Sudan demands UN punish US over 1998 bombing

Sept 16, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — Sudan renewed a plea to the United Nations on Friday to punish the United States for destroying a medicine factory with cruise missiles in 1998 as part of a Washington crackdown on terrorism.

“This attack has damaged the development efforts of my country and deprived my people of basic medicines,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told a world summit on U.N. reform.

“Today, from this rostrum, we reiterate our call to the United Nations to take the necessary and just measures within the framework of international law and appeal to the international community as a whole to support this just and legitimate demand,” he said.

The Clinton administration justified the Aug. 20, 1998, attack on the Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Company on the grounds the plant was producing nerve gas ingredients. Sudan said the factory made only drugs. Seven people were wounded, one of whom died later of his injuries.

The attack followed the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed at least 226 people including 12 Americans.

The company at the time called on the U.S. government to compensate Shifa’s 326 employees and their 1,500 dependants for loss of income. Its managers denied the factory had any links with Osama bin Laden, accused by U.S. officials of masterminding the East African embassy attacks.

(Reuters)