By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
About a dozen international relief agencies have begun to
pull out of
southern Sudan rather than agree to operate under terms
imposed by a rebel army, and refugee workers warned that the
dispute
would endanger hundreds of thousands of people
already facing famine.
The Sudanese People's Liberation Army, which controls much
of the
region, has been trying to force aid groups to recognize
and work with its local organizations. The international agencies
say
they want to remain independent, fearing for the safety of
their workers if they give up neutrality in the civil war between
the
SPLA in the south and the Sudanese government in the
north.
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright personally telephoned
the
SPLA leader, John Garang, on Saturday, and Sen. Sam
Brownback (R-Kan.), a major congressional ally of the southern
Sudanese rebels, spoke to him last week. But both failed to
persuade Garang to budge from a March 1 deadline his movement
set for
relief agencies to sign a "memorandum of
understanding" setting conditions on their operations.
The SPLA has threatened to expel relief workers whose agencies
refuse
to sign, U.S. officials said yesterday.
"We feel that our objectivity is at stake here,"
said Bruce Wilkinson,
senior vice president of World Vision, which began
withdrawing its staff Thursday.
The dispute comes during a worsening food situation in Sudan,
which
for about 15 years has been torn by war between the
largely Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. On
Friday,
the U.N. World Food Program appealed for an additional
$58 million to feed 1.7 million people in Sudan, primarily in
the
south. The agency said "hundreds of thousands of southern
Sudanese are still at risk of hunger and malnutrition" and
called the
situation in some areas "desperate." A U.S. official
in the
region said the number of southern Sudanese refugees in camps
in
neighboring countries--Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda--had
reached 310,000 and was rising rapidly.
World Vision and CARE, both major recipients of funding from
the U.S.
Agency for International Development, are among the
groups withdrawing. Others exiting include Doctors Without Borders,
Oxfam and Save the Children. U.S. officials said the
European Community has warned that it will halt its aid to the
region
if the SPLA does not drop its ultimatum.
Although 13 aid agencies have refused to sign the memorandum,
26 other
groups, such as Catholic Relief Services, have signed
the document. U.N. agencies, which were not asked to sign the
memorandum, plan to remain.
Negotiations over the memorandum have been going on for months,
and
State Department officials said yesterday they have
become "heavily politicized." One U.S. official close
to the talks
said that southern Sudanese leaders were merely seeking
"respect" and that relief agencies' complaints were
"very minor."
But relief organizers said the SPLA was seeking to become
a "de facto
government" by forcing aid groups to recognize its
"sovereignty" over the territory.
"The agreement is primarily aimed at aligning nongovernment
organizations or humanitarian groups with political factions,"
said
Wilkinson of World Vision. "We definitely see that as not
being the
role of a humanitarian aid group." Wilkinson also raised
concerns about excessive airport and road fees imposed by the
SPLA,
and about clauses in the memorandum that could
restrict the right of assembly.
Separately, a U.S. government refugee worker complained that
SPLA
soldiers have stolen food and want to siphon off more
aid to raise money for weapons.
An administration official said that Albright, who did not
take a
strong position about the substance of the dispute in her call
to
the southern Sudanese leader, was angered by Garang's intransigence
about the deadline. "He's dug in his position and we
haven't seen any evidence of change," said the official.
"He didn't
win any friends through this exercise."
Earlier, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Harry Johnston,
met with
southern Sudanese leaders in Nairobi and also failed to
persuade them to postpone the deadline. Assistant Secretary of
State
for African Affairs Susan Rice has called Garang twice,
to no avail.
"We have deplored, and continue to deplore, the decision
of Dr.
Garang's . . . movement to expel relief workers from southern
Sudan that don't sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] by
March
the 1st," State Department spokesman James P.
Rubin said yesterday. "We have repeatedly urged Dr. Garang
and [his
movement] to suspend its March 1st deadline, to reopen
negotiations with these nongovernmental organizations."
Food aid to southern Sudan has been the subject of intense
debate in
Washington for the last four months. Brownback last year
introduced an amendment to permit the Clinton administration
to
provide food aid directly to the SPLA.
But many relief agencies objected to that idea, arguing that
food aid
groups should remain neutral. U.S. officials said the rebel
army's political wing, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement,
was
angered by criticism from relief groups, which
contributed to the impasse over the memorandum.
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