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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Mar 25 2011 - 19:23:35 EST
Sudan allows overflights for Libya ops- diplomats
Mar 2%, 2011 9:29pm GMT
* Sudan's U.N. envoy says has no "concrete information"
* Khartoum wants to get off U.S. terrorism sponsor list
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (Reuters) - Sudan has quietly granted permission to
use its airspace to nations enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya as U.S.,
French, British and other air forces try to pummel the Libyan military,
envoys told Reuters.
The United Nations has said nearly a dozen countries have notified
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon they would be involved in the Libya operations
to protect civilians under siege in the North African state. Only two Arab
countries are on that list, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
But U.N. diplomats familiar with the coalition operations over Libya said
there were a number of countries quietly cooperating with the coalition to
enable the no-fly zone to happen. One of those countries, they said, was
Sudan.
"Sudan has given permission to use its airspace," a diplomat told Reuters
this week. Another diplomat confirmed it, adding Sudan was not alone.
It was not immediately clear what other countries were allowing the
coalition to pass through their airspace.
The news of Sudan's participation comes as Western warplanes hit military
targets deep inside Libya on Thursday but failed to prevent tanks
re-entering the western town of Misrata and besieging its main hospital.
The airstrikes are part of a U.N.-authorized military operation to prevent
forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi from attacking civilians as he
attempts to crush a rebellion in eastern Libya that has split the country in
two.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, neither confirmed nor
denied that Khartoum had granted permission to coalition air forces.
"I cannot give you concrete information on this," he told Reuters, adding he
did not believe "a final decision had been made" by his government. He did
reiterate Sudan's support for the Arab League call for a no-fly zone.
FEAR OF REPRISALS
Sudan is a member of the Arab League, which had pushed the U.N. Security
Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to halt aerial attacks by
Gaddafi's forces against rebel-held areas.
Diplomats said it was understandable that Khartoum was not flaunting its
cooperation with the coalition forces, which will help improve its battered
reputation with Washington, London and Paris. Khartoum is currently lobbying
the United States to remove it from the state sponsors of terrorism list.
Khartoum may also fear reprisals against Sudanese citizens in Libya by
Gaddafi's security forces. There are at least 500,000 Sudanese nationals in
Libya, mostly foreign workers and many from Sudan's western Darfur region,
which borders Libya's east.
There is little love between Gaddafi and Sudanese President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide
and other war crimes in Darfur.
Relations were strained between Libya and Sudan after Gaddafi agreed to
offer refuge to Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement chief Khalil
Ibrahim who had left peace talks in Qatar to return to fighting in Darfur.
Last year, Libya promised to curb any Darfur rebel attacks. [ID:nMCD576398]
Gaddafi hosted and helped insurgents early in the Darfur conflict, which
began in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing Khartoum of
neglect.
Sudan's counterinsurgency campaign drove more than 2 million Darfuris from
their homes, sparking one of the world's worst humanitarian crises that the
United Nations estimates has killed as many as 300,000 people. (Additional
reporting by Mark Hosenball and Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Opheera
McDoom in Khartoum; Editing by Peter Cooney)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
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