Senior Sudanese official lashes out at US Secretary Rice; warns UN
February 19, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s Presidential adviser and the official in charge of Darfur peace process, Nafi Ali Nafi launched an unprecedented personal attack against US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
It is not clear why the Sudanese official chose Rice as a target for fierce criticism using this slang language. The Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor and the presidential Adviser Mustafa Ismail met with Rice last week in a bid to normalize relations between the two countries.
However the US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Rice told Sudan that it must “do everything it can to end the violence in Darfur, to cooperate fully with the AU and the UN in deployment of forces into Darfur, to do everything they can to facilitate the access of humanitarian groups so that they can deliver humanitarian aid, bring an end to any attacks that are ongoing now”.
“And also, looking south, to fully implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the various sub-agreements that are part of the overall agreement” he added.
Sudanese officials have grown increasingly frustrated with what they consider a ‘hostile’ US administration towards Khartoum. In recent weeks they have made public remarks about the need for lifting of US sanctions imposed and complete overhaul of relations between the two countries.
Nafi said that Sudan “will not back on our values of Islamic Shari’a and our sovereignty”.
The presidential adviser in charge of Darfur also issued a subtle warning to the hybrid force.
“The hybrid force or the ‘Dough’** force will not be allowed to work beyond what have been agreed on”.
Nafi also slammed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group in Darfur and described them as “bandits and murderers”.
“Their only justice and quality is in looting and killing innocent people” he added.
The Sudanese army has recently launched an offensive against JEM fighters and managed to take back three major towns near West Darfur’s state capital el-Geneina on February 8 and following reports of bombing on Monday.
Today clashes were reported between the two sides in the mountainous Jabel Moun area. JEM released a communiqué claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on “three moving battalions belonging to Sudanese Government armed forces along with their proxy Janjaweeds” in the area.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in the conflict, which Washington calls genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use. The Sudan government says 9,000 people have been killed.
*A slang Sudanese expression to describe something that is very unlikely to happen.
**The term ‘hybrid’ in Arabic can be changed to the word ‘Dough’ by switching one letter. This analogy has been used frequently by Sudanese official including President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir to ridicule the peacekeeping force.
(ST)