SURVIVORS' RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL | Sudan Alert WP article

On the morning of Sept. 11, Charles Jacobs, head of the American Anti-Slavery Group, was at the Capitol building to speak at a news conference with lawmakers who supported the Sudan Peace Act and capital market sanctions on companies doing business in Sudan.

"Do we really want to have stock traded on Wall Street from enslaving, genocidal terrorist nations," he planned to ask, in a reference to Sudan, where roughly 2 million people have died in 17 years of civil war. But the conference was canceled after the terrorist hijackings prompted an evacuation at the Capitol.

Now, it appears as though the first casualties of the new U.S. war on terrorism could be the Sudan Peace Act, capital markets sanctions and much of the agenda of activists who have sought a tougher U.S. stance toward Sudan. Citing Sudan's cooperation with U.S. requests for information for the new war on terrorism, the Bush administration has signaled its willingness to engage the Khartoum regime and consider lifting sanctions on the country.

"We've been worse than sidetracked. We've been betrayed," Jacobs said.

Until recently, activists for a tougher U.S. policy on Sudan hoped that the Bush administration would push hard for a change in Khartoum's policies, an end to the country's civil war, and a halt to the abduction or enslavement of southern Sudanese, many of whom are Christians.

But now those activists — mostly from bedrock Republican constituencies — fear those issues will be lost as the administration makes its hunt for alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden its top priority.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration has reached out to Khartoum for information about bin Laden, who lived in Sudan from 1991 to 1996. On Sept. 19, congressional leaders abruptly dropped plans to take action on the Sudan Peace Act, just as Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) was about to call for a conference committee from the House floor. Days later, the administration abstained from a resolution to lift U.N. sanctions imposed on Sudan after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in1995.

"We're getting very good cooperation," said a State Department official.

Many people trying to influence U.S. policy on Sudan worry when they hear that.

"We have deep concern that the essentials of our engagement — human rights, religious freedom, and the issue of oil and oil's role in the war — we hope none of those will get lost," said the Rev. Michael Perry of the U.S. Catholic Conference.

"Sudan has already reaped tremendous benefits from the United States for the tidbits of information it's given even while the government continues to terrorize its own people," said Nina Shea, director of the center for religious freedom at Freedom House. "We've lost a lot of ground; southern Sudan has lost a lot of ground with the alliance in the Bush war against terrorism."

On Tuesday, the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote Bush's special envoy for the Sudan, former senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), urging him to press Khartoum to end bombing of southern Sudan, lift bans on food relief flights, join peace talks, guarantee religious freedom and put oil revenue in an internationally monitored trust fund.

"During this period of war against terrorism, we again urge the Bush administration to press all sides of the conflict in Sudan to respect basic human rights and religious freedom and to make a just and lasting peace in Sudan a top administration priority," wrote Michael K. Young, the commission's chairman.

The State Department official said "the reality is this is just one more proof that September 11 changed our lives and altered our policy and policy priorities. If we are getting serious cooperation from Khartoum, that's a shift and we must recognize it." He added, however, "having said that, in the medium and long term, counterterrorism cooperation ultimately will not define our bilateral relationship."

"I think the activists have some very valid concerns," said Stephen Morrison, Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Clinton administration official. "But to simply declare betrayal and grieve over loss of market sanctions is to miss the point. The point is we're getting enormous traction when we push these guys to do serious things that matter to us."

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