DATE=2/28/2000 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=SUDAN REBELS / ANALYSIS NUMBER=5-45528 BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS DATELINE=NAIROBI CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Aid agencies feeding more than two-million people in southern Sudan are split over rebel demands that they pay taxes. As Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, most relief workers are leaving the area before the deadline to sign the agreement (Wednesday). TEXT: Sudanese rebels want aid groups to pay landing fees for aircraft bringing relief supplies. They also want to levy a security fee for movement within rebel- held territory. They have given relief groups until March First to sign a new memorandum of understanding agreeing to those terms. The demands have split the more than 30 groups working in the aid consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan. Some organizations have already agreed to pay the rebels. Others, including Oxfam, Care, and Medecins Sans Frontier, say they will not because it gives rebels too much control over aid operations. There is also concern that the document does not adequately address security issues in Southern Sudan where largely Christian rebels have been fighting 17--years for more autonomy from the mainly Muslim north. The government in Khartoum has seized on the new rebel demands, saying the ultimatum strips aid groups of their neutrality. A foreign ministry statement says rebels are violating humanitarian agreements and should be held responsible for what happens to starving people in the south when aid groups pull out. The United States is also critical of the move. State Department spokesman James Foley said the abrupt departure of aid groups will put what he calls - a significant number of lives at risk. He said those consequences would fall squarely on the rebel leadership. Rebels say the decision is final. Either aid groups agree to pay or they leave. In a letter to relief officials earlier this year, rebels said they will bid goodbye to groups who they say cannot continue with us because they do not want to sign. Rebels say revenue from new taxes will be minimal and accuse relief officials of failing to respect their sovereignty. There is no sovereignty in southern Sudan. Rebels set up some government offices, but it is usually a few people sitting around without electricity, telephones, or transport to cover vast areas of subsistence farming. Raids by militiamen allied to the government destabilize many areas. The biggest city in the south, Juba, remains in government hands. Regional diplomats say the rebels appear serious about following through on their threat to expel aid groups, in part because Operation Lifeline Sudan is carried out by several organizations and the rebels know some of the groups will stay. The rebels also have a separate arrangement with the United Nations, which is not affected by the new demands. That means rebel-held areas will continue to receive supplies from the U-N World Food Program, even if they expel some of the other groups who refuse to pay. The Sudan relief operation is one of the world's longest and largest, with more than 500 foreign aid workers based in the northern Kenyan town of Lokichokio. (SIGNED) NEB/SS/GE/RAE 28-Feb-2000 07:32 AM EDT (28-Feb-2000 1232 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
