Sudan complains to U.N. over U.S. official's visit to rebel-held areas

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan has complained to the United Nations over a visit to rebel-held southern areas by a senior U.S. official, state radio said on Monday.

It said Sudan had written to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan protesting last month's visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice. The U.S. official's visit was intended to highlight the controversial issue of slavery in Africa's largest country.

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The Islamic-led government says Rice violated Sudan's sovereignty by visiting the south without its permission.

In an apparent diplomatic reprisal, the government canceled the visas of U.S. diplomats who go to Khartoum on short visits to run the U.S. Embassy.

During her visit to areas held by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), Rice called for action to end the "heinous" practice of slavery in Sudan.

The United Nations estimates that up to 15,000 southern Sudanese -- mostly women and children -- have been abducted in raids on southern villages by Arab militiamen in the last decade and taken to the north to be sold as slaves.

But Sudan's government and parts of the international community have refused to accept that the practice still exists in a nation with a history of slave trading. Khartoum says it cooperates with U.N. agencies to tackle the abduction problem.

"Part of why I am here is to show the world that, despite what the government in Khartoum says, despite what some of our partners in the European Union may want to pretend ... slavery exists, it has to be acknowledged and it has to be addressed," Rice told journalists in the southern town of Rumbek.

The United States, which accuses the Khartoum government of sponsoring international terrorism, imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997 and forbids its companies from investing in the country's new-found oil wealth.

It says the government aids and abets Arab militia in raiding southern villages, usually on horseback, to loot, burn and seize a booty of cattle and slaves.

Rebels from the mainly black African, Christian and animist south of Sudan have been fighting the government for 17 years for greater autonomy.

The United States is the biggest single donor of humanitarian assistance to southern Sudan and has given around $1.5 billion in aid to the rebel-held areas in the past decade.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Sudan Ministry of External Relations
U.S. State Department
  •  U.S. Dept. of State, 1999 Human Rights Report on Sudan
  •  South Sudan Special Project
Amnesty International, 2000 Report on Sudan
Library of Congress, Country Study on Sudan
Coalition Against Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan
Foreign Policy In Focus
  • Sudan: Recasting U.S. Policy
South Sudanese Friends International

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