New Mexico Gov to seek release of US journalist in Sudan

Sept 06, 2006 (SANTA FE, N.M.) — Gov. Bill Richardson will travel to Sudan on Thursday to seek the release of arrested American journalist Paul Salopek, his office announced.

The governor plans to meet with Sudanese President President Omar al-Bashir and ask for the release of Salopek, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, his driver and interpreter. They were arrested last month in the war-torn region of Darfur.

Salopek, who has a home in Columbus in southern New Mexico, was charged with espionage, passing information illegally, writing “false news” and entering the African country without a visa.

Pahl Shipley, a spokesman for Richardson, said Wednesday that Salopek’s wife, Linda, will accompany Richardson on the trip to Khartoum. Richardson will leave Thursday from Albuquerque.

“I will encourage President al-Bashir to recognize the essential role of journalists and a free press and release Paul and his colleagues on humanitarian grounds,” Richardson said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to Shipley, Richardson likely will meet with the Sudanese president during the weekend but he could not give a specific timetable.

“At this point I don’t have an agenda,” Shipley said.

Salopek’s wife and Chicago Tribune Editor-in-Chief Ann Marie Lipinski had asked for Richardson’s help.

Last week, the governor meet in Washington with Sudan’s ambassador to the United States, Khadir Haroun Ahmed, to talk about Salopek arrest. The Sudanese government formally invited Richardson this week to meet with the country’s president.

He was a U.N. ambassador and energy secretary during President Bill Clinton’s administration.

In December 1996, shortly before he left Congress and was appointed ambassador to the U.N., Richardson secured the release of three Red Cross workers, including Albuquerque pilot John Early, from Marxist rebels in Sudan.

Richardson also has traveled to Iraq, North Korea and Cuba to gain the release of Americans held prisoner.

Since becoming governor in 2003, Richardson has remained in international affairs. Last year he traveled to North Korea at the invitation of the regime in Pyongyang and shortly after taking office he meet for three days in Santa Fe with visiting North Korean envoys.

Richardson, America’s only Hispanic governor, is seeking re-election this year and is considered a possible presidential candidate in 2008.

(AP/ST)