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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Sudan and the United States enjoyed generally close relations
during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In fact, then Vice
President George Bush had paid an official visit to Khartoum only
one month before Nimeiri's overthrow in April 1985, and Nimeiri
himself was in Washington trying to obtain more United States aid
when the mass demonstrations that culminated in his downfall
erupted. Both the transitional military government and the
parliamentary government viewed past United States support for
Nimeiri suspiciously, and were determined to end the de facto
alliance that had developed after 1979. Because the most visible
symbol of this alliance was Operation Bright Star, the biennial
joint military exercises that had taken place partly on Sudanese
territory, one of the first policy decisions was to terminate
Sudan's participation in Operation Bright Star. Nevertheless,
relations with the United States remained important while Sadiq
al Mahdi was prime minister because Washington continued to be a
significant donor of foreign aid.
This situation changed following the 1989 military coup.
Washington terminated all economic assistance to Sudan in
accordance with the provisions of a foreign assistance
appropriations law that barred all United States assistance to a
country whose democratically elected government had been
overthrown by the military. Although this legislation included
mechanisms for the Department of State to waive this provision,
the Bush administration chose not to do so. The RCC-NS viewed the
aid cut-off as an unfriendly gesture. Subsequently, when the
United States continued to provide humanitarian assistance for
the thousands of Sudanese being displaced by drought and civil
war, administering this relief aid directly through the United
States Agency for International Development, the RCC-NS accused
Washington of interfering in the country's internal affairs.
Khartoum's reluctance to cooperate with the humanitarian program
prompted United States officials in early 1990 to criticize
publicly the Bashir government for impeding the distribution of
emergency aid and even confiscating relief supplies. These
charges, which were echoed by the British, the French, and
several international relief agencies, further antagonized the
RCC-NS.
In this atmosphere, it was perhaps inevitable that Bashir
would mistrust the motives of the United States when it proposed
a peace initiative to end the civil war. In May 1990, after
temporizing for several weeks, the RCC-NS rejected the United
States proposals for a cease-fire. Khartoum's support for Iraq
during the Persian Gulf war further strained relations between
the two governments. Finally, in February 1991, the United States
withdrew all its diplomatic personnel from Sudan and closed its
embassy in Khartoum.
Data as of June 1991
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