NEWS STORY: Some Aid Groups, Resisting Rebels, Are Pulling Out of Sudan

c. 2000 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Nearly a dozen international relief agencies have been expelled from southern Sudan after they refused to sign an agreement giving rebel groups in the area greater control of the agencies’ operations. World Vision, Oxfam, Care International and Doctors Without Borders are among the 11 groups who rejected the memorandum […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Nearly a dozen international relief agencies have been expelled from southern Sudan after they refused to sign an agreement giving rebel groups in the area greater control of the agencies’ operations.

World Vision, Oxfam, Care International and Doctors Without Borders are among the 11 groups who rejected the memorandum of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, a rebel group that controls much of the southern part of Sudan.


Sudan is torn by fighting between the Islamic government in the north and rebels in the predominantly animist and Christian south who want autonomy. In January the SPLA demanded all nongovernment agencies in the area sign a “memo of understanding” by March 1 or withdraw from the region.

Appeals from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Harry Johnston all failed to persuade rebels to reconsider the deadline and resume negotiations with the aid groups.

“It is regrettable that this difficult course of action became necessary,” said Bruce Wilkinson, senior vice president for international programs at World Vision, which has been involved in Sudan for nearly two decades and provided more than $60 million in humanitarian aid. “But we felt there is a risk here that humanitarian aid could not be objectively administered by southern Sudan.”

World Vision’s parent organization, World Vision International, was one of several expelled aid agencies which Wednesday (March 1) issued a joint statement asking rebel officials to resume negotiations.

“We are deeply concerned about the effect that this crisis will have on the people of southern Sudan, now and in the future,” read the statement, also signed by Save the Children UK, CARE, the Belgian arm of Oxfam, Vets Without Borders, the Carter Center and the Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders. “We are determined to see negotiations re-started so that we can return to our humanitarian work in southern Sudan. It would be a positive thing to have an agreement that clarifies everybody’s responsibilities when it comes to supplying aid.”

On Tuesday (Feb. 29) World Vision finished evacuating its non-Sudanese staff in southern Sudan, about 50 people. The agency _ which already has similar agreements of understanding in countries such as Mozambique and the Philippines _ took issue with several terms of the rebel army’s agreement, said Wilkinson, such as the imposition of new airport and road taxes as well as restrictions on whom the group could hire and when relief workers could meet with Sudanese locals.

“We feel these issue need to be negotiated further,” said Wilkinson. “We cannot accept the army’s terms.”


He said despite the withdrawal, World Vision intends to continue its humanitarian efforts through work with the United Nations, which is not required to sign the agreement, and with the aid of about 500 Sudanese nationals who remain in the area.

“We hope to minimize any impact these negotiations might have on the lives of the people of southern Sudan,” said Wilkinson. “We are still continuing with our food distribution and medical care through UNICEF and some of our Sudanese national staff is continuing working on things like agricultural recovery. We are optimistic negotiations can take place to allow us to resume full operation in southern.”

Some 26 relief agencies have signed the rebel army’s memorandum, including Catholic Relief Services, which spends about $25 million each year for humanitarian aid in Sudan.

“The memo of understanding simply specifies all the terms that govern how a foreign nongovernment organization operates inside an area,” said Michael R. Wiest, deputy executive director of Catholic Relief Services. “Our signing a document with these people doesn’t have any political significance _ it simply means we agree to these terms.”

He said Catholic Relief Services has entered into some 80 similar agreements in countries such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda and Peru.

“Its quite routine,” he said. “In many parts of the world there are de facto authorities, whether politically recognized or not, and if you’re going to do business in those areas you have to at some level recognize their jurisdiction. It’s not always ideal, but it’s the kind of situation you confront in the kind of work we do.”


But Catholic Relief Services did have reservations, said Wiest.

“What’s been most troublesome to us is that we need to get the approval of authorities to meet with local communities,” he said. “For us, that borders on a civil liberty issue for the Sudanese people, their right of free association.”

And Wiest said he sees potential problems in a requirement the rebel army approve any Sudanese national hired by the aid agency.

“It could be very problematic or not at all, it depends on how its administered,” said Wiest. “If they say we can’t hire a person because he’s not from the ethnic group they like or they don’t like his religious or political views, then it would become a problem.”

The expulsion of the aid groups comes as the White House considers using recently passed legislation, sponsored by Brownback, allowing it to provide food aid directly to rebels in southern Sudan. The rebels’ decision to expel the aid groups will not advance that cause, said State Department Spokesman James Rubin.

“At this point we have made no decision as to whether to use the authority provided by Congress,” said Rubin. “I am not going to predict for the end of time what we will do with that authority, but I can state rather comfortably that this can’t help their case.”

DEA END DANCY

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