SPLM would not support move to lift Sudan from US terrorism blacklist

August 11, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement does not support lifting Sudan from the United States’ terrorism blacklist, an SPLM figure said in an interview yesterday, just over a week after the US Special Envoy to Sudan said “there is no evidence in our intelligence community that supports (Sudan) being on the state sponsors of terrorism list.”

Sudan has remained on the US State Department’s terrorism blacklist since August 12, 1993. However, President Barack Obama’s envoy to Sudan, former General Scott Gration, suggested in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 30 that the terrorism designation is no longer valid, and called it a “political decision.”

Under Mr. Gration’s leadership, US diplomats have engaged in tripartite talks with the Government of Sudan and the SPLM, seeking implementation of Sudan’s 2005 peace accord. In his congressional testimony, Mr. Gration disclosed that “we have weekly discussions with the two parties of the Government of National Unity: the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, as well as regular talks with representatives from critical parties, the other parties and movements and civil society.”

Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, who is the Government of Southern Sudan Head of Mission to the United States and a member of the SPLM leadership, said that SPLM Secretary General Pa’gan Amum questioned Mr. Gration about his position during a recent visit.

“For us, we want the sanctions to be lifted, we want Sudan to be removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, but we really want the National Congress Party to meet some benchmarks first,” he said. Mr. Gatkuoth listed democratization, peace in Darfur, and implementation of the CPA as important benchmarks.

He also noted that regardless of the sanctions, Southern Sudan holds a special exempt status in the US sanctions regulations: “There is nothing harming Southern Sudan [in the regulations]. It is exempt.”

This point was addressed in a rather different light by Gen. Gration in his session before Congress, in which he suggested that “unwinding” the sanctions would help to develop the South.

“The equipment we need to develop the South can’t come through because the ports of Khartoum are sanctioned,” stated Mr. Gration. But in fact, trade with Southern Sudan may be made through northern points of entry, such as Khartoum or Port Sudan, provided that the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the US Department of the Treasury authorizes the transshipment – though even in Southern Sudan, Americans may not engage in any transactions or activities related to oil extraction.

Mr. Gatkuoth has not been alone in the SPLM in this view of easing the sanctions. Similar hesitation came from Yasser Arman, SPLM Deputy Secretary General for Northern Sector, in an interview in Washington in June. He urged US policymakers to consider why Sudan was initially placed on the terrorism list. “We see in the policy of the Administration of President of Obama of engagement, a window of opportunity for Sudan. But we must go to the drawing board and see how the relations between Sudan and the outside world had gotten spoiled — how Sudan disengaged from the outside world.” He cited as causes several issues related to rule of law and civil war.

The ongoing deliberation within the Administration over the terrorism designation – if indeed there is any – is likely focused on the strategic and public relations implications of maintaining the designation, rather than on the realities of the US-Sudan counterterrorism relationship, since the State Department simultaneously designates Sudan a “state sponsor of terrorism” while also reporting that it is “a cooperative partner in global counterterrorism efforts.”

Since at least 2001, high-level representatives from the US and Sudanese governments have agreed on intelligence-sharing measures, which led to a visit for Sudan’s intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, to CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia in April 2005. State Department officials anticipated that they likewise would host Maj. Gen. Gosh at an event in Washington, D.C. in June 2009, but this never materialized.

The State Department reported on April 30, 2009 that “Sudan remained a cooperative partner in global counterterrorism efforts. During the past year, the Sudanese government continued to pursue terrorist operations directly involving threats to U.S. interests and personnel in Sudan.” Mr. Gration testified that the United States will “seek increased and enhanced cooperation with the Sudanese government to counter terrorism and to promote regional security, consistent with—and not at the expense of—our overall objectives of peace and security in Sudan.”

Mr. Gatkuoth’s statements come at a tense moment in the relationship between NCP and SPLM. In Khartoum, the Public Order Police has reportedly filed a complained against Mr. Arman and moved to lift his legal immunity as a member of parliament. According to SPLM figures, political motives lie behind the police move. “These public police should not be there in the first place after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,” said Mr. Gatkuoth.

“The SPLM leadership is fully, fully behind Yasser,” he said.

(ST)