U.S. envoy upbeat after talks with Sudan

March 6, 2000
Web posted at: 9:50 p.m. EST (0250 GMT)

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- U.S. special envoy to Sudan Harry Johnston said on Monday his brief trip to Khartoum had achieved a breakthrough in Sudanese-U.S. relations.

"The principal thing is the breakthrough in dialogue. This is the biggest achievement, I think," Johnston told reporters in Khartoum.

Johnston arrived in Khartoum on Saturday on his first visit since President Bill Clinton appointed him in August. He is the first high-level U.S. official to visit Sudan since 1998, when U.S. cruise missiles destroyed Khartoum's Shifa pharmaceutical factory. The attack wounded seven civilians, one of whom later died.

Washington said the plant produced nerve gas ingredients. Sudan denies the charge. The ruling National Congress party has demanded that Johnston visit the plant.

Johnston said the perception that the United States took the opposition side against the government was not right. He added the U.S. perception that "terrorists" were being trained in Sudan forced the administration to embargo Sudan and place it on the list of countries that support terrorism.

"Especially when you had 14 children killed in the Nuba mountains two weeks ago, and 72 hours ago you have a hospital bombed in Lui, a hospital sponsored by a church group," he said. "With those events and history, you cannot say we are taking sides."

On Monday, the private al-Rai al-Aam newspaper reported that Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin, in talks with Johnston, said an air raid on a school in the Nuba mountains had been a mistake.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last month voiced outrage at the government raid. Khartoum had said the school, lying in territory contested by rebels waging a 17-year civil war, was a legitimate target.

About 1.5 million people have died in civil war between the government and rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which wants more autonomy for the mainly Christian and animist south from the Arab, Moslem north. Johnston said the U.S. was not providing the SPLA with arms, although there has been pressure from congress to do so.

Johnston said the U.S. supported self-determination but not the separation of the south. But he added that going to a referendum for self-determination without resolving issues like power-sharing or the judiciary would be an invitation to the separation of the south.

Asked whether the U.S. would allow its diplomats and personnel to return to Khartoum, the envoy said that was still to be decided depending on security measures.

No American diplomats have lived in Khartoum since 1996. He said the United States has had security problems with Sudan ever since a U.S. ambassador to Khartoum was killed by Palestinians in the 1970s.

Johnston said the presence of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden for a time in Sudan had been a worry for the United States, and he added that all those arrested for the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in 1995 had carried Sudanese passports.

On relief in parts of the war-ravaged south, Johnston said the government was banning some of the relief flights. He said the government was prohibiting flights where there was no combat and no threat to United Nations staff.

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