George, to your request for more info re: US policy in Sudan,  Africa
News Online has many articles re: this conflict.     Below is one of
them.

The short part of a very long and complicated conflict,  that impacts
the bordering conflicts tearing apart Ethiopia/ Eritrea, The Congo,
Uganda,  Algeria, and so on is;  the US has just entered into a Peace
Process to try to derail it.       Why?

Probably the #1 reason,  is it's desire to be the principal power player
in this key country, no matter what agreement is to be brokered.
This runs counter to the fact,  that Libya has been a key country in
brokering the most current peace efforts.

There are other extremely complicated political factors, but a simple
arguement for US intervention is on hold,  in case a future US military
intervention in the region would be favored by the Clinton regime.
The sell would be,  that the US would be entering with troops in some
form or the other, to save the South Sudan, from genocide imposed from
the North Sudan.

The sell is picture perfect, because in fact there has been a genocide
in The Sudan.      But the US was one of the principal causes for these
horrors.       But how many Americans (or Europeans, for that matter)
know this history?      A much  more simpler explanation for the
population to accept, is that poor Christian Blacks in the South are
being exterminated by the bad Arab, Muslim fanatics in the North.

Of course, we are allied with these  "Bad Muslims" in other parts of the
world, like in Chechnya, Kosovo, Pakistan, and Saudia Arabia for
examples. The leaderships of these allies easily understand the need of
the US to temporarily engage in this propaganda scheme, if it serves
their interests.      Afterwards, it would be back to business as usual.

I encourage all readers to become more informed on African issues.
Africa News Online is a key resource.

.........................Tony Abdo....................  Sudan
1.9 Million Dead from Sudan's Civil War
United States Committee on Refugees (Washington)
December 21, 1999

Khartoum - At least 1.9 million people in southern and central Sudan
have died during the past 15 years as a direct result of civil war and
intentional policies of the Sudan government, according to a newly
updated study released today by the U.S. Committee for Refugees. The
massive loss of life in Sudan far surpasses the death toll in any other
current civil war anywhere in the world.
The report estimates that more than 70,000 Sudanese civilians have died
of war-related causes in the first half of 1998 alone and predicts the
ultimate death toll this year will climb significantly higher as more
research becomes available.
It is believed that at least one out of every five southern Sudanese has
died because of the 15-year civil war, and more than 80 percent of
southern Sudan's estimated 5 million population have been displaced at
some time since 1983. Some 4 million Sudanese are internally displaced -
more than any other country on earth - and nearly 350,000 are refugees
in six neighboring countries.
The findings on deaths in Sudan are contained in a new USCR report,
"Quantifying Genocide in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains:
1983-1998." The report updates a groundbreaking 1993 study sponsored by
USCR which found that Sudan's war-related death toll was, at that time,
twice as high as previously believed. Both the 1993 study and the new
1998 USCR report are based on an exhaustive compilation of year-by-year
reports as well as internal Sudanese government documents.
The 1.9 million deaths in Sudan since 1983 were attributable to the
violence of war, war-related famine and disease, and Sudanese government
policies that spread conflict, forced southern Sudanese to relocate, and
blocked relief efforts by the United Nations and international relief
agencies. Splits within Sudan's rebel army have added to the killing and
population displacement in recent years. The report states that its
estimate of 1.9 million deaths is "conservative."
"The [Sudan] government has been relatively successful in sealing off
much of Sudan from the prying eyes of journalists, aid agencies, and
social scientists," the report states. As a result, the death toll
during the past five years "has been much harder to quantify
accurately."
The new report, unlike USCR's 1993 study, includes estimates of
war-related deaths in central Sudan's remote Nuba Mountain area, where
more than 100,000 to 200,000 people are believed to have perished
because of the conflict. Despite the extent of suffering, "There has
been no government or international agency effort to compile casualty
statistics in the Nuba Mountains and southern Sudan," the report states.
"Hundreds of thousands have died, but the deaths have usually occurred
in small numbers, in a thousand villages, many of which are isolated."
"Sudan's civil war has been characterized by an incremental ferocity
that has left untouched practically no one. . . in southern Sudan," the
report states.
"Quantifying Genocide in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains: 1983
1998" was researched and written by USCR consultant Millard Burr, former
director of logistics for the U.S. Agency for International Development
in Sudan. To order a copy of the report, please contact Raci Say at
202-347-3507.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees is a humanitarian, nongovernmental
organization that defends the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and
displaced people worldwide.

Distributed via Africa News Online (www.africanews.org). If this item is
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