US agrees to relax Sudan economic sanctions – official

Nov 12, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — The United States has agreed an exemption to its economic sanctions against Sudan, lifting a ban on the delivery of US-made trains to aid the implementation of the north-south peace agreement, the Sudanese foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Lam Akol Ajawin said the sanctions issue was one of the most important topics discussed on a visit to Washington earlier this month by First Vice President and southern leader Salva Kiir.

“In spite of the renewed sanctions, we have succeeded in persuading the US officials to lift the ban on the export to the Sudan of American-made trains and locomotives,” he told reporters.

He said this was because the peace deal “requires a tremendous transportation capability which can be provided only by railways and due to the inavailibility of the spare parts, those trains are not operating at present.”

“They have promised to issue an order of exemption in this regard,” Ajawin said.

He also dismissed as “unfounded” the notion that US sanctions could be imposed only on the north and vehemently rejected reports that Kiir has been less than sincere about Sudanese unity.

“It is a unitary country run by the national unity government and therefore no part of it could be privileged over the other.”

The south is due to hold a referendum on self-determination in six years under the peace deal which ended Africa’s longest running civil war between Khartoum and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

“The truth is that Salva and all other leaders are for unity. The SPLM calls for a united Sudan based on new democratic foundations, irrespective of religious, ethnic or other considerations,” said Ajawin.

(AFP/ST)