Sudan’s president praises the U.S. for its role in peace process
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Oct 08, 2003 (AP) — Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir praised the United States on Wednesday for help in achieving peace in his country, which is working on an accord between the Muslim north and largely Christian south.
U.S. officials have suggested that a peace deal would lead to Sudan’s removal from Washington’s list of terrorist states. Retired U.S. Gen. Carl Fulford was to travel to Sudan for talks with rebel leaders and government officials.
“We would like to praise the role played by the United States of America in the peace negotiations and its keenness to affirm that peace can’t be imposed by force or pressure,” el-Bahir told the ruling National Congress Party on Wednesday.
Fighting broke out in Sudan in1983 after Christian and animist rebels in the south took up arms in hopes of gaining greater autonomy from the largely Arab and Muslim government to the north. At least 2 million people have died, mainly due to famine and disease exacerbated by war.
The latest peace process began in July 2002 when the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army reached the Machakos Protocol, under which the government accepted the right of southerners to self-determination through a referendum after six years. In turn, the rebels accepted the maintenance of Islamic law, or Shariah, in the north.
El-Bashir said Wednesday Sudan is looking for “a healthy and sound relationship with the U.S.” adding that the U.S. as a superpower should reconsider its position toward international peace in the Arab, African and Islamic world.
“We would like to underline here that our Arab and Islamic world have no enmity or hatred whatsoever against any one, but we are keen to preserve our religious values and our cultural identity without fundamentalism, violence or terrorism.” El-Bashir added.
El-Bashir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989, imposed an Islamic government, but started to open up in the late ’90s.
In the early ’90s, Islamic extremists such as Osama bin Laden found a haven in Sudan. In 1993 Sudan was added to the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism. In 1996, U.N. sanctions were imposed for Sudan’s alleged role in a failed Muslim extremist plot a year earlier to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in May that an end to the civil war would resolve many long-standing issues with Sudan — a hint that a peace breakthrough could lead to Sudan’s removal from the terrorism list.