From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Apr 02 2009 - 07:16:49 EST
US envoy calls for stronger Sudan ties
02/04/2009
KHARTOUM (AFP) - US President Barack Obama's new envoy began a visit to
Khartoum on Thursday with an appeal for stronger relations with Sudan, whose
President Omar al-Beshir has been accused of war crimes in Darfur.
"The United States and Sudan want to be partners and so we are looking for
opportunities for us to build a stronger bilateral relationship," the newly
appointed envoy, Scott Gration, said on the first day of his visit to Sudan.
"I come here with my hands open and it would be up to the Sudanese
government to determine how they want to continue with that relationship.
Hopefully it will be with hands open and friendship," he told a news
conference.
The retired air force general arrived in Khartoum early Thursday for a
week-long visit, a month after an international arrest warrant was issued
against Beshir for war crimes committed in the western Sudanese region.
Beshir expelled 13 international aid groups from Darfur after the
International Criminal Court issued the warrant for him on March 4.
Obama, speaking after meeting with his special envoy on Monday, said he
hoped to find a way for humanitarian workers to resume their work in Darfur.
"We have to figure out a mechanism to get those NGOs back in place, to
reverse that decision, or to find some mechanism whereby we avert an
enormous humanitarian crisis," Obama said.
International aid agencies distribute food, offer medical aid and provide
access to water to some 2.7 million people displaced by the civil war in
Darfur.
The Sudanese president remained defiant about his government's decision to
expel the aid agencies from Darfur in response to the ICC arrest warrant.
"In one year we will Sudanise all the aid on the ground and we can fill the
gap in food distribution within one year because the Sudanese Red Crescent
already distributes 45 percent of the food in Darfur," Beshir said during a
visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
On his Khartoum visit, Gration is due to meet with senior officials from the
foreign ministry and could possibly meet Beshir, a foreign ministry
spokesman said.
"The US embassy told us clearly that (Gration) was here to listen. We don't
expect him to come with a plan," Ali Sadiq told AFP.
Gration is expected to visit Darfur over the weekend.
Obama had said that his envoy was to try to kickstart discussions between
rebels and the government in order to reach a solution to the Darfur
conflict, where 300,000 lives have been lost since 2003 and more than two
million people displaced.
Sudan puts the death toll from the six-year war at only 10,000.
The Darfur question has garnered much attention in the United States, where
groups like "Save Darfur" are pushing for a solution to the crisis.
The Sudanese government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)
signed an agreement in Doha in February aimed at holding peace talks, but
JEM has indicated that it would back out if Khartoum does not authorise the
return of the aid agencies.
Gration is also expected to visit Juba, the capital of south Sudan and
Abyei, the oil-rich area between north and south Sudan where fighting last
year threatened a return to Sudan's two-decade civil war which only ended
with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.
Sudanese-US relations have been strained since the mid-90s.
The US had accused Sudan of harbouring Al-Qaeda members and in 1997 imposed
sanctions against the country before launching a missile strike on Khartoum
one year later.
Copyright C 2009 AFP.
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