US special envoy to visit Sudan this weekend

By Wasil Ali

February 21, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The US special envoy to Sudan Richard S. Williamson is due to arrive in Khartoum next Sunday for the first time since his appointment last December.

The Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor told Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that Williamson will carry “detailed responses to outstanding issues between the two countries”.

Alor had just returned from Washington after meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her deputy John Negroponte as well as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi E. Frazer.

Sudan’s top diplomat said that he discussed a wide array of issues including lifting sanctions, delisting Sudan from terrorism sponsor countries in addition to the challenges facing the Sudanese embassy in Washington and the US embassy in Khartoum.

Alor said that the meeting also tackled the Darfur crisis and the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) particularly the dispute between the North and South over the oil rich region of Abyei.

The US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Rice told Alor that Sudan 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.

Relations between Washington and Khartoum have deteriorated recently in light of Sudan’s refusal to admit containers that belong to the US embassy in Khartoum. The Sudanese government has refused to admit the shipment without payment of custom fees, something which Washington has rejected.

Khartoum also said it will not offer “free concessions” in return for normalizing relations.

Yesterday Sudan’s Presidential adviser and the official in charge of Darfur peace process Nafi Ali Nafi lashed out at US Secretary Rice telling her to “lick her elbow if she thinks that Khartoum will kneel down to her conditions and accept pressure from her or the international community”.

Williamson was due to arrive in Khartoum late January for meetings with Sudanese officials focused primarily on the Darfur crisis but the visit was postponed for unknown reasons.

Some sources speaking to Sudan Tribune at the time said the delay was due to “security measures being taken in Khartoum” without elaborating. However some US officials told Sudan Tribune that the special envoy sought the delay to meet with Deng Alor on his upcoming visit to Washington.

Sudanese officials have expressed pessimism with regard to Williamson and noted that his background makes him a “hardliner”.

The new US envoy has described the Sudanese regime as “thugs” who will “act like thugs as long as they are allowed to do so” in an August 2005 article in the Chicago-Sun Times.

In the article he wrote, Williamson said that “bilateral and multilateral action must be taken” against Khartoum.

But the former UN diplomat has maintained a low profile and avoided the media since he was tapped by Bush for the post In January.

It is expected that Williamson will call on Sudan to remove obstacles facing the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force in Darfur and to halt recent military operations which resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians.

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.

(ST)