Washington excludes South Sudan from US sanctions – SPLM

September 29, 2007 (WASHINGTON) –The Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum said that Washington decided to exclude southern Sudan from sanctions imposed on Sudan since 1997.

Pagan Amum, who is the secretary general of the southern Sudan ruling party, SPLM, told Al-Sharq al-Awsat on Friday that this decision was made following talks held by a southern delegation with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

He noted that the economic sanctions will be lifted immediately and the Treasury Department will issue licenses for US companies to do business in the south. He stressed that these licenses will be issued on Thursday September 27.

“I affirm to you that the embargo has been lifted officially.” Amum added.

He said that he and his accompanying delegation, including the finance minister in the southern government and the deputy director of the Central Bank, have discussed the issue of increasing US aid to the southern Sudan and also participating in the reconstruction of the region.

Amum said that they also discussed the lifting of the embargo imposed on other parts of the country. He noted that these sanctions are in fact directed against the northern Sudan ruling party, the National Congress Party.

He pointed to the cancellation of the sanctions is linked to the implementation of the peace agreement between the north and south and also to the situation in Darfur. He added: “Our focus is on improving relations between Sudan and the United States.”

During the visit made by Al-Sammani al-Wasilah, minister of state at the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, to the US capital in late August, Washington had promised Khartoum to lift the sanctions with the beginning of the deployment of the hybrid forces in Darfur, if the Khartoum Government does not take steps to impede this deployment.

Amum met with Andrew Natsios, US envoy to Sudan, before his travel to Khartoum. He also met with officials at the State Department. On Monday, he is scheduled to meet with Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. He also met in New York with the deputy UN secretary general and the assistant to the secretary general for political affairs.

(ST)