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
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