[Marxism] U.S.'s secret war against Sudan (1998)

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From   Jim Yarker
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 3, 1998
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
U.S.'s secret war against Sudan
Why the U.S. bombed Khartoum
By John Parker
The vast African country of Sudan suddenly became a focus of the
news here when the U.S. government sent cruise missiles crashing
into a pharmaceutical plant in its capital, Khartoum, on Aug. 20.
President Bill Clinton told the press he had "convincing information"
that the plant had been used to manufacture chemical weapons
and was linked to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania on Aug. 7.
This explanation for Washington?s terror attack has convinced few
around the world, especially since experts from many countries
have come forward to say that the plant couldn? t possibly have
been used in the manufacture of such deadly chemicals.
What the U.S. government isn't talking about is its previous history
of hostility and subversion against the Sudan 
 something that has received virtually no press attention.
The U.S. has imposed economic sanctions on Sudan for many
years, but they were stiffened in November 1997 when Clinton
signed an executive order blocking Sudan's assets in the United
States and banning bank loans to and commerce with that country.
Support for secessionist 
movement
According to the book "Dangerous Liaison" by Alexander
Cockburn, collaboration between the CIA and Israeli intelligence to
support a secessionist movement in the Sudan can be traced back
to at least 1968.
Over the years since then, the U.S. has kept up a campaign to
destabilize Sudan. On Nov. 10, 1996, the Washington Post
reported that the U.S. would send $20 million in military equipment
to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda, even though these three countries
were embroiled in a bloody war in southern Sudan.
The paper said its congressional sources doubted the aid would be
kept from rebel forces fighting the Sudanese government 
 virtually an admission that the aid was for that purpose.
Africa Confidential wrote on Nov. 15, 1996, that "It is clear the aid
is for Sudan' s armed opposition" and added that U.S. special
forces were on "open-ended deployment" with the rebels.
The group now militarily supported by the U.S. 
 the Sudanese People's Liberation Army had earlier been described
by the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International and agencies
in the United Nations as an army that primarily utilizes terror
against civilians to further its aims.
In 1997 the Sudanese government signed the Khartoum Peace
Agreement with several other rebel groups. This agreement
confirms the federal nature of the government, accepts a
referendum for the south, and offers amnesty to rebel groups that
enter a political dialogue.
In February, Riek Machar, a former rebel with the SPLA who now
leads a defense force allied to the Sudanese government, said that
Uganda was preparing for an attack on Sudan.
Last April, when Clinton toured Africa, Sudanese President Omar
el Bashir charg ed that "Clinton's African tour and his stop in
Uganda are to support Uganda where the [Sudanese] rebels have
their bases."
There was an influx of U.S. troops into Uganda in 1997. In August
that year, standing on Ugandan soil, U.S. Major Matthew Dansbury
cited U.S. interventions in Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia as a
precedent for the 121 U.S. Green Berets sent to Uganda to train
troops there for "peacekeeping" exercises. The 771 Ugandan
troops trained in the exercises were to form the "African Crisis
Response Initiative."
But the Sudanese government charged that SPLA members were
included in those training exercises with the Ugandans.
U.S. interest in Sudan's oil
In the highly politicized and deceptive U.S. corporate media, it is
hard to find what really lies behind the attacks on Sudan. But the
bipartisan lovefest in April 1997 between House Speaker Newt
Gingrich and President Clinton on U.S. objectives in Africa sheds
some light.
That was when the U.S. began its "Partnership for Promoting
Economic Growth and Opportunity in Africa," which would give
preferential treatment to countries in Africa that opened their
markets to U.S. banks and corporations.
"In an increasingly competitive global economy, the United States
cannot afford to neglect a largely untapped market of some 600-
million-plus people," said U.S. Trade Representative Charlene
Barshefsky, referring to the initiative.
"The lowering of tariffs and other trade barriers will help African
nations grow," she continued. "They will also help Americans by
opening these markets to our goods and services."
U.S. imperialist corporations have big plans for profit-taking in
Africa. How does this impact on the Sudan?
Back in November 1984, the Wall Street Journal reported that
Chevron, after a decade of exploration, had discovered two oil fields
in the southern Sudan containing an estimated 300 million barrels
of oil. The company then began construction of a 940-mile pipeline
costing $1 billion. The Chevron group included Royal Dutch/shell
and Total of France.
But the Chevron consortium began to pull out of the deal after
attacks from rebel forces left four of its employees dead.
Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian financier with extensive assets
in the U.S., then agreed to finance the operation in exchange for a
50 percent interest in the venture and 50 percent of all oil-related
assets belonging to the Chevron consortium.
Now, according to an article in the Aug. 11 Financial Times of
London, written just nine days before the U.S. attack on Khartoum,
Sudan has moved ahead in development of its oil fields.
"Sudan has launched itself into oil exploitation with a vengeance,
snatching at what officials regard as a possible miracle cure to its
deepening economic and social ills.
"By April 1999, if work goes to schedule, a 1,540-km pipeline will
link the oilfields of Bentiu, Heglig and Unity to Port Sudan on the
coast. By June of that year, Sudan should be exporting 150,000
barrels per day. Six months later it hopes to be refining its own
crude. ...
"Contracted by 11 Chinese companies, more than 2,000 Chinese
laborers are already in the country and by June their numbers will
have risen to 7,000. ...
"Malaysian, Canadian, British, Argentinean and German
companies also belong to the consortium responsible for the 1.6bn
scheme, and are covering nearly all the start-up costs in return for
the promise of a share of future revenue ... simply being relieved of
its annual $250m-$300m energy bill, say officials, would make a
vast difference to a government embroiled in an expensive military
campaign."
The article further states that this would impact the peace process
in the south. Machar, the former rebel now working with the
government, explains: "_If in the interim period we manage to use
this oil to redress imbalances and create confidence, maybe the
south would then vote for unity, he speculates. _The south would
have made an economic leap forward and some of their fears would
have eroded."
But according to the article, the SPLA leader John Garang, now
supported by the U.S., has already threatened to target the oil
fields. And now Washington has bombed Khartoum in a clear
warning to the Sudanese government that it will use extreme force
to get its way.
- END -



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