Military

DATE=2-21-02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-286729

TITLE=U-S-SUDAN (L)

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=DAVID GOLLUST

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Bush administration is suspending discussions with the Sudanese government on ending the country's long-running civil conflict this, after another attack by a government aircraft on a World Food Program relief site. At least 17 people were reported killed and many others wounded after Wednesday's helicopter strike in the Upper Nile province of southern Sudan. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: The State Department is calling Wednesday's rocketing of a feeding site by a government helicopter, part of a pattern of "senseless and brutal" attacks against civilians. An official says the violence raises questions about the Khartoum government's commitment to peace.

Department spokesman Richard Boucher says there will be no further U-S contact with the Sudanese government on the country's peace process, until it provides a "full and complete" explanation of what happened:

///BOUCHER ACTUALITY///

We think the government needs to explain what's going on. On the one hand, the government is talking about reaching peace in these regions. And on the other hand they're bombing civilian aid workers. And we find it hard to continue the peace efforts until this gets an adequate explanation.

///END ACT///

Earlier this month, the United States protested and drew a Sudanese apology for a similar incident, in which a government plane bombed a southern village where civilians were retrieving supplies air-dropped by the World Food Program. Two children were reported killed in that attack.

Wednesday's more serious incident raises questions about the future of the U-S peace-making effort. It also jeopardizes what has been a noticeable warming of U-S relations with the government in Khartoum, which has been on the State Department's list of supporters of terrorism.

U-S officials have welcomed intelligence-sharing by Sudan on terrorist groups, since last September's New York and Washington attacks, and the country's foreign minister paid a call at the State Department earlier this month.

President Bush late last year named former U-S Senator John Danforth a special envoy on Sudan. Mr. Danforth helped negotiate the cease-fire that took effect last month in the Nuba Mountains region of the country a rebel stronghold.

Spokesman Boucher said the attacks on the relief sites will doubtless be part of a report Mr. Danforth is preparing for the President on the utility of further U-S peace efforts, and said it is thus "imperative" that the Khartoum government provide an explanation.

The Sudanese civil war - pitting the Islamic government against rebels seeking autonomy for the mainly-Christian and animist south - has been going on for nearly 20 years and has left more than two million people dead from fighting and war-induced famine. (Signed)

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