POLITICS-US: Fight Brewing On Sudan Policy

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 1 2001 (IPS) - Reports that Secretary of State Colin Powell has asked the author of “constructive engagement” with apartheid South Africa to take charge of Sudan policy foreshadow a major battle within the administration and in Congress.

A number of legislators oppose engaging the Sudanese government and favour US moves to bolster rebel forces against Khartoum.

The proposed envoy, Chester Crocker, was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. A self- described “realist,” Crocker was responsible for Reagan’s controversial “constructive engagement” policy toward South Africa and fought hard against tough US economic sanctions against the apartheid regime. Congress approved the sanctions in the mid- 1980s over Reagan’s veto.

Crocker reportedly has indicated that he may not be interested in the job unless he gains assurances that right-wing forces in the White House will not interfere with his work.

Those assurances may be difficult to obtain, given the countrywide grass-roots mobilisation – especially in churches and on college campuses – which has propelled Sudan to the top of the new administration’s Africa agenda.

“This is a very emotional, constituency-driven issue,” said a Congressional aide. “Crocker can’t alienate (those constituencies) and expect to get confirmed in the office.”

Since taking power in January, the George W. Bush administration has given a series of mixed messages about Sudan, where war between the Arab- and Islamic-dominated government in Khartoum and the largely Christian- and African-dominated Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has taken more than two million lives and displaced another 4.5 million, mostly in the South, over the past 18 years.

On the one hand, the administration’s rhetoric against Khartoum has been quite harsh, very much in line with the views of the Christian Right, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus and human rights activists who see the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime as determined to subdue rebel forces in the South and the Nuba Mountains by any means necessary, including genocide.

“There is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the Earth today,” Powell testified before Congress two months ago. Bush himself, in a speech delivered last month, described the country as a “disaster area for all human rights” and promised to “speak and act for as long as persecution and atrocities in Sudan last.”

Behind the scenes, however, the administration has taken few steps to back up its tough rhetoric. It announced last week that it would supply three million dollars – appropriated by Congress last year – in logistical support to the National Democratic Alliance, the political umbrella that includes the SPLA. Yet, it has dragged its feet or ignored other demands by activists to increase pressure on Khartoum and strengthen the SPLA.

Many activists were unpleasantly surprised when Powell, unlike his predecessor, Madeleine Albright, failed to meet SPLA chief John Garang in Nairobi last week.

Moreover, his remarks in the region were markedly conciliatory toward Khartoum. “We are not against any side,” he stressed during a news conference. “We are anxious to see reconciliation in Sudan.”

At the same time, Washington announced it had decided to provide millions of dollars in food aid to fight the growing threat of famine in Khartoum-controlled northern Sudan, as well as in SPLA- controlled areas.

In this context, word that Crocker, currently the head of the quasi-governmental US Institute for Peace, has been tapped as the new special envoy for Sudan is adding to concern within the activist community.

Despite Crocker’s loyalty to Reagan, he was also widely distrusted by the far right in Congress, both because he opposed US aid to Renamo, the brutal Mozambican rebel group, and because of his role in negotiating the mutual withdrawal of Cuban and South African troops from Angola and Namibia, respectively.

In February, he chaired the formal launch of a highly controversial report endorsed by some 50 foreign policy experts under the umbrella of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The document urged the new administration to upgrade ties with Khartoum and work closely with European countries, which have pursued a policy of engagement with Khartoum, in the interests of ending the war as soon as possible.

Among the members of the task force who approved the report were two former US ambassadors to Khartoum who have publicly urged greater engagement with the NIF government, as well as a former senior Central Intelligence Agency official Milt Bearden, who recently signed a contract with a wealthy Sudanese businessman considered close to the NIF to “improve understanding and enhance the relations between the various Governments, Parties, and peoples involved in the Sudan conflict.”

Bush’s new Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Walter Kansteiner, also served on the task force whose recommendations were strongly denounced as “appeasement” by Sudan activists, both from the Christian Right and the Congressional Black Caucus.

While Crocker was not himself a member of the task force, most analysts see him as sympathetic to its conclusions. “Crocker is a very talented guy with a strong record of achievement,” said Stephen Morrison, the task force report’s main author. “He is a tough, seasoned negotiator. We need someone of that calibre.”

A published report of Crocker’s selection by Powell cited “associates familiar with his thinking” as saying that Crocker opposed any aid to the SPLA at this time and was seeking assurances that “he would be insulated from conservative views at the White House.”

Those views come mainly from Bush’s domestic political advisers, especially Karl Rove, who have the hand on the pulse of the Christian Right, as well as from others who are personally close to Bush, including Rev. Franklin Graham, who runs a relief agency, Samaritan’s Purse, which is active in southern Sudan.

Crocker may also be concerned about hard-liners in the National Security Council (NSC). Although National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice backs Powell, one Africa specialist, Michael Miller, held a strongly anti-NIF position while working for the former chair of the Senate Africa subcommittee, Sen. Bill Frist.

In addition, Elliott Abrams, Reagan’s assistant secretary of state for human rights and Latin America, is expected to soon join the NSC in a senior position. As chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abrams has taken a hard line on Sudan, urging a tightening of the US trade embargo and banning foreign oil companies with investments in Sudan from raising money in US capital markets.