Sudan shrugs off concerns of U.S lawmakers

April 16, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan has dismissed an attempt by a trio of US lawmakers to stonewall the ongoing process of removing its name from the US blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism.

The US Administration started in February the process of removing Sudan’s name from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, in which Sudan remained since 1993 over its government’s support for trans-national Islamists in its early days.

The removal comes as a reward for the Sudanese government on the successful implementation of South Sudan’s referendum on independence held in January this year.

In due course, the administration was criticized for its decision to de-couple the conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur from the process of removing the country’s name from the terrorism-sponsoring list.

Co-chairs of the Congressional Sudan Caucus, Michael Capuano, Frank Wolf, Donald M. Payne on Friday sent a letter to US President Barack Obama citing a list of reasons why they were “deeply concerned” about the US policy towards Sudan.

“[We] are deeply concerned that the current approach toward Sudan is heading in the wrong direction and that the policy – if consistent with that approach – will fail to achieve our objectives to support peace and alleviate the suffering of the people of Sudan,” the letter read.

The letter said that the reason for their concern was the administration’s failure to address what it called as the Sudanese government’s efforts to undermine peace as well as the ongoing abuses it commits.

“The NCP’s primary motivation is to remain in power at all costs,” the letter said.

The unhappy congressmen urged Obama to include in his Sudan police a “transparent” plan that emphasizes protection, accountability, and a meaningful peace process in Darfur, as well as “robust pressures” and “appropriate incentives” to press parties to adhere to their commitments.

But the Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs has dismissed the congressmen as “representing pressure groups hostile to Sudan,” according to the ministry’s official spokesman Khalid Musa.

Musa told reporters in Khartoum yesterday that Sudan “did not officially receive anything indicating that the US administration had adopted the conditions [proposed by the congressmen] or decided to renege on the agreement to remove Sudan’s from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.”

“What concerns Sudan is that the U.S Administration had renewed commitment to implement its promises.”

Sudanese officials have repeatedly expressed frustration over keeping their country’s name in the terrorism-sponsoring list despite sustained counter-terrorism cooperation provided by the Sudanese intelligence authorities to their U.S counterparts.

(ST)