unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (08/12/89)
Senior State Department Official To Visit Sudan on Aid Cutoff (Associated Press, August 2, 493 words, DATELINE: CAIRO) A senior U.S. official will visit Sudan on Sunday to decide whether Washington should freeze $$108 million in aid because of a military coup a month ago, a Western official said. Herman Cohen, awsistant secretary of state for African affairs, is to determine whather U.S. law requires the funding cutoff, which would not affect about $$100 million in annual humanitarian aid, the official told foreign reporters. Section 513 to the U.S. 1987 Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that economic aid must cease to a country where a democratically elected government is removed in violation of the country's constitution, said the official on condition of anonymity. Fiji in 1986 became the first country to have its U.S. aid halted under provisions of Section 513, he said. However, the law, known as Section 513, "includes a waiver provision related to national security interests of the United States," he said. "Cohen will explore the possibility of using the waiver, depending on how the new Sudanese government will deal with certain issues," the official said. He said said Cohen will study the position of Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan el-Bashir, who with other middle-level field-grade officers overthrew Sudanese Prime Minister Sadek el-Mahdi's government on June 30. The official said Cohen will gauge el-Bashir's stands on two key sore points between the United States and el-Mahdi. One is ending the southern Sudan civil war and the other is allowing delivery of relief supplies to southerners suffering from a famine the 6-year-old war has caused. The law puts at stake $$108 million committed to Sudan, the official said. Already, $$22 million in development and economic aid has been frozen since January under rules requiring it after a country faces back debt payments on U.S. government loans for more than a year. Fut the official stressed that neither Section 113 nov that rule, called the Brooke Amendment, affect U.S. humanitarian aid to Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries. That amounted to $$100 million dollars in the past year. He said Washington believes el-Bashir is ready to take the steps necessary to end the war. President Hosni Mubarak, who last month took over as chairman of the Organization of African Unity, already began mediating between el-Bashir and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, which is supported by Ethiopia. Exploratory peace talks are to start in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa this week. The Western official said he believes the talks may succeed because both Sudan and Ethiopia are economically exhausted by the long struggle. Cohen's African tour started in Cairo to see how the United States can help Mubarak, as OAU chairman, end several regional African conflicts. Among them are those between Somalia and Mauritania and Chad and Libya. Africa's foreign debt, estimated at $$250 billion, is another item on Cohen's agenda during his tour, which also will take him to Ethiopia. * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange