DATE=3/1/2000 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=SUDAN REBEL AID NUMBER=5-45543 BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS DATELINE=NAIROBI CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The international aid effort to Sudan is in crisis (Wednesday) as the deadline passes for relief officials to agree to new rebel demands. V-O-A's Scott Stearns reports, some leading aid groups have left Sudan after rejecting an agreement that puts restrictions on their work and introduces a series of new taxes. TEXT: Rebels say there is no going back. March first is the deadline for relief groups to sign the new agreement. Those who have not will not be allowed to operate in rebel-held areas. Nhial Deng Nhial is chairman of humanitarian affairs for the rebel S-P-L-M/S-P-L-A. /// NHIAL ACT /// By not signing, they have effectively rejected ... a framework document governing our relationship, and therefore rejected continuing to work in S-P-L-M/S-P-L-A controlled areas. /// END ACT /// Those who have not signed include some of the biggest names in the aid business - Medecins sans Frontier, Save the Children, CARE, and Oxfam. They say the plan 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. Those groups also object to provisions allowing rebels to decide what kinds of programs go where. Millions of people in the south depend on food aid. Relief officials fear rebels will try to target that aid to areas they favor through their rebel relief arm, the S-R-R-A. John Mitchell is CARE's director for East Africa. /// MITCHELL ACT /// N-G-O's such as CARE worry that the objectives of the S-R-R-A could be inappropriate, and we would like it to be clarified that humanitarian work would only be governed by humanitarian principles. /// END ACT /// Mr. Mitchell says relief officials were particularly concerned when rebels refused to guarantee that civilian assistance would not be diverted to the military. He says the new restrictions undermine aid groups' security and impartiality. Sudan's government agrees, saying rebel demands strip aid groups of their neutrality. Mr. Nhial says recognizing that rebels are the de- facto power in the south is not manipulation, it is reality. He says rebels have no interest in politicizing aid. Instead, Mr. Nhial says it is the groups who are refusing to sign who have made the issue political. /// NHIAL ACT // OPT ACT /// I think the N-G-O's that have not signed have been prompted by considerations that we do not think are genuinely humanitarian considerations, but rather political considerations. Some N-G- O's and the donors that fund them are worried that if they sign that document it will be tantamount to recognizing the sovereignty of the S-P-L-M/S-P-L-A. /// END ACT // END OPT/// Most of the 35-groups in the consortium known as Operation Lifeline Sudan are still at work, having agreed to the terms of the new memorandum of understanding, known as an M-O-U. Catholic Relief Services is one of the groups that has kept going. Spokesman David Snyder says it was not an easy decision. /// SNYDER ACT /// It has just been a difficult choice for all the agencies that have been involved up there. I mean, obviously this has been going on for quite some time this whole process, but C-R-S felt we could remain operational within the confines of the agreement that we all reached with this M-O- U, and that we could continue to serve 200- thousand beneficiaries directly with the projects we have been carrying out. /// END ACT /// /// OPT /// Mr. Snyder says no one is happy with the new arrangement, but C-R-S believes there is room to negotiate within it when matters of revenue and programming arise between rebel chiefs and relief officials in Nairobi. /// SNYDER ACT // OPT /// You can look into the agreement and see a lot of various points. I mean, for every point that seems to be a point of contention for some of the agencies that are involved, there are equally strong arguments against, so it has been largely a matter of personal interpretation by a lot of the agencies that are involved. /// END ACT // END OPT /// CARE's John Mitchell says everyone has been under a lot of pressure over the new demands. He believes some groups agreed because they felt they had no choice. /// MITCHELL ACT /// There are for all agencies a number of key issues that need to be weighed, and it was an extraordinarily difficult decision, I believe, for any agency to decide whether or not they would sign or not. Most of the agencies that signed indicated that they signed under duress. /// END ACT /// Those groups no longer inside Sudan want rebels to reopen talks on the memorandum. Mr. Mitchell says it is the people of the south who will suffer most if the deadlock remains. /// MITCHELL ACT /// It definitely will have an impact on people and we really do regret that, and it is our hope that this can be resolved quickly so that we can restore our work in partnership with people to continue these programs. /// END ACT /// The new memorandum does not apply to the International Red Cross or the United Nations, which means rebel- held areas will continue to receive supplies from the U-N World Food Program, even if they have to throw out some of the other groups who refuse to sign. /// OPT /// Mr. Nhial says rebels are confident their moves will not set-off a humanitarian catastrophe. /// NHIAL ACT // OPT ACT /// There may be consequences in the short run, in the sense that maybe the scope of relief activities might somewhat dwindle, but the point is that those who are leaving are in the minority and the majority have decided to stay around, so the impact to my mind will be negligible. /// END ACT // END OPT ACT /// Operation Lifeline Sudan is one of the longest and largest aid operations in the world, with about 500 foreign staff members based in the northern Kenyan town of Lokichokio. (SIGNED) NEB/SS/GE/RAE 01-Mar-2000 11:33 AM EDT (01-Mar-2000 1633 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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