-Caveat Lector- Increasingly, US stands alone on Sudan EU nations move towards engagement By Declan Walsh, Globe Correspondent, 7/1/2001 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/182/nation/Increasingly_US_stands_alone_on_Sudan+.shtml HARTOUM, Sudan - There are few tourist traps in this city of blast-furnace temperatures, grinding poverty, and strict Muslim laws. But one unlikely attraction is to be found on the northern edge of town, where the ugly industrial zone trails off into the desert. A smiling guard welcomes visitors to El Shifa, the manufacturing plant destroyed by a deadly barrage of American cruise missiles in 1998. President Clinton, who ordered the attack, claimed the factory was a secret chemical weapons facility; Sudan said it manufactured life-saving medicines. Now the owner is bringing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the US government and, to prove his point, allows anyone who wishes to look around. ''We respect America, but she did something bad for us here,'' said Abdul el-Munign, a young man who guides the curious through the rubble. This stark skeleton of El Shifa is also a symbol of the persistent enmity between the United States and Sudan's Islamic regime. For the United States, Sudan is a pariah state in the same league as Iraq, North Korea, and Afghanistan. American companies are prohibited from doing business here, the US Embassy is officially closed, and the State Department still considers Khartoum to be a terrorist safe haven. But recently other nations, particularly in Europe, have started to reject America's policy of isolating Sudan. Since last year, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and other European Union countries have undertaken a policy of ''constructive engagement'' with President Omar el-Bashir's government. That has meant renewed contacts with government officials, funding for a program to combat the slave trade, and turning a blind eye to United Nations sanctions imposed in 1996. The move has sparked a quiet but heated war of words in the air-conditioned cool of Western diplomatic circles here. ''The Americans often give the impression that all they want to do is overthrow the government,'' grumbled one senior European diplomat. American officials retort that Europe is turning a blind eye to official brutality in the name of pragmatic politics. One prickly question lies at the heart of the debate: whether one of the world's most notorious ''rogue'' regimes is capable of reforming itself from within. The regime here, which came to power in a 1989 military coup, has done much to warrant its unenviable reputation. In its early years Khartoum was a city of fear, where opposition figures disappeared into notorious ''ghost houses,'' never to reemerge. Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic fundamentalist suspected of masterminding the 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa, used to reside here. More recently the government has been accused of terrible abuses in prosecuting the 18-year-old war against southern-based rebels: razing villages to clear the way for lucrative oil exploration, fueling the slave trade, and mercilessly bombing civilian and humanitarian targets in the rebel-held south. In Washington, an eclectic coalition of conservative Christians and black rights activists have turned Sudan into a political hot potato. The most influential campaigner is the Rev. Franklin Graham, the head of the evangelical charity Samaritan's Purse and a confidant of President Bush, who has advocated further military strikes against the Khartoum government, which he describes as ''pure evil.'' That description infuriates Sudan's government. ''We are mistreated more than any other country in the world,'' said Mahdi Ibrahim, a presidential adviser recently appointed minister of information. Ibrahim also objected to frequent portrayal of the civil war as a religious one that pits northern Muslims against southern Christians. ''Two million southerners are living in Khartoum. Why would they come if we were persecuting them?'' he asked. One answer is that they had little choice. Most southerners fled to Khartoum to escape the fighting and have been forced to live in huge, squalid camps that ring the city and lack the most basic facilities. Many complain of being treated as second-class citizens. But religious intolerance appears to be waning. Islamic sharia law has been in force in northern Sudan since 1983 but is loosely enforced these days. A small number of women refuse to wear the veil in public, and alcohol is tolerated in private homes. The number of judicial amputations of convicted criminals has also fallen. Nevertheless, there are still reasons for mistrust. Last Easter a Christian celebration in central Khartoum was violently broken up by riot police. Alfred Taban, a southern journalist who edits the independent Khartoum Monitor newspaper, was there. ''The police threw grenades, one of which chopped off a medical student's hand. People were crushed, and many fainted,'' he said. Taban was arrested at the scene with 70 others; he was released six days later. Still, he supports the EU policy of engagement. ''The majority of northerners hate the government and are secularists,'' he said. ''There are some moderates in government, and they need encouragement.'' European diplomats admit their policy has produced only modest results. Attacks on civilians and slave takings have continued, and there are few signs that the war is abating. The shadowy Islamic cleric Hassan el-Turabi, long seen as the leader of fundamentalists in the government, has been placed under house arrest, but hoped-for reforms did not follow. ''The situation now is worse than one year before,'' said Gerhart Baum, the UN special representative for human rights in Sudan, at a briefing last week. The Bush administration is weighing its options. There are signs that the president will take a more conciliatory line toward Sudan than his predecessor did. During a recent tour of Africa, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell avoided using inflammatory language concerning Sudan, and the reopening of the Khartoum embassy is under review. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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