Sudan’s spy chief visited Libya’s NTC: report
August 25, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The head of Sudan’s intelligence apparatus Mohamed Atta on Wednesday paid a one-day visit to Libya where he held talks with leaders of the National Transitional Council (NTC), according to a local newspaper.
Khartoum later clarified that this statement serves also as a recognition of NTC as representative of the Libyan people.
The Sudanese pro-government newspaper Al-Intibaha reported that Atta, the director of the country’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), concluded a short visit to Libyan city pf Benghazi where he held talks with the NTC leaders.
An anonymous source told the paper that Atta gave the NTC chairman a written letter from President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir congratulating them on the success of the Libyan revolution. According to the same source, the NTC head thanked the government of Sudan for its support to the revolution since it started.
It is expected that Sudan asked for NTC’s help in capturing the leader of Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim who has been staying in Libya since 2009.
JEM is one of several Darfur rebel groups that is fighting the central government in Khartoum.
Ibrahim has been in Libya since May 2009 when the Chadian authorities refused entry of the rebel leader to Ndjamena on his way back to Darfur, ordering him to return to Tripoli from where he attempted to come to Chad.
The Sudanese government tried several times to negotiate the presence of Ibrahim with Libyan officials but the latter refused to move him to another country as Khartoum requested. At the same time he was confined at a military garrison and had restricted contacts.
JEM called on NTC and NATO to secure a safe departure of its leader from Libya.
The Sudanese government has been discreetly supportive of the armed rebellion in Libya which aims to unseat Gaddafi who has been in power for over 41 years.
Last March diplomats told Reuters that Khartoum quietly gave permission to NATO to use its airspace for enforcing the UN-mandated No Fly Zone (NFZ) over Libya.
In June this year, NISS chief Atta secretly visited France and reportedly supplied nuggets of information to the French intelligence on forces loyal to Gaddafi in Libya. Sudan later confirmed the visit but denied that Atta discussed any regional issues.
In a related development, the NTC on Thursday said it had now moved its political base from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to Tripoli which is now largely in rebels’ control.
(ST)