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Channel Africa (Internet), Pan-African, 4 May 2001
Summary of reports from Khartoum

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has promised to liberate the territories occupied by rebels in his country before moving on to liberate the Palestinian territories too. Al-Bashir says the liberation of Jerusalem will follow the liberation of Kurmuk and Meridi in southern Sudan. The militia will participate in freeing Kurmuk in the Blue Nile province. The city was controlled for the past five years by the Sudan People's Liberation Army of John Garang.

Meanwhile, Sudanese police have arrested 15 more members of Islamist Hassan Al-Turabi's Popular National Congress, who have joined their leader and many of his supporters in Khartoum's Cooper prison. Al-Turabi's son, Seddiq, says the arrests constitute a suspension of the Popular National Congress - a legal party in Sudan. Thirteen of the party's officials were arrested last night in Khartoum, where they met to discuss a proposal by a number of prominent Sudanese for reconciliation between the PNC and President Al-Bashir's Government.

Note: Unless Al-Bashir can get Egyptian help, Jerusalem seems safe from him, as after decades of fighting and ethnic cleansing in Christian southern Sudan, John Garang still survives. On the other hand, Al-Bashir may have succeeded in the classic Moslem ploy of removing and arresting the man who helped him to power, Hassan Al-Turabi, and thus solidifying his hold on the Moslem North. Al-Turabi was arrested after reaching an agreement with Garang. The posturing about Jerusalem may be a belated "thank you" for the killing of two US diplomats in Khartoum on Arafat's personal order many years ago - an order deliberately ignored by the US State Department ever since "so as not to interfere with the peace process."

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Channel Africa (Internet), Pan-African, 4 May 2001
Summary of report from Cairo

President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan is due to travel to Egypt on Monday to boost co-operation between the two countries. Sudanese officials say Al-Bashir will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss ways to revive an Egyptian-Libyan initiative to end the 18-year civil war in Sudan. The talks will also focus on economic projects and how to boost the exchange of capital and goods between Sudan and Egypt.

Note: See previous Note. Egypt may prove wary of aiding Al-Bashir's most recent attempt to conquer southern Sudan - a step not likely to endear it to Washington.

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Channel Africa (Internet), Pan-African, 4 May 2001
Summary of report from Washington

President George W. Bush has sharply criticized Sudan's human rights record. Declaring Sudan a disaster area for all human rights, he emphasized that religious freedom there was singled out for special abuse. Aid agencies have reported that food was sometimes denied to those unwilling to convert to Islam. Bush's comments came hours after the United States lost its place in the UN Commission on Human Rights in a surprise vote that elected Sudan, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda - described by Human Rights Watch as a rogue's gallery of human rights abusers - from Africa, as well as France, Austria, and Sweden from Western Europe to the commission.

The US has been voted out of the UN Human Rights Commission for the first time since the Commission was formed in 1947. In the balloting, France obtained 52 votes, Austria 41 votes, Sweden 32 votes and the United States only 29 votes. The 53-member Commission usually meets in Geneva. It prepares studies and makes recommendations for the protection and promotion of human rights on its own initiative or at the request of the UN General Assembly or the Security Council.

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