S U D A N

** S U D A N **

ACRONYMS:

DUP - Democratic Unionist Party
IGADD - Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and
Development NDA - National Democratic Alliance
NIF - National Islamic Front
NSCC - New Sudan Council of Churches
NUP - Nationalist Unionist Party
PDF - Popular Defence Forces
PRMSS - Patriotic Resistance Movement of South Sudan
RASS - Relief Association for Southern Sudan
RCC - Revolutionary Command Council
RCCNS - RCC of National Salvation
SCC - Sudan Council of Churches
SEOC - Sudan Emergency Operations Consortium
SPLA - Sudan People's Liberation Army
SPLM - Sudan People's Liberation Movement
SSIM - South Sudan Independence Movement

** PEACE EFFORTS **

KHARTOUM CANVASSES AFRICAN SUPPORT AGAINST REBELS
(IPS 15 May 95, by Moyiga Nduru)
Harare - At loggerheads with most of its neighbours, Sudan is looking further afield for help in resolving its 12-year-old civil war.

Over the past two weeks Deputy Foreign Minister Gabriel Roric toured southern African countries to garner support for Khartoum's efforts to end its war with rebels fighting for self-determination for the south of the country.

According to reports reaching IPS, letters from Sudanese strongman Omar Hassan al Bashir which Roric delivered to the presidents of Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe contained requests for help in finding a peaceful settlement to the insurgency.

The minister, who hails from southern Sudan, invited President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Vice-President Simon Muzenda of Zimbabwe to visit Sudan so as to get first-hand information on the northeast African country.

The visit, Khartoum hopes, would dispel the widely held view in African capitals that the conflict in the Sudan opposes the arab Muslim north and the Christian African south.

Roric, who is an Anglican bishop, told journalists in the Zimbabwean capital that "Christians and Muslims in the Sudan have been coexisting peacefully for decades." He said the war in Africa's largest country (which is over one-fourth the size of the United States) is all about the distribution of wealth and power sharing.

He also surprised his interlocutors by claiming that Sudan was committed to a peace initiative launched in 1993 by the seven- nation Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD).

Khartoums's relations with IGADD's peace committee on Sudan, which comprises Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, have been clouded by disputes since the start of the year.

In January, the Sudanese government demanded Eritrea's withdrawal from the committee, charging that the Red Sea state was partial to Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) guerrillas in the south.

Two months before, Eritrea had severed diplomatic relations with Sudan, accusing its much larger neighbour of training 400 Eritrean Muslim fundamentalists to destabilise Africa's newest state, a charge denied by Khartoum.

The five million people in the former Italian colony, which wrested its independence from Ethiopia in 1992 after a 30-year civil war, are split evenly between Christians and Moslims.

In April, Uganda severed diplomatic ties with Sudan. Shortly before, 50 Ugandan troops had sealed off the residence of Sudanese military attachepn [sic] Hayder el Hadi Omer, whom Kampala accused of refusing to hand over an arms cache, including mines, rifles and ammunition.

The Ugandan government also accused Khartoum of harbouring a northern Ugandan rebel movement, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA is made up of Acholis, an ethnic group that straddles the Sudano-Ugandan border and to which ex-President Tito Okello, overthrown in 1986 by present head of state Yoweri Museveni, belongs.

The rebels are an offshoot of the `Holy Spirit Movement', a religious sect led by a charismatic leader called `Priestess' Alice Lakwena...

MOI TO VISIT SUDAN
(Reuter 23 May 95)
KHARTOUM - Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi will visit Sudan on Wednesday as part of a regional organisation's attempt to end the war in southern Sudan, state-run Radio Omdurman said on Tuesday.

Moi is the chairman of a committee of heads of state from the seven-nation organisation IGADD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development...

Diplomats said Moi's immediate task would be to persuade Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to extend his two- month ceasefire when it expires on May 27...

"IGADD FRIENDS" TAKE INITIATIVE TO RELAUNCH PEACE TALKS
(ION 3 Jun 95, p. 4)
Sudan's secretary of state for foreign affairs Ghazi Salah Ed- Din Atabani chose a news conference in Rome on May 19 to mention, without going into detail, a "European initiative" taken by "friendly countries of the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development" to relaunch peace negotiations on southern Sudan. He was alluding to a move begun several months ago by US special envoy Ms. Melissa Wells, who is responsible for keeping up on the southern Sudan peace negotiations (and is expected to be named US ambassador to Brazil). There have already been two meetings at The Hague (The Netherlands) and a third was scheduled there for May 30. Dutch cooperation minister Jan Pronk is acting as chairman and secretary of the group of "IGADD friends" which, from its first session, has brought in Canada, Italy, The Netherlands and Norway, joined at the second meeting by Great Britain.

To date, the participation of the European Union has not been envisaged because countries such as France (which is EU chairman until the end of June 1995) do not support this idea. In addition to Wells and Pronk the Algerian diplomat Mohamed Sahnoun has played a major role in setting up the diplomatic initiative, which benefits from the United States' good relations with Eritrea and Ethiopia...

** HEALTH CAMPAIGN AND CEASEFIRE **

SUDAN HEALTH DRIVE SET DESPITE REPORTED FIGHTING
(Reuter 17 Apr 95, by Peter Smerdon)
NAIROBI - Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter's son Chip told Sudanese rebels on Monday that a campaign to eradicate guinea worm and river blindness in southern Sudan would start from Friday despite reported ceasefire violations.

Chip Carter said breaches reported by rebels of a two-month ceasefire mediated by his father last month complicated the drive but it was set to go ahead until the end of April.

"It's on track," he told Reuters. "Fighting complicates it but OLS (U.N. Operation Lifeline Sudan) and other agencies have been working around violations in Sudan for a long time and we will go on their recommendations.

"We will start the airdrop of materials on Friday."

Carter, 44, said southern Sudan seemed relatively quiet except around Lafon village in eastern Equatoria which rebels said government troops captured last week after Khartoum agreed to ceasefire.

The South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM) said earlier that Russian-made Antonov transport planes used by government forces had heavily bombarded villages of the Pari people and others held by rebels in eastern Equatoria on Sunday...

GUINEA WORM IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS BUT NO CEASEFIRE
(NAFIR April 95)
/HAB/ The NAFIR (Nuba Action for an International Rescue) newsletter is a new publication by the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Society and Nuba Mountains Solidarity Abroad. For more informaton contact NRRDS, PO Box 76687, Nairobi, Kenya.

At the end of March, former President Jimmy Carter successfully negotiated a two-month ceasefire in Southern Sudan, in order to enable a Guinea-worm eradication programme to go ahead. The Nuba Mountains was excluded from the ceasefire, and the government immediately stepped up its military operations there--as it has done on previous occasions when there has been a Southern ceasefire, such as in 1989 and 1993. The Nuba Mountains Solidarity Abroad wrote to President Carter on 5 April, protesting against this exclusion.

The problem of guinea worm in the Nuba Mountains is severe...

No detailed surveys have been done of the Guinea worm problem recently, but it is certain that the problem is as bad, or worse than, before the war. NMSA has appealed to President Carter to reconsider the exclusion of the Nuba Mountains from the Guinea worm eradication programme.

CEASEFIRE EXTENDED FOR 2 MONTHS
(LICR 26 May 95 [Reuter])
Khartoum, May 25 - The Sudanese Government has extended by two months a cease-fire with southern rebels due to expire on Saturday (May 27), said a joint communique issued today at the end of a visit by Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi. "As a gesture of good will and a practical demonstration of Sudan's commitment to the peace process, and in full recognition of the role of President Moi, and inspired by his request, the Government of Sudan has declared the extension of cease-fire for another two months," the communique said...

/HAB/ By June 3, both SPLA-Mainstream and SSIM had accepted the two months extention of the ceasefire.

JIMMY CARTER'S LATEST PEACE INITIATIVE: WHERE CAN IT LEAD SUDAN? (SDG May 95, by Bona Malwal, Editor and Publisher) ...Seasoned Sudan observers will have noted the speed and apparent simplicity with which the cease-fire was arranged, but will also note that it is not tied to any short term or long term plans for finding a political solution to the conflict. In this respect the cease-fire is seriously flawed and given past experience, it is likely that the Khartoum regime will merely use the two month period to strengthen its position in the South. That much was made very clear by Lieutenant General El Beshir at the press conference he gave with Mr Carter. He told the audience that there were "administrative military movements in the South" which would continue and not be affected by the cease-fire announcement. In other words, the regime's besieged garrisons in the South will be relieved, resupplied and reinforced by fresh troops for when the cease-fire ends...

There are other important issues at stake. Mr Carter could have helped the cause of peace better if he had associated the cease-fire with the Inter-governmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) peace process. The IGADD peace committee has been calling for a cease-fire for many months and this has been constantly ignored by Khartoum. The IGADD countries could have provided the necessary external monitors to supervise the cease-fire, something which is lacking from the Carter initiative. Bypassing the IGADD process has played into the regime's hands. The regime has been desperately searching for an alternative to the IGADD process because it has not been able to deal with this regional initiative which seriously tackled the root causes of the Sudanese conflict. The regime will now use the Carter initiative to try and kill off the IGADD process. Mr Carter would be better advised to work with the IGADD peace committee in the search for a permanent solution to the Sudanese conflict.

NEW OFFENSIVE IN LATJOR STATE
(SU 1 Jun 95, p.1 [SSIM 23 May 95])
The South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM/A) claimed on 23 May that the Khartoum goverment had launched a new offensive in three parts of Latjor State, and alleging that this brought the total of government violations of the Carter-mediated cease-fire to 21...

What is the need for extension of the cease-fire as being proposed by President Carter? It is worth mentioning that the NIF has denied relief flights clearance to Mading, Longachuk, Maiwut, Pagak and Chotbura and in actual fact this is where it is concentrating its present offensive.

`We call on the international community, the IGADD, Friends of IGADD and the Carter [sic] to condemn the NIF for its continuous violations of the cease-fire and obstructing humanitarian relief assistance...'

ARMY REGAINS CONTROL OF PARIANG
(SNV 8 Jun 95)
It has been announced in Khartoum that the army had regained control of the town of Pariang in Upper Nile, which was under the control of the Sudan's People Liberation Army (SPLA) for 12 years.

The Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported that a convoy led by the Governor of the Unity Province had entered the town on June 4, after a deal had been struck with the SPLA commander in the town, Mik Jow, who agreed to hand over the town to the government. No details of the deal were given.

Pariang is an important strategic town for the SPLA who built a 2.5 km air-strip to receive supplies.

TWO DOCTORS KIDNAPPED BY SUDANESE AUTHORITIES IN SOUTHERN SUDAN (SNV 8 Jun 95)
Two doctors, one Italian and the other Sudanese, working for an Italian medical aid organisation in Southern Sudan, were abducted by the Sudanese authorities on May 29, near the air- strip in Pariang.

The Sudanese authorities admitted the abduction of the two doctors and accused them of collaborating with the rebels. The Italian doctor is also accused of illegally entering the country. He arrived into Southern Sudan in a plane that belongs to the relief organisation `World Vision', which operates as part of the UN `Operation Lifeline-Sudan' (OLS). The Sudanese authorities claimed that the plane did not obtain official permission to land in the area.

A statement issued by the Sudanese Embassy in London said that this incident is one of a long series of violations by OLS to the agreement with the government of Sudan. The Sudanese authorities summoned the Resident Representative of the UN in Khartoum and officially demanded the removal of Philip O'Brien, the coordinator of OLS in Nairobi because of his involvement in these violations and his continuous hostile attitude towards Sudan. The statement said the Sudanese government will not cooperate with O'Brien anymore and that he will not be allowed to enter the country. The government holds the UN responsible for this interference in Sudan's internal affairs and the violation of its sovereignty. The Sudanese government also demanded that all operations' centres of OLS should be moved inside Sudan instead of the Kenyan border town of Lokichoggio.

U.N. SAYS REBELS SEIZE AIRCRAFT IN SOUTHERN SUDAN
(Reuter 11 Jun 95, by Alfred Taban)
KHARTOUM - Sudanese rebels have seized and are holding a U.N. aircraft in southern Sudan, a United Nations official said on Sunday, but he denied that it had been sent to collect an Italian doctor detained by government troops.

A foreign ministry statement read on state Radio Omdurman on Saturday said the U.N. plane had gone to Pariang in southern Sudan to take Doctor Giuseppe Meo to Khartoum where he would be handed over to the Italian government.

The U.N. official, who asked to remain anonymous, denied this and said the aircraft was on a routine flight. He said there was no sign of Meo at Pariang or of his Sudanese colleague Hisham Ziada, accused by the government of being a member of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

Government troops detained both men in May, saying the Italian entered Sudan without permission.

The U.N. official said the rebels had boarded the plane in Pariang, a town which the government said it had entered earlier this month, implying it had captured it from the rebels.

Asked whether Pariang was in government hands, the official said: "This is what we thought, but with what happened you can draw your own conclusions."

He told Reuters the aircraft left Kenya, picked up two Sudanese officials at Juba, the largest town in the south, and then landed at Pariang.

There three SPLA members boarded it and forced the pilot to fly to the rebel enclave of Chukudum in Eastern Equatoria State.

His organisation was now negotiating with the SPLA for the release of the plane, its pilot, the three U.N. and two Sudanese officials, he said...

** SUDAN--UGANDA **

UGANDA BREAKS DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH SUDAN
(Reuter 23 Apr 95, by Edmond Kizito)
KAMPALA - Uganda on Sunday broke off diplomatic relations with Sudan after soldiers sealed off the house of a Sudanese diplomats who officials said refused to hand over a cache of weapons.

The break, announced by Uganda radio, followed a steady deterioration in relations between the two neighbours who each accuses the other of supporting rebels fighting to overthrow it...

About 50 Ugandan soldiers sealed off the residence of Sudanese military attache Hayder El-Hadi Omer in Kampala on Friday. The attache, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Sudanese army, was one of 14 diplomats Uganda had ordered out last week to cut the Sudanese mission to the same size as Uganda's in Khartoum.

A military spokesman told Reuters the residence was cordoned off after Hayder ignored an order to surrender an assortment of weapons, including landmines, assault rifles and bullets, and some new military uniforms...

Sudan protested against what it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations. A Sudanese foreign ministry statement also charged that Sudan's diplomats in Uganda had been shot at and beaten up...

UGANDA: AT LOGGERHEADS WITH KHARTOUM
(ION 29 Apr 95, p.1)
Last week's massacre near Gulu, in northern Uganda, of more than a hundred civilians, including wives of Ugandan army soldiers, by members of the Khartoum-backed rebel movement Lord's Resistance Army headed by Joseph Kony certainly weighed heavily in Kampala's decision on April 23 to break off diplomatic relations with Sudan. But the latest escalation between the two countries, barely days after they initialled an agreement of non-interference in Tripoli, is motivated more by head of state Yoweri Museveni's overall fear of what he sees as a Sudanese threat to destabilize Uganda, which is a major bridgehead for colonel John Garang's Sudanese People's Liberation Army. According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newsletter, president Museveni acquired the conviction in recent weeks that his personal safety was in danger and that the Sudanese leaders "wanted his head". Ugandan intelligence services, aided by US colleagues only too happy to be able to "criminalize" the Sudanese regime a bit more, seem certain that they had uncovered a plot against Museveni's life, with the leading role played, they claim, by the Sudanese military attache in Kampala, lieutenant-colonel Hayder El Hadi Omer, who is suspected of being a member of Khartoum's intelligence service.

The recent increase in the Sudanese embassy staff in Kampala has been interpreted as confirmation of something being planned against the Ugandan government. This thinking was behind Uganda's National Resistance Army siege on the Sudanese attache's residence on April 21. However, the search of the premises finally made on April 25 did not uncover the alleged "huge" cache of weapons: about half a dozen weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition...

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS TO BE RE-ESTABLISHED
(Reuter 11 Jun 95)
BLANTYRE - Uganda and Sudan on Sunday signed an agreement to re-establish relations after peace talks between the two countries' leaders in Malawi.

"Sudan is committed and desires to establish sister relations with Uganda," Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said.

Al-Bashir and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the agreement after the talks in Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre, which began late on Saturday night, officials said.

Museveni said free trade between the two neighbouring African nations was impossible without peace.

"We cannot have free trade in areas which are troubled by conflicts...It is a must that when we talk of trade we must talk about peace," Museveni said.

The agreement was signed after peace talks brokered by Malawi President Bakili Muluzi at his official Sanjika Palace residence in Blantyre...

** POLITICAL ISLAM AND ARMS DEALS **

BASHIR SAYS SHARI'AH WILL REMAIN IN FORCE (SWB 1 May 95 [Suna news agency, Khartoum, in Arabic 28 Apr 95]) Fashir: Lt-Gen [Umar Hasan] al-Bashir, the president of the republic, has stressed that the pressures being brought to bear on the country by the so-called Sudanese opposition by way of America and England cannot bear fruit and that Sudan is capable of teaching these people a lesson in defence of its land and honour.

That is what he said in the course of an address at a mass rally in the main square in the town of Fashir yesterday during his two-day tour of northern Darfur state. He went on to say that Sudan would revoke neither the application of the Islamic shari'ah nor its cultural course, regardless of the severity of the blockade imposed by foreign forces on the country...

RUSSIA REPORTEDLY AGREES TO RESUME MILITARY COOPERATION
(SWB 8 Apr 95 [RSR in Arabic, 6 Apr 95])
The Sudanese and Russian sides concluded their military talks at the armed forces General Command today [6th April]. This was stated by the armed forces spokesman, Brig Muhammad Bashir Sulayman, who said the Russian side had expressed complete readiness to support the Sudanese armed forces [words indistinct] to rehabilitate equipment in addition to reviving previous military agreements.

The armed forces spokesman described the talks as an important step within the framework of supporting the armed forces and as a major positive step towards [word indistinct] horizon of cooperation between the two countries, especially in the military field.

[Word indistinct] the Russian military (?delegation) arrived in the country recently and has paid field visits to the air defence force and the navy in Port Sudan and held discussions with officials of the armed forces and the Foreign Ministry...

SECRET WEAPONS (AC 12 May 95, p.8) Khartoum is going on an arms spree during the two-month ceasefire brokered on 28 March by United States' ex-President Jimmy Carter. In April, the government signed a US$120 million contract for howitzer, mortar and tank ammunition with a private US-based company owned by a Middle Eastern arms dealer. This contravenes Washington's arms embargo on Sudan, which is on the US list of `terrorist states' (AC Vol 36 No 5). Military sales would need Washington's approval--and approval would not be forthcoming, said a US source. Khartoum is trying to win friends by proposing its Horn of Africa security expert, Major Fatih Erwa (who has excellent US contacts) as Ambassador to Washington. The April deal was struck through the Sudanese bank that handles military contracts and whose staff is handpicked by the ruling National Islamic Front. It was duly confirmed by the central bank, the Bank of Sudan, with the goods listed as `drilling, mining and medical equipment'...

Sudan is seeking further supplies, including from the USA. Thanks to the role of the then President, Ja'afar Nimeiri, as an ardent US Cold War ally, much of army's equipment is American. Much is also Soviet, East European and Chinese: on 6 April, Khartoum announced it had `reactivated' its military cooperation with Moscow, which again raises the cash question: Moscow's main concern is now hard currency. Much of the Armed Forces' equipment is out of commission for lack of spares, including apparently most of its aircraft...

MILITARY ACCORD WITH IRAN
(ION 13 May 95, p.2)
A protocol for a Sudanese-Iranian military agreement was signed during the official visit to Khartoum in mid-April by an Iranian delegation headed by Majlis Shura (parliament) chairman Natiq Nuri and including Pasdaran officers and military intelligence officials. According to The Indian Ocean Newsletter's sister publication Intelligence Newsletter, the until-now secret agreement gives Tehran facilities for its navy vessels in Port Sudan and Suakin. Iran has agreed to build a naval base at Port Sudan and joint mixed commissions have been set up on intelligence and security. Iran's intelligence ministry and Pasdaran have been called on to help Sudan's secret service. Natiq Nuri also promised financial assistance for training Sudan's Popular Defence Forces, which are recruited by the National Islamic Front and include non- Sudanese Muslims. The Iranian and Sudanese embassies will step up their collaboration to boost the fundamental Islamic network, particularly in Africa.

BASHIR IN EQUATORIA, SAYS ARMY CAPABLE OF ROUTING SOUTHERN REBELS (SWB 25 May 95 [RSR in Arabic, 23 May 95])
The president of the republic, Lt-Gen Umar al-Bashir, has confirmed that the armed forces are capable of routing the outlaws [southern rebels] and of liberating every inch of the territory of the homeland.

He said this yesterday in the military zone of Equatoria [southern Sudan] when addressing a ceremony organized to honour the martyr Sayf al-Dawlah's forces.

Lt-Gen Bashir said that peace would come through dialogue and the liberation of the territory. His excellency confirmed the support of the leadership for the armed forces and popular defence forces to protect the land and the honour of women.

The president of the republic praised the heroic role of the martyr Sayf al-Dawlah's forces in the defeat of the rebels.

SUDAN HELPS ARM AFRICAN MOSLEMS
(Reuter 27 Apr 95)
YAOUNDE - Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan are arming Islamist groups in sub-Saharan Africa under the guise of helping Islam, according to the head of a U.N. team investigating proliferation of light weapons in the region.

William Eteki-Mboumoua, a former Organisation of African Unity secretary-general, also told Reuters on Thursday that weapons from former Communist countries of eastern Europe were finding their way into the hands of armed robbers in West Africa's cities.

"Under the guide of Islam, the Middle East - notably Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Libya - are distributing arms to Islamist groups, not only in Algeria, but also in Mauritania and other African countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso," he said...

SUDAN SAID TO HAVE TRAINED "EXTREMISTS" FOR ACTIONS IN SELF- RULE AREA (SWB 10 May 95 [MENA news agency, Cairo, in Arabic 8 May 95]) Gaza, 8th May: The Palestinian weekly newspaper `Al- Manar' reports today that Palestinian President Yasir Arafat has sent a message to Dr Hasan al-Turabi, secretary-general of the [National] Islamic Front in Sudan. The message was conveyed by Amin al-Hindi, head of the Palestinian intelligence service.

The paper notes that investigations conducted by the Palestinian [National] Authority of several extremists revealed that the Sudanese regime had trained these extremists to carry out military operations in the self-rule areas.

SUDANESE SOLDIERS REPORTEDLY JOIN GOVERNMENT FORCES IN
NORTHWESTERN BOSNIA
(SWB 25 May 95 [Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 23 May 95]) In an item datelined Petrovac, 23rd May, Tanjug news agency reported the arrival in northwestern Bosnia of foreign Muslim soldiers to join up with Bosnian government troops there. Quoting Velkaton radio, which broadcasts in support of the rebel Muslims led by Fikret Abdic, the agency said: "From reliable sources, Velkaton has learnt that a large number of mujahidin from Islamic countries, mainly from Sudan, have arrived to join the notorious Buzim brigade."

** SPLA **

JOHN GARANG SAYS FACTIONS UNITING
(Reuter 11 Apr 95, by Peter Smerdon)
NAIROBI - The head of the main Sudanese rebel group said on Tuesday fighters from breakaway factions were rejoining his movement under pressure on the ground in the south.

The rebels however said that government troops, violating a two-month ceasefire and backed by tanks and warplanes, on Monday captured the southern village of Lafon after their forces pulled out.

John Garang, chairman of the mainstream Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said among the rebels who had rejoined his movement was Willian Nyong, who was his second in command until he broke away and set up a rival faction in 1992.

Garang said Nyong joined officers, non-commissioned officers and men at Lafon on April 1 who were sick of the split and contacted him and were allowed back into the mainstream SPLA.

Asked whether he was cautious about the step by Nyong, accused by the SPLA of collaborating with Khartoum, Garang said:

"He is now with us. We have no caution at all because he is shooting at the same enemy as we are...Nyong has joined the initiative (to rejoin the SPLA) and is now fully on board."...

THE LAFON DECLARATION
(NSCC Partner Update May 95)
...A new agreement has been reached for the purpose of unification of the SPLA/SPLM. It came into effect on 27 April, 1995 after it was signed by Dr. John Garang de Mabior for the SPLA/M and Cmdr. William Nyuon Bany on behalf of Dr. Riek Machar for the SSIM/A.

The document consists of four parts which include 1) cessation of hostilities and ceasefire, 2) re- unification, 3) re- integration of forces, and 4) amnesty, reconciliation and peace...

Face to face meetings between Dr. Garang and Dr. Riek are being planned by the movement...

GOVERNMENT PAPER CLAIMS ISRAELIS INVOLVED IN ARMS DEAL WITH REBELS
(SWB 28 Apr 95 [Suna news agency, Khartoum, in Arabic 26 Apr 95]) Khartoum: The `Al-Sudan al-Hadith' newspaper, published in Khartoum, in today's issue reported that a four- member Jewish business delegation holding European passports arrived early this week in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in order to conclude an arms import deal worth a lot of money with the rebel movement and the Ugandan government and to transport the arms across the border.

In this context, Jewish organizations have opened bank accounts in Switzerland, Holland and Belgium in the names of export and import companies.

Earlier, the representative of the rebel movement, [for the Middle East] Majok Ayom, visited Israel, where he met Mossad and Defence Ministry officials, and Willy Cohen [untraced], a Mossad official in charge of southern Sudan. His meetings ended with the arms imports.

The Israelis expressed fear of sending experts, saying that the Sudanese government had extended its control in the south, and that they may be arrested...

U.N. CONDEMNS ABDUCTION OF 22 AID WORKERS IN SUDAN
(Reuter 9 May 95)
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations late Tuesday condemned the abduction of 22 relief aid workers, including two foreigners, by gunmen in southern Sudan.

Peter Hanson, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said he condemned the abduction "in the strongest possible terms," and called for immediate and unconditional release of all personnel delivering food to the impoverished south.

He demanded "the immediate restitution of looted food and other relief goods."

Those kidnapped Sunday included two foreign and Sudanese staff working for the World Food Programme, five local staff members of the U.N. Children's Fund or UNICEF and a 13-man barge crew transporting the humanitarian goods for the Operation Lifeline Sudan programme, according to a statement.

The two foreigners seized have been named as Mirko Rizzuto of Italy and Romi Delos Santos of the Philippines.

Hanson said at least one of the foreigners was abducted by a faction of the rebel Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry has blamed Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels loyal to faction leader John Garang. The ministry said the kidnapping breached the agreement reached between government and rebel combatants on the safe passage of relief aid.

Khalid Adly, WFP operations director in Sudan, told Reuters the foreigners had been in radio contact with his office. "They are well and not hurt, but they are uncomfortable."

He said the barge, loaded with more than 700 tons of aid, was shot at and boarded by gunmen Sunday at Barboi, a remote spot about 60 miles (100 km) west of Malakal, southern Sudan's third largest town.

REBELS RELEASE FILIPINO AID WORKER
(Reuter 15 May 95)
ROME - A Filipino employee of the World Food Programme has been released unharmed by Sudanese rebels who held him hostage for a week, a spokesman for the United Nations organisation said on Monday.

WFP spokesman Francis Mwanza said Romi Delos Santos, 57, who had been held by rebels in the Tonga village, was in good health after his release on Sunday. He arrived in Nairobi on Monday...

** OPPOSITION **

EL MAHDI PUBLICLY ENDORSES SELF-DETERMINATION (SDG April 95, by Bona Malwal, Editor and Publisher) The leader of the Umma Party and former Prime Minister Sadiq El Mahdi last month used his speech at the end of Ramadan to endorse the right of the people of Southern Sudan to Self- determination enshrined in the agreement between the Umma Party and the SPLA signed at Chukudum on 12 December 1994.

In a wide-ranging political speech, Sadiq El Mahdi said that Southern Sudan should decide in a free and fair referendum whether to remain part of a united Sudan. If the people of the South voted for independence, then he could see no sense in trying to maintain unity by force.

To give the best possible chance to the maintenance of unity, he said that the country should accord the Southern people all of their political, religious, cultural and citizenship rights in a democratic system of government. He hoped that in an atmosphere of freedom and equality, the people of the South would choose to remain part of a united democratic Sudan. He emphasied the importance of democracy for a country as diverse as Sudan.

By endorsing the right of Self-determination, Sadiq El Mahdi has brought the issue to the top of the political agenda. Some Northern political parties and politicians had begun to accuse the Umma Party of breaking the traditional ranks of the North by agreeing to Self-determination for the South. They had begun to question ther seriousness of the Umma Party on the issue. The Egyptian administration had also joined in the questioning. Sadiq El Mahdi's speech has set the record straight and committed his party to the path of unity based on the choice of Self- determination. Furthermore, he has reassured all the doubters, both North and South, about the Umma Party's leadership committment to the Chukudum agreement with the SPLA...

Whatever the future holds for the North and South, they will always remain neighbours and this will means dealing with each other and reaching agreements.

For those Southerners who view separation from the North as the answer to all their problems, it it useful to be reminded that whether or not the South gains independence, it remains a close neighbour of the North. Maintaining good relations with a neighbour, where you have common borders, tribes and languages, will be no less important that maintaining good relations with the new state. One must therefore have an open mind and a clear vision of the other side's interest as one pursues one's own interests.

On another occasion, in a private communication, Sadiq El Mahdi once said that the worst which could happen to Sudan would be for the country to break up into two mutually antagonistic states. This is something that all politicians, North and South, ought to think about carefully and to keep in mind as they deal with one another...

WAVE OF ARRESTS MARK NEW CLAMPDOWN ON GOVERNMENT CRITICS
(AI 5 Jun 95, AFR 54/19/95)
The arrest of leading political opponents in Sudan marks a new clampdown on critics of the military government, Amnesty International reported today.

"The arrest of Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of the Ansar order of Islam and of the banned Umma Party, underlines the way the authorities are deeply sensitive to opposition from advocates of other interpretations of Islam," the human rights organization said.

At least 11 other leading figures from the Ansar and the Umma Party have been detained in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, following the 16 May arrest of Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan's Prime Minister ousted in the 1989 coup which brought the current government to power. They include former members of parliament, a former governor of Sudan's westernmost region, Darfur, and the women's activist Sara Nugdallah. There are unconfirmed reports of further arrests of Umma Party members in the central towns of Kosti and Gedaref. In late May, 15 trade unionists were picked up in Port Sudan.

The Umma Party members arrested in Khartoum are being held in Kober Prison, the main prison complex in the city, in a wing which since March has apparently been under the supervision of the security services - a body notorious for the torture of detainees. Amnesty International is concerned that the detainees may be at risk of ill-treatment or torture and there are reports that the detainees are being held without access to relatives or lawyers.

Amnesty International has been pursuing a worldwide campaign on the situation of human rights in Sudan since the publication of a major report in January. The authorities responded by banning the human rights organization from visiting the country and by accusing it of insulting Islam.

"There is nothing Islamic about arbitrary detention and torture," Amnesty International said. "The majority of those arrested in the past few weeks are members of the Ansar order of Islam -- this makes clear that human rights violations in Sudan remain fundamentally a product of a repressive government hostile to criticism."

The authorities have accused Sadiq al-Mahdi and other Umma Party leaders of cooperating with the armed opposition Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a charge which arises from the signing in December 1994 of an agreement between exiled Umma Party leaders and the SPLA. However, given that the agreement has been public knowledge for five months, a more immediate reason for the detentions appears to be an outspoken speech by Sadiq al-Mahdi attacking the Sudanese authorities made at a mosque on 10 May, during celebrations marking the Muslim feast of `Eid al-Addha...

OPPOSITION REPORTEDLY PLANNING TO BROADCAST FROM ERITREA
(SWB 19 May 95 [Suna news agency, Khartoum, in Arabic 16 May 95]) Khartoum [no date, as received]: The Eritrean president, Isayas Afewerki, has asked opposition elements [presumably Sudanese] to quickly transfer [word indistinct] and equipment to set up a proposed radio station in Asmara.

A report published in today's issue of `Al-Sudan al- Hadith'said that the Eritrean ambassador to Cairo met the leader of the defunct Unionist Party, Muhammad Uthman al- Mirghani, last week and during their meeting stressed the need to set up the radio station quickly, as it is a form of [word indistinct].

The newspaper pointed out that the country which owns the radio equipment has set the condition that it should be returned once its objectives have been accomplished. The equipment belongs to a Gulf country that has suffered a crisis in recent years.

BEJA AGREEMENT
(SU 1 Jun 95, p.3 [MEI 12 May 95])
`On 6 May, the [armed opposition] Sudanese Allied Forces led by Brigadier Abd al-Aziz Khalid Osman, who are well seen in Eritrea, signed a coordination agreement with the Beja tribes, as represented by the Beja conference, re-formed last year,' reports Middle East International. `Using John Garang's term of a "New Sudan", they agreed "to get rid of the NIF... by all means, including armed uprising". The fundamental relationship of religion to the constitution was not mentioned.

`The Beja, who live in the Red Sea areas and across the Eritrean border, have a warrior tradition and spirit of independence that have troubled Sudan's rulers since colonial times, when Osman Digna's fighters broke the British square. A number of recent clashes have been attributed to a "Beja army", believed several thousand strong. Beja people are particularly angered by the 1992 execution of Beja officer Brigadier Mohamed Osman Hamid Karrar.'

** FOREIGN RELATIONS **

TALKS START BETWEEN SUDAN AND IRAQ ON LAW
(Reuter 7 Apr 95, by Alfred Taban)
KHARTOUM - Talks on the legal issues between Sudan and Iraq began on Thursday, the government-owned al-Ingaz al-Watani (National Salvation) newspaper reported on Friday.

The paper said the two sides, headed by Abdel-Aziz Shido, Sudan's minister of justice, and his Iraqi counterpart, Shabib Lazim al-Malaki, have formed a committee to meet annually and alternately in both countries.

The committee, which is headed by the justice ministers of the two countries, is to include experts in the judiciaries and legal affairs in both countries...

USA AND SUDAN APPOINT NEW AMBASSADORS
(ION 13 May 95, p.8)
Following the appointment of brigadier Al Fateh Orawa, the former counsellor for security matters to Sudanese head of state general Omar Hassan Al Bechir, as Sudan's ambassador to the United States, US president Bill Clinton has just named veteran diplomat Timothy Michael Carney as the new US ambassador to Sudan (subject to confirmation by the Senate)...

NEW BRITISH AMBASSADOR SAYS DIFFERENCES CAN BE OVERCOME
(SWB 6 May 95 [RSR in English, 3 May 95])
The new British ambassador to Sudan, Mr Alan Fletcher Goulty, said the coming month will witness improvement and understanding between Sudan and Britain and the laying of the basis for a frank and friendly dialogue on those issues of differences...

OMAR YUSSUF BAREEDO NEW AMBASSADOR TO GREAT BRITAIN
(ION 3 Jun 95, p.8)
Sudan's new ambassador to Great Britain, Omar Yussuf Bareedo, is expected to take up his functions on July first. He was previously first deputy permanent secretary to the foreign ministry (1993-1995) and earlier in his career was named to several diplomatic posts abroad including New Delhi (1963-1966), London (1966-1969), Kampala (1971-1973), and New York (1973-1976). Omar Yussuf Bareedo was subsequently Sudan's permanent representative to the United Nations European Office (1978-1983) and then at its headquarters in New York (1984-1986). He interrupted this long diplomatic career with a spell in Khartoium (1976-1978) where he headed the Africa Desk and later the international organization department in the foreign ministry.

** HUMAN RIGHTS **

GORDON MICAH KUR: PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
(AI 3 May 95, AFR 54/13/95)
Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Gordon Micah Kur, who is currently being held without charge or trial in Kober Prison in Khartoum. The former policeman and social worker was arrested in February 1995 in northern Sudan and held for a time in one of the "ghost houses" - detention centres notorious for torture and ill-treatment...

Amnesty International fears that if Gordon Micah Kur is transferred back to a "ghost house", his past involvement with the Sudanese Amputees' Association (SSA - see below) would put him at particular risk of torture.

Background information

Gordon Micah Kur has been repeatedly harassed by the authorities, apparently because of his social work between 1987 and 1989 with the SSA, a welfare organization set up to help the victims of hand and foot amputation sentences imposed by the courts between 1983 and 1985. The SSA was regarded as insulting to Islam by supporters of the National Islamic Front, which since 1989 has provided the ideological basis for the current government, and the organization was among many which were banned on 30 June 1989.

Gordon Micah Kur was previously detained between September 1989 and June 1991 and was adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience...

DISAPPEARANCE OF WOMAN ACTIVIST: ADILA A ZAYBAQ
(Sudan Human Rights Organisation press release 27 Apr 95) The Security forces in Khartoum arrested Ms Adila a Zaybaq on 20/3/1994. Ms al-Zaybaq was a leading member during the democratic period of the now outlawed Women's Union and she has been subjected to persistent harassment, under the current military regime. Ms al-Zaybaq's arrest came after she had obtained an entry visa to the United States of America to attend a women's conference. The security forces confiscated her conference papers and searched her house. In connection with Ms al-Zaybaq's arrest, the office of Ms Majda Muhammad Ali, a member of a Sudanese NGO, was searched.

According to our latest information, Ms al-Zaybaq is still in detention and her whereabouts are unknown. Sudan Human Rights Organisation is concerned about her safety and well being. The conduct of the current regime in treating citizens suspected of opposition is characterized by its heartless and brutality. There are serious fears that Ms al-Zaybaq may be subjected to torture and ill-treatment in her undiscovered detention centre.

Sudan Human Rights Organisation calls upon all concerned to express their concern to the Sudanese authorities and to press for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms al-Zaybaq.

BISHOP PARIDE TABAN TO FRANCE
(ION 27 May 95, p.8)
Bishop Paride Taban of Torit, in southern Sudan, is to make a visit to France next week to testify on the Khartoum regime's human rights and freedom fo religion violations in that region.

** REFUGEES, DISPLACED PEOPLE AND RELIEF **

SUDAN DECRIES LACK OF WORLD AID FOR REFUGEES FROM ERITREA AND ETHIOPIA
(Reuter 8 May 95)
KHARTOUM - Sudan will no longer be able to shoulder the burden of coping with over a million refugees at a time of shrinking international assistance, the official Sudanese news agency on Monday quoted an official as saying.

Ihsan al-Ghabshawi, commissioner for refugees, said international assistance had dropped from $109 per refugee a decade ago to only $10 now, SUNA reported.

"Sudan will no longer be able to shoulder the responsibility of refugees as it has been doing in the past," Ghabshawi said, adding that Sudan was paying 67 percent of refugee expenses from its own meagre resources.

She said Sudan received $9 million per year to help it cope with about a million refugees, most of them from Eritrea and Ethiopia, but other countries with fewer than half that number of refugees received over $35 million...

MISSIONARIES SAY THOUSANDS OF RETURNEES FACE DEATH IN SUDAN
(Reuter 19 May 95)
NAIROBI - Italian missionaries appealed on Friday for food and other supplies for thousands of displaced people they said faced death in the forests of southern Sudan.

Monsignor Caesar Mazzolari said since January thousands of people displaced to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum had applied to return to their places of origin in the war-ravaged south.

They were transported, with the help of aid agencies, to the government-held town of Wau but fled into thick forests in Bahr al-Ghazal province as they could not afford to buy food in Wau.

Mazzolari, visiting Nairobi, said a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of sorghum was selling in Wau for 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($350).

"Fear makes them cross the Bussera river and run away into the anonymity and oblivion of the forest. There the returnees find neither food nor shelter. Out of hunger they are resorting to eating any wild growth or non-poisonous roots," he said.

Mazzolari, of the Comboni missionaries, told Reuters he saw some 1,800 returnees in two counties in Bahr al-Ghazal last week and they were short of food and had no shelter from torrential rain.

"This wave must be stopped now or it will turn the south into a burial ground," he said, adding the transfer from Khartoum was not organised by the government but was permitted...

SUDAN SAYS IT RECEIVED MEAGRE U.N. RELIEF AID
(Reuter 22 May 95)
KHARTOUM - A senior Sudanese government official said on Monday the international community has responded weakly to United Nations appeals for aid for his war-torn country.

Dr Bakhiet Abdullah Yacoub, the deputy commissioner for relief and rehabilitation, was quoted by the state-owned Al-Sudan Al- Hadith newspaper as saying that only $15 million of the $101 million requested have arrived so far.

Most Western countries have cut off development aid following repeated U.N. condemnations of human rights violations in Sudan, but have continued to offer emergency relief aid to war-affected areas.

The country's failure to introduce a democratic, multi-party system has also contributed to dwindling aid supplies. The government has also not received any new pledges, Yacoub added...

THE UNACCOMPANIED MINORS OF SOUTHERN SUDAN
(Radda Barnen report Nov 94)
The Radda Barnen [Swedish Save the Children] report The unaccompanied minors of southern Sudan charts the extraordinary story of the unaccompanied minors' arrival in Pignudo, Ethiopia, the exodus in 1991, and their arrival in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya 1992.

Although the children repeatedly were exposed to traumatic experiences through extreme hardships and war experiences during their flight, they seemingly did remarkably well. The report discusses culturally-based coping mechanisms, and how care arrangements derived out of these mechanisms were allowed to operate.

This report is based on research and material collected by Olle Jeppsson, a Swedish pediatrician, as well as documentation and research carried out by Radda Barnen staff in Ethiopia and Kenya led by Hirut Tefferi, Resident Representative in Radda Barnen's Sub-office in Nairobi, Kenya.

/HAB/ For more information contact Radda Barnen, 107 88 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel. No. (+46) 8-698 90 00, Fax No. (+46) 8-698 90 12

** DOMESTIC NEWS **

PRESIDENT PLEDGES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS "SOON"
(SWB 24 Apr 94 [RSR in Arabic, 22 Apr 95])
Lt-Gen Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, the president of the republic, today at Friendship Hall addressed the opening session of Khartoum State's Council of Deputies.

He confirmed that the elections for Khartoum State's Council of Deputies had ended successfully. He said that consultations had become a social and religious value and should be the foundation of our political and social system...

He said that the areas which used to be marginalized were now seeing the construction of schools, health centres and roads. Lt-Gen Bashir confirmed the importance of the supervisory and legislative role of the council of deputies...

He also said that elections at the level of the presidency of the republic would be held soon...

SUDAN BEGINS CENSUS OF EXPATRIATE WORKERS
(Moneyclips via RBB 20 Apr 94 [Saudi Gazette, by Abdul Rahman Osman]) Jeddah, April 15: A head count for Sudanese working abroad has started in the Sudan and all host countries.

The operation aims at collecting authentic and up-to-date information about hundreds of thousands of Sudanese expatriates and their families.

The initial phase of the census started today in all exit and entry points in the Sudan and in Sanaa, Yemen.

It will be extended this week to all stations with concentrations of Sudanese expatriates...

SUDANESE PROTEST AGAINST POWER AND WATER SHORTAGES
(SWB 2 May 95 [KNA news agency, Nairobi, in English 24 Apr 95]) Khartoum, Sudan, 24th April: This year's average water flow in Sudan's Blue Nile in the lowest in nine decades and is the reason behind the acute water and power shortage in the capital, Khartoum, yesterday. Khartoum has since mid-March faced an acute power shortage due, according to electricity officials, to a low level of the Blue Nile, which flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. As a result, there is an inadequate flow of water into the Er Roseires Dam in central Sudan, where the major portion of the national grid electricity is generated.

The acting director-general of the electricity authority, Makkawi Muhammad Awad, was yesterday quoted by the newspaper `Al-Ra'y al-Akhar'as saying this situation has forced his organization to cut off power from several parts of the capital during the day and night.

But this has irked consumers, especially in Omdurman, the Sudanese twin capital, where massive protests took place Thursday and Friday [20th and 21st April] against the water and power cuts...

SUDAN SENTENCES NINE WOMEN TO DEATH FOR DRUGS
(Reuter 7 Jun 95)
KHARTOUM - A Sudanese court has sentenced nine women to death for drug trafficking, a Khartoum newspaper said on Wednesday.

The state-owned Al Ingaz Al Watani quoted the director of the drug squad in the Ministry of Interior as saying the women had been arrested for selling hashish to Sudanese youth. He did not say when and where the arrests took place.

Brigadier Kamal Omar said there had been a noticeable increase in drug abuse among young people in the past few months, especially among secondary school students.

Omar said Sudan had become a transit point for West African drugs on their way to the Gulf and Europe.

Last July, four Nigerians were sentenced to death after they were found with several kilograms of heroin but it is not clear if the sentences were carried out.

** ECONOMIC NEWS **

PARIBAS PROJECT FOR ENERGY
(ION 6 May 95, p.5)
The project studied last year by Paris-based private bankers Lazard Freres to mount a credit line to enable the Sudanese government to repay a small part of its debt arrears to the International Monetary Fund (ION No. 642) has now been reshaped and tabled again. Meanwhile, the French bank Paribas is now working on an ordinary bank load for Sudan along similar lines: the credit line (with a first tranche of US$25 million) would be guaranteed on revenues from the Ariab gold mine run by the French parastatal Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres. Lazard's financial package had involved Arab investments too but had been abandoned last June after it turned out that the mine's operational value fell well short of the financial guarantee it was intended to supply. According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newsletter, however, in the case of the Paribas package, the Sudanese government has asked for the financing to be tied to projects in the energy sector and in particular to rehabilitation of the Port Sudan oil refinery. The financial package is expected to be completed very shortly. Meanwhile, the director general of Sudan Railways, Hassan Khalifa, says that the company is negotiating another French loan of $6 million, intended to cover work on rehabilitating the railway network.

IMF COMPLETES MONITORING PROGRAMME
(MEED 15 May 95)
The IMF team which has been in Khartoum since early March to monitor the progress of the government's economic reforms returned to Washington on 5 May to prepare a report for the fund's executive board. The report, which is expected to be favourable, will be presented at the end of May and should enable Sudan to negotiate a rights accumulation programme.

Sudan's arrears to the IMF total about $1,700m, with interest being charged at 5.5% a year. The government began paying interest on the debt last year as part of its economic reform programme.

If the IMF monitoring report is favourable, negotiations will begin over Sudan joining the IMF's rights accumulation programme, which was developed by the fund for countries in protracted arrears. This would not only encourage donors to resume bilateral aid to the country but would enable it to negotiate an enhanced structural adjustment facility which would reduce interest on its debt to 0.5% a year.

SUDAN SAYS AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK LIFTS BAN
(Reuter 16 May 95)
KHARTOUM - The African Development Bank has lifted its ban on providing finance to Sudan, Finance Minister Abdalla Hassan Ahmad said.

The government-owned newspaper Al-Ingaz al-Watani (National Salvation) on Tuesday quoted Ahmad as saying the ban was lifted after the bank exempted Sudan from paying overdue loan instalments. He did not say when the ban was imposed.

Ahmad said Sudan was paying its dues and would propose projects to the Abidjan-based bank.

SUDAN POUND WEAKENS AS MONEY DEALERS LEGALISED
(Reuter 22 May 95)
KHARTOUM - The Sudanese pound has lost five percent of its value on the black market in the week since the government announced it would allow private money dealers to trade legally, traders said.

The traders said demand for hard currency had grown because prospective moneychangers need it to go into business.

The pound has fallen from 625 to the dollar last week to 660 pounds today on the balck market and the decline is continuing, they said.

Banks trading in the official market quoted the dollar at around 530 pounds.

The Sudanese government last week announced it had decided to let private moneychangers open shop and set their own rates according to supply and demand.

The new bureaux, which can open when the fiscal year starts on July 1, will need a capital of about $600,000 each.

Traders said the value of the pound had been steadily gaining over the past two months, rising to 625 pounds to the dollar last week from from 725 pounds in March.

Sabir Mohammad Hassan, governor of the central bank, said the move would help stabilise the currency and narrow the gap between the official and black market rates.

RUSSIA BIDS FOR SUDAN OIL PIPELINE PROJECT
(SWB 28 Apr 95 [Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 24 Apr 95]) Russia's Zarubezhneftegazstroy corporation, which specializes in overseas oil and gas infrastructure projects, is bidding to build a pipeline complex in Sudan, Interfax news agency reported.

Estimated to be worth 1bn dollars, the project will revolve around a pipeline to pump up to 10m tonnes a year from oilfields in the central region of the country to Port Sudan via El Obeid and Khartoum. It will also include storage facilities, pumping stations, anti-corrosion systems and "probably" two oil refineries, the agency was told by an official at the corporation. Zarubezhneftestroy is to submit its feasibility study to the Sudanese Ministry of Energy and Mining, he said.

The first leg to link the oil fields to El Obeid is scheduled for 1995-1997 at a cost of 400m dollars, with the whole project to be finished by 1999.

However, the official added that it "would entirely depend on whether the search for investors is successful, because the chances the project will be financed from the Russian budget are rather bleak for obvious reasons", Interfax said.

ARAKIS WELL TESTS 6,000 B/D
(MEED 1 May 95)
Recent tests carried out by the State Petroleum Corporation, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada's Arakis Energy Corporation, have discovered a tested capacity of 6,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil in the Heglig 8X well in the Lower Bentiu Zone of the Greater Heglig oil field. This is the highest flow rate ever attained for a single pay zone within the company's concessions in Sudan...

Arakis currently has more than 135 people working in central Sudan on development and exploration as well as pipeline infrastructure and engineering.

SUDAN, ROMANIA FORM OIL-DRILLING JOINT VENTURE
(AA 2 Jun 95, p.11)
Sudan and Romania have agreed terms for a joint-venture oil- drilling company. Romania, which will supply the equipment, will have 49%; Sudanese shareholders will be Agricultural Bank (31%) and Nilayn Bank and Farmers' Bank (10% each).

SUDANESE ENERGY MINISTER DISCUSSES OIL COOPERATION WITH CHINA
(SWB 13 Jun 95 [Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 5 Jun 95]) Beijing, 5th June: Chinese Vice- Premier and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen met with Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mines [Brig Salah al-Din] Muhammad Ahmad Karrar and his party here today... Qian said China attaches importance to cooperation with Sudan in oil industry. Karrar arrived here 1st June at the invitation of Wang Tao, General Manager of the China Oil and Gas Corp. During his stay in Beijing, he exchanged views with Wang on bilateral cooperation in oil industry.

FOREIGN FIRMS GO FOR GOLD
(IPS 29 May 95, by Nhial Bol)
KHARTOUM - Undeterred by the risk of rebel attacks, a Chinese company is storming ahead with plans to prospect for gold in eastern Sudan.

The Hong Kong International Company, which signed an agreement with the Sudanese government last week, will operate at Gissan and Kurmuk on the border with Ethiopia. The two garrison towns, lying within artillery range of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), fell twice to the rebels in the 1980s.

Despite the security risks, government officials like Dr Omer Mohamed al Khair of the Department of Geology say the project will go ahead as planned. According to al Khair, the Chinese company, which signed a 25-year renewable contract, will start operating in Gissan and Kurmuk next month.

The area lies not far from the Red Sea Hills, where Ariap Gold Company, a joint Sudanese-French firm, has produced more than three tonnes of gold in the past two years. Al Khair says he expects production to top four tonnes by the end of 1996.

Gold production at another deposit, the Gebeit mine, averages four kilos per week, according to the Department of Geology.

The renewed interest among foreign companies in mining Sudan's gold is a morale booster for the government of Lt. Gen. Omar el Bashir after the closure of two major projects in the past two years as a result of attacks by the SPLA.

In 1993, the SPLA, which is fighting for self-determination for southern Sudan, forced a French company digging the massive Jonglei Canal - an Egyptian-Sudanese project that would increase the availability of water from the Nile - to suspend operations.

In 1994, Chevron, a U.S. Firm which had invested about a billion dollars in oil fields in southern Sudan, finally closed down its drilling sites which had been idle for several years...

The government rarely discloses how much it spends on the war, but unofficial reports say it costs around one million dollars a day. Civil servants go without pay for as much as three months.

Sudan's main exports are cotton, sorghum and gum arabic. It receives subsidised petrol from Qatar and Libya, and a significant proportion of foreign exchange from the remittances of Sudanese working in the gulf states.

Khartoum's decision to encourage foreign firms to invest in Sudan appears to have been taken on the strength of its recent military successes against the rebels...