Bush administration takes step towards lifting Sudan arms embargo

[gottaB]

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The Bush administration moved one step closer Tuesday to lifting an arms embargo against Sudan, even as it decried the government's role in blocking relief efforts for a huge humanitarian crisis sparked by continuing Sudanese military attacks against civilians.

Secretary of State Colin Powell removed Sudan from a list of countries that cannot receive U.S. arms because they have failed to cooperate with the U.S. on international terrorism. He formally notified Congress of that decision with the publication Tuesday morning of a notice in the Federal Register.

Sudan's removal from the so-called non-cooperative list moves it closer to having the arms embargo lifted, though that cannot happen until its name also is taken off of a separate list of state sponsors of terrorism. The U.S. government maintains the two lists to pressure nations that either maintain formal ties with terrorist groups or do not do enough to help the U.S. go after them.

Later Tuesday, Powell did not mention his action on Sudan as he promised a group of development and relief workers that the administration "will not normalize relations" with the Sudanese military dictatorship until it addresses the humanitarian crisis unfolding in a region of western Sudan known as Darfur.

Bush administration takes step towards lifting Sudan arms embargo...

***

Or from UPI, Sudan removed from one terror list

Or AP, Sudan is removed from a US terror list

[rebellious woman]

1. That was quick, not that it had anything to do with below link...

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engAFR540012000

[gasperc]

2. oil...in last weeks Newsweek

but the US stormed out of the UN meeting that allowed Sudan to be on humanitarian committee?

eager to exploit Sudan's newly discovered oil reserves

[denverbill]

3. I think it has more to do with not wanting to miss any arms sales.

After all, SOMEBODY has to sell them tanks, machine guns, helicopters, and other implements of death. If we don't allow our merchants of death to do it, Chinese merchants of death or Russian merchants of death with gladly do it.

[struggle4progress]

4. Say one thing, do another.

Powell promised Tuesday, "We will not reduce our pressure on the government of Sudan regarding Darfur." He called the situation "one of the most serious crises on the face of the Earth now."

Sure, Colin: what better way to stop the terror in the Sudan by allowing more weapons sales to the perps? Or is this one of those "New American Century" policies, where we generally let the Sudanese do whatever the hell they want, provided they jump in line from time to time when we tell them to? Or .. or .. is it just that the Republicans, on principle, don't want to stop "ethnic cleansing" in the Sudan? After all, they opposed intervention to stop "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans ...

'Sudan backs ethnic cleansing'
13/05/2004 12:31 - (SA)
New York - The Sudanese government is responsible for ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Darfur, one of the world's poorest and most remote regions on the Sudan's western border with Chad, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
The Sudanese government and Arab Janjaweed gangs whom government has armed and supported, have launched several attacks on civilians and the ethnic Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups.
<snip>
Government and its Janjaweed allies have murdered thousands of members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes, often in cold blood, they have raped women, destroyed towns and essential food supplies.
They have driven more than a million people, mostly farmers, to camps and settlements in Darfur where they battle to survive as hostages of Janjaweed abuse. More than 110 000 people have fled to Chad; the majority of victims of the Darfur conflict, however, are still trapped in Darfur.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1526457,00.html