KHARTOUM, 18 July 2003 — A peace deal to end Sudan’s 20-year-old civil war could help pave the way toward normalized relations with Washington, which accuses Sudan of sponsoring terrorism, the US special envoy for Sudan said yesterday.
“I conveyed a message from (US President George W.) Bush to (Sudanese President Omar Hassan) Bashir in which Bush said he is intensely interested in the peace process in Sudan and looks for the normalization of ties with the signing of a peace agreement,” John Danforth said in a news conference.
The civil war cannot be allowed “to drag on”, Danforth said after talks with officials in Khartoum. The senator told reporters he had stressed this message to government officials and would do the same with southern rebel leader Garang.
Africa’s biggest country, which hosted Osama Bin Laden from 1991 to 1996, is one of seven states Washington has accused of sponsoring of terrorism.
Relations between Washington and Khartoum have been tense since Bashir overthrew a democratically elected government in a 1989 coup and hit a nadir in 1998 when the United States bombed a pharmaceutical factory near Khartoum, which it said was producing chemical weapons components. Sudan denied the charge.
Danforth, who has actively promoted peace moves between the government and southern rebels, also said he was “very encouraged” by the chances of ongoing peace talks. “I have been assured by the government of Sudan that it is committed to peace,” said Danforth, who has in the past questioned Sudan’s willingness to pursue peace efforts.
Danforth was in Khartoum on his way to Nairobi, where he will meet John Garang, the leader of the main rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The Khartoum government “continues to be committed to finding a peaceful settlement”, he said. “War cannot be won by either side and should be brought to a speedy end,” said Danforth. “It is important to keep the momentum (of Sudan’s peace process) going” and not allow the conflict to “drag on”.
However, Danforth said he had no specific proposal for breaking the current stalemate in peace negotiations. But he was traveling on to Nairobi for meetings with Garang and chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates beat pro-government rivals in student elections at Sudan’s oldest university for the first time in nearly a decade, a newspaper reported yesterday. Unlike past student elections, which were marred by violence between supporters and opponents of the government in Khartoum, this year’s polls were peaceful.
Students from the opposition National Democratic Alliance won a majority of votes, which granted them all seats in the 40-member student council, the government-owned daily Al-Anbaa said. An independent religious party came second and the ruling National Congress Party came third.
Students in Sudan traditionally have greater political weight than their age and numbers would suggest, and are an important barometer of public opinion. Authorities cancelled university elections in 1996 after clashes in which students burned and destroyed buildings and administration vehicles.
On war front, fighters from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) killed more than 300 Sudanese Army soldiers in a battle in North Darfur state, a leader of the rebel group told AFP. “Three hundred and two government soldiers were killed, while the SLM suffered 25 dead in its ranks in fighting in the morning northwest of the city of Kutum,” Mani Arkoi Minawi said over the telephone in Cairo.
The SLM also downed a military helicopter and seized 25 army vehicles, according to the group’s secretary general. Minawi said the attack was “revenge against the army which Wednesday torched 19 villages in the Kutum area”.
