National Security Archives, a Washington-based NGO, has used the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain a State Department internal report which analyses in detail United States’ humanitarian aid across the world. The 86-page report, ”Interagency Review of US Government Civilian Humanitarian & Transition Programs’, was prepared by State’s policy planning staff and by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and transmitted to secretary of state Mrs. Madeleine Albright last January.
One annex covers US humanitarian aid to Sudan, and in particular analyses “the link between US humanitarian action and broader US diplomatic approaches” to this country. Drafted after interviews with officials responsible for this aid, the report notes “humanitarian offices perceive that the level of US humanitarian commitment to finding peace in Sudan is not in sync with the level of US humanitarian concern and the over US$ 1 billion of relief resources committed”, making them fear that “the US is using relief as a substitute for addressing the more fundamental questions of war and peace”. The report indicates that the “the US government does not speak with one voice on Sudan policy” and notes that it “identified different camps both within the administration and on Capitol Hill with regards how to address the long-standing conflict in Sudan”, each camp having “different perspectives on whether the US government should continue to minimize contact with the government of Sudan, or constructively engage with the government of Sudan in order to more effectively press for a negotiated settlement, and different opinions as to whether more substantial assistance to rebel movements would engender a balance of power shift and allow a military victory for the South, or simply prolong the war and create more suffering”. The debates were revealed by The Indian Ocean Newsletter (ION 884, 888, 890).
Finally, the State Department report observes that “staff engaged in humanitarian issues [the US Administration’s branches charged with getting humanitarian aid into Sudan – Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Office of Food for Peace ( which comes under USAID), and the State Department’s own Bureau for Population Refugees and Migration] are not present at key points in our foreign policy decision-making process on Sudan”, seriously hampering operations. None of the bodies were consulted before closure of the US embassy in Khartoum, before a US air-to-ground missile attack on El Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd plant in August 1998, or during debates on supplying food aid to Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).