Sudanese president urges USA, Britain to direct sanction calls to Middle East

KHARTOUM, Aug 9, 2004 (Sudanese Media Centre) — The president of the republic, Staff Lt-Gen Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, has said there exist substantial differences between the Darfur crisis and the southern problem, pointing out that Sudanese people are one irrespective of their geographical locations.

He said the Darfur problem was actually a result of traditional conflicts over resources, adding that the problem would be solved by revealing the truth and through increased national cooperation.

In an interview he held with Qatari Al-Sharq newspaper, he said there were quarters which were fuelling the crisis, those in control of the media, with the aim of diverting attention from the ugly acts being committed in the Middle East.

The president of the republic said the sanctions being advocated by the USA and Britain over the Darfur crisis would be better directed towards solving the situation in occupied Palestinian territory and Iraq, and in granting human rights to Guantanamo Bay [detainees] and settling real issues tabled at the [UN] Security Council, which actually required sanctions.

Al-Bashir pointed to the great strategy linking Egypt and Sudan in terms of history, civilization, mutual destiny and the Nile Basin, under which people lived in unity. He said if Europe was uniting to serve its economic interests, then unity between two Nile valley countries was even better because of the shared moral and material resources.

Translated from arabic by BBC Monitoring.