September 13, 2000
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is lobbying U.N. members to deny Sudan a seat on the U.N. Security Council. The African country is an ``unsuitable candidate,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday.
Boucher cited U.N. reports that Sudan had bombed areas in the country where U.N. relief operations were based. He noted that the U.N. Charter specifically calls for ``due regard'' for the maintenance of international peace and stability. An estimated 2 million people have been killed by fighting, starvation and disease as the mostly white and Arab government of Khartoum pursues a 17-year-old war against mostly Christian and animist black southerners.
The State Department, in a report last week surveying religious freedom around the world, ranked Sudan, along with Burma, China, Iran and Iraq, as among the ``countries of particular concern'' -- the most unfavorable category.
Albright talked this week to foreign ministers from several African countries and elsewhere in her effort to bar Sudan, Boucher said.
The Organization of African Unity normally would pick the African country to take a rotating seat next year on the Security Council. The General Assembly customarily approves the choice of such regional groups.
But American officials said there was disagreement over whether Sudan had the support of a majority of African countries or was in competition with Mauritius, a democracy preferred by the United States. Egypt, which is among the countries Albright has approached, was said to favor Sudan for a seat. Albright also has raised Sudan's suitability with Britain, France, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, said a senior U.S. official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say what positions those countries took or whether Albright expected to succeed.
Sudan is regarded by State Department officials as having one of Africa's worst human rights records. As a result, it is not under consideration for trade benefits. Two years ago, U.S. cruise missiles destroyed a pharmaceutical plant believed to be linked to terrorist operations. Sudan has denied the claim.
Albright has made a point of urging support for human rights in speeches and talks with foreign ministers here for General Assembly sessions. On Tuesday, the United States and seven other countries decided to form a human rights bloc to rally support for resolutions that promote democracy and to lobby against violations.
As such, they will try to rally opposition to a Security Council seat for Sudan, said a senior official Wednesday in describing the meeting. The group, which calls itself ``the democracy caucus,'' includes Chile, the Czech Republic, India, South Korea, Mali, Poland and Portugal, along with the United States.
The United States cannot veto Sudan from the Security Council.
Candidates for rotating seats on the council are selected by regional groups, and the 189-member General Assembly then votes for new council members. The council has five permanent members with veto powers -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- and 10 nonpermanent members who serve two-year terms. Five nonpermanent members are chosen every year.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told a press breakfast Wednesday that Egypt and Ethiopia had jointly requested that the United Nations lift sanctions against Sudan. Sudan's allies on the Security Council introduced a draft resolution on June 13 that would end limited sanctions imposed to force Khartoum to hand over suspects in the 1995 assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The United States twice delayed discussion of the resolution. Facing a likely U.S. veto if the resolution were put to a vote, Sudan and the United States reached an agreement to put off the Security Council discussion on the resolution until mid-November.
