of diplomatic energy," said Marshall, noting also that U.S. and Swiss-brokered cease-fire talks are underway in Switzerland. "Which way it will fall out, I'm not sure." Danforth, who agreed that not ceasing the bombing is a major obstacle, said progress has been made on the issues of humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains, establishing areas and times of safety in which humanitarian assistance can be given and bringing an end to the slave trade. Khartoum insists it must continue to bomb civilian areas because the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army intentionally has established its operations among the people. The rebels of southern Sudan, a mostly Christian and animist region, are fighting for autonomy from the radical National Islamic Front regime, which aims to impose Islamic law on the entire country. Since 1983 about 2 million people have died from the fighting and war-related famine. This week, a missionary base in southern Sudan that has endured 10 aerial bomb attacks in the past two years by the government army reported that it was robbed at gunpoint by "renegade elements" of the rebel SPLA. South Africa-based Frontline Fellowship, a Protestant mission, says its personnel have been threatened by the soldiers, who have stolen valuable equipment from the mission's facilities, which include a school and health clinic. Many hospitals have been targeted by Khartoum bombers, including facilities run by U.S.-based Samaritan's Purse, a Christian aid group run by Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham. "The Government of Sudan just continues to demonstrate that they are a terrorist nation," Graham said in a statement responding to several attacks in March 2000 that resulted in casualties. A broad-based movement in the U.S. that includes many religious groups, called the Sudan Coalition, is pressing Congress to ban from U.S. markets companies that cooperate with Khartoum. Critics of the Islamic regime charge that it is using oil revenues, gained through foreign investment and trade, to fuel its military campaign against the south. The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution in 1999 stating that "the National Islamic Front government is deliberately and systematically committing genocide in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Ingressa Hills." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26117 Saturday January 19 9:32 AM ET Sudan, Rebels Agree to Cease-Fire By NAOMI KOPPEL, Associated Press Writer BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland (AP) - The government of Sudan and rebels fighting in the southern part of the country signed a cease-fire agreement Saturday for the disputed Nuba Mountains region. The six-month renewable agreement calls for the cessation of hostilities within 72 hours. An international monitoring unit of military and civilian personnel from Western Europe and North America will oversee the maintenance of the cease-fire. The rebels have been fighting for autonomy for southern Sudan, demanding the Islamic government in Khartoum allow religious freedom for southerners who are mostly Christian or follow traditional beliefs. More than 2 million people have died in fighting and related famines since 1983. The agreement was reached under the mediation of American and Swiss negotiators in the Alpine resort of Buergenstock, overlooking Lake Lucerne. ``Today is an important day for the people of the Nuba Mountains, and hopefully an important day for the Sudan,'' said Josef Bucher, Swiss head of the negotiating team. Nutris Siddig, head of the Sudanese government delegation, and Abdal Azis Adam El Hilu, head of the delegation from the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, signed copies of the agreement at a ceremony Saturday, and then shook hands to loud applause from their delegations. ``We are grateful to God Almighty that a lifelong dream has come true,'' said Siddig. ``We feel like telling the whole world that we are cut for peace and we are peace lovers, that we have a great country and great people.'' El Hilu promised that his side would ``uphold the letter and spirit of this agreement.'' ``I hope the government of Sudan will for once do likewise. The full implementation of this agreement will act as a cornerstone for peace.'' The parties said that the agreement would open the way for relief and rebuilding programs to start in the Nuba Mountains, which have been ravaged by one of the longest civil wars in Africa. Laying of mines will be prohibited, and both sides will work to remove existing mines and repair and reopen roads. They also agreed to give ``immediate and unhindered access'' to the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure the well-being of detainees on both sides. More than 2 million people are estimated to have died in fighting and related famines in Sudan's 18-year civil war. The SPLA draws support from southern Sudan, where the animist and Christian population resents rule by the Muslim-dominated north. The rebels are seeking autonomy, and possible independence, for the south. The Buergenstock talks stemmed from the initiative of U.S. envoy John Danforth, a former senator from Missouri assigned by President George W. Bush (news - web sites) to seek a peace settlement. The Bush administration has separated the peace efforts from Sudan's perceived role as a haven for Islamic radicals and speculation that the country might be on a list of U.S. targets after Afghanistan (news - web sites). The United States hit a Sudanese factory with missiles in 1998 in response to the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The Bush administration has maintained sanctions against Sudan, which for years has been on the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Recently, however, Sudan has given signs of cooperating with Washington. Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the Saudi national accused by the United States of masterminding the terrorist attacks, lived in Sudan in the 1990s until he moved to Afghanistan after being expelled in 1996. The conflict zone touches on an area being developed by a wide range of oil companies ranging from China to Canada. The U.S. oil company Chevron pulled out of Sudan in 1984, largely because of insecurity, after carrying out extensive explorations in the south. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020119/ts/sudan_talks_4.html *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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