Sudanese rebels   VIDEO CNN's Catherine Bond examines the decades-old civil strife in Sudan (September 22) Windows Media 28K 80K

September 22, 1999
Web posted at: 3:06 p.m. EDT (1906 GMT)

In this story: Fighting, drought cause famine U.S. supports rebels indirectly Allegations of slavery RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Nairobi Bureau Chief Catherine Bond

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- What has now become Africa's longest- running civil war began in 1973 as a small mutiny at a remote army garrison in southern Sudan.

The grievances that started the conflict remain the same: Widely perceived racial and religious discrimination against black Africans from the south of Sudan by Arabs from the north who control the government of the country.

"We have clearly said that the war in Sudan is a war that has been caused because of unequal development, because of injustice, because of imposition of one religion over another," said Richard Mullah, a spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

Sixteen years of sporadic fighting between the Islamist Khartoum government and the mainly Christian and animist south have resulted in a stalemate.

The south is now like a chessboard. Some towns -- like Juba, Wau and Malakal -- are held by the government while others -- including Yei and Rumbek -- are held by the rebels, who also control most of the countryside in the provinces of Al-Istiwa 'Iyah and Bahr-el-Gazal.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese people are victims of the famine

Last year, a famine brought on by the fighting and drought killed thousands, probably tens of thousands, of people in Bahr-el-Gazal, according to relief workers.

Only a massive airlift of food by the United Nations prevented the famine from taking an even higher toll.

Most of southern Sudan now relies on what has become a permanent international relief effort coordinated from Kenya. The U.S. government foots most of the bill for the aid, which runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Sudanese government says it wants Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to help mediate peace talks, which have been held in Nairobi, Kenya. It says it has already conceded to the SPLA's key demand for a referendum on independence for the south.

"The government of Sudan has made a very high profile commitment to grant the southern Sudanese the right of self- determination," said Sudanese diplomat Abdel Mahmoud al- Koronky. "They can vote in an internationally monitored referendum to choose between a unified federal Sudan or a separate independent south."

U.S. involvement in Sudan has been limited to indirect support for the rebels, such as the supply of non-lethal military equipment through Uganda and Eritrea.

The gap between Sudan and the United States has widened since a U.S. missile attack last year on a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

U.S. officials claimed the factory produced chemical weapons and that it was linked to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of last year's bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Sudan officials have said that the U.S. allegations were based on faulty intelligence and that the factory was an important source for human and veterinary medicines.

The Clinton administration has appointed former U.S. Rep. Harry Johnston of Florida as its envoy to monitor the Sudan peace talks, as well as the aid program to the country. But the Sudanese government has not yet accepted the appointment.

"These are our deep reservations about this appointment: If the special envoy will be a fair-minded judge, honest broker, or a prosecutor who has a long record or history of supporting the rebels in Sudan," said al-Koronky.

Some members of the U.S. Congress have called for stronger intervention in Sudan, citing allegations that government- backed Arab militias are raiding the south and abducting men, women and children to use as slaves on farms.

"What you have in the United States is a very strong opposition to the Sudan government from the religious right," said analyst John Ryle.

"This is, I think, a position that holds that fundamentalist Islam, as represented by the present government of Sudan, is responsible for the evils of the war such as abduction and slavery of southerners.

"This issue of fundamentalist Islam has been conflated with abduction and slavery, which is really a completely separate question, but that has provided a very strong support for a militantly anti-government lobby in the United States."

This year has brought the threat of a new humanitarian emergency as southern Sudanese flee insecure areas where the government has encouraged the drilling of oil.

The southerners have suffered the most during the 16 years since the war began, including the collapse of roads, hospitals, schools and the economy.

Seventeen rounds of talks over six years have failed to resolve the conflict.

But U.S. diplomats are encouraging the rebels in the devastated south to hold out for longer, with the next round of peace talks set for October.

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