The Sudanese government was forced to apologize to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday after a series of scuffles between Sudanese security and her entourage.
Officials and reporters traveling with Rice to the capital, Khartoum, were initially prevented from entering the compound of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. After they were allowed in there were further bouts of shouting and shoving, with one reporter being manhandled after shouting a question about alleged atrocities.
Rice, who then left the capital for a trip to the stricken province of Darfur, demanded and received an apology.
PHOTO: AFP
"It makes me very angry to be sitting there with their president and have this happen. They have no right to push and shove," she said
The scuffles, though minor, were a diplomatic disaster for the Sudanese government given the strained relations between Khartoum and Washington. The US withdrew its ambassador in 1997 and normal relations have not been resumed. The US government last year labeled as genocide the Sudanese government's policy in Darfur, where an estimated 70,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million displaced.
When Rice's motorcade arrived at Bashir's compound, guards shut the gates before the final three vehicles could get in. These cars included US State Department officials who were supposed to be at the meeting, as well as Rice's interpreter. One of the officials, Jim Wilkinson, was repeatedly pushed and pulled by security men.
After obtaining access to the compound, US TV crews and photographers were denied entry to the meeting between Rice and the president, though it had previously been agreed that they would be allowed in.
After they got in, another row developed. Despite objections by State Department officials, security guards refused to allow questions, shoved and elbowed reporters and tried to tear a microphone from a correspondent.
The entire press corps was bundled out after Andrea Mitchell, an NBC reporter, tried to ask Bashir about alleged atrocities in Darfur. Guards grabbed her and frogmarched her to the back of the room. Wilkinson shouted at the guards: "Get your hands off her."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail had phoned Rice while she was on her way to Darfur to apologize.
At the Abu Shouk camp for the internally displaced, near el-Fesher in northern Darfur, Rice was in no mood for conciliatory gestures.
She said the Sudanese government, which has promised to end the violence in the region but has failed to do so, would be judged on its actions. "I said to the Sudanese government that they had a credibility problem with the international community," she said.
Relations between the US and Sudan have been bad since Khartoum offered a haven to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. Rice hinted on Wednesday that relations could be normalized, but a US official said she had told the Sudanese government that Darfur was an obstacle.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS