The Crisis in Sudan
The government of Sudan's air force
has bombed more than 33 targets in southern Sudan since July 1 at the very
time that the Clinton Administration is preparing to increase its diplomatic
relations with the Sudanese government in Khartoum.
The bombings by Sudanese planes typically have targeted humanitarian relief centers, schools, hospitals, and market places in a country that has already suffered more than 2 million deaths and more than 4 million people uprooted during 17 years of war. The pace of recent bombings is increasing and has seriously endangered humanitarian relief operations.
"The Clinton Administration, skulking toward increasing its diplomatic relations with the Sudanese government, is studiously ignoring these intensified bombings even though many of the programs targeted by the aerial attacks are supported by U.S. aid programs and private international relief agencies," said Roger Winter, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees. "These bombings are clearly deliberate. The Sudanese government is targeting southern Sudanese civilians and relief workers who seek to save the lives of those civilians by providing food and medical services," Winter said.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees has repeatedly called on the Administration to take effective action. No serious U.S. government action has been forthcoming. The U.S. government's silence on the latest bombings is deafening.
"It makes a mockery of President Clinton's often-repeated promises to respond seriously to African humanitarian issues. The Clinton Administration should act through the UN Security Council now to force an end to these escalating atrocities," Winter stated.
Winter, who conducted a site visit to southern Sudan in late July, underscored the deliberate and calculated nature of the bombings of civilian and humanitarian targets.
"Ten days ago, when I was in south Sudan, pilots of humanitarian relief planes reported to me that they heard Sudanese government radio transmissions between the radio tower at Juba (a major government-controlled town in south Sudan) and Antonov bomber pilots tracking a Red Cross plane. They followed the plane and then bombed the site after the Red Cross plane landed."
The intensified bombing campaign appears to be an orchestrated effort by the Sudanese government to force international aid workers out of southern Sudan and to shut down humanitarian relief programs that provide life-saving support to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese civilians. Sudan has produced more uprooted people than any country on earth.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees is a private, nonprofit, humanitarian organization that works for the protection and assistance of uprooted people around the world.
Contact: Roger Winter
(202) 347-3507
Copyright 2000, USCR