Disarmament Diplomacy
Issue No. 29, August - September 1998
US Strikes Afghanistan and Sudan,
Claims Sudanese Target CW-Related
On 20 August, the United States launched cruise missile attacks
against targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. The attacks were aimed at
destroying an alleged terrorist training and communications centre
in Afghanistan and an alleged chemical weapons-related factory in
Sudan: they were launched less than a fortnight after the terrorist
bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, aimed at US embassies, which
resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries.
According to President Clinton:
"Today we have struck back. The United States launched an attack
this morning on one of the most active terrorist bases in the
world. It is located in Afghanistan and operated by groups
affiliated with Osama bin Ladin, a network not sponsored by any
State, but as dangerous as any we face. We also struck a chemical
weapons-related facility in Sudan. ..."
The link between the two targets was stressed in a 21 August US
State Department Fact Sheet:
"[T]he US has reliable intelligence that the bin Ladin network
has been actively seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction -
including chemical weapons - for use against United States
interests. Therefore, the US also attacked one facility in Sudan
associated with chemical weapons and the bin Ladin network. This
facility is located within a secured chemical plant in the
northeast Khartoum area. US intelligence over the past few months
has indicated that the bin Ladin network has been actively seeking
to acquire chemical weapons for use against United States
interests. Bin Ladin has extensive ties to the Sudanese Government
and its industrial sector. The US is confident this Sudanese
Government-controlled facility is involved in the production of
chemical weapons agents."
On 25 August, unnamed US intelligence officials told reporters
that, prior to the attack, the US had acquired soil samples taken
from around the facility - the al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries
Company. According to the officials, the sample clearly revealed
the presence of an acid, O-ethylmethylphosphonothioic (generally
known by its acronym, EMPTA), which is a chemical precursor to the
VX nerve agent. One official claimed that the precursor was not
used in any commercial process: "It is a substance that has no
commercial applications, it doesn't occur naturally in the
environment, it's not a byproduct of any other chemical processes.
The only thing you can use it for, that we know of, is to make VX."
There were suggestions in a number of reports that the facility was
linked not only to bin Ladin, but also to the Iraqi Government.
The Sudanese authorities adamantly insisted that the factory was
the State's most important facility for producing medical
pharmaceuticals, and was utilised for no other purpose. Speaking on
25 August, Sudan's Information Minister, Ghazi Salahuddin, rejected
the 'evidence' apparently supplied by the soil sample obtained by
the US: "They still have not produced any concrete evidence... They
cannot prove it by claiming to have contaminated soil." Speaking
the same day, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail repeated his
Government's request for the United Nations to conduct a thorough
and urgent investigation of the destroyed factory: "We are
expecting them...to send an investigation team."
Also on 25 August, an unnamed UN official confirmed to reporters
that the destroyed facility had been producing medical exports
included under the UN's 'oil-for-food' programme designed to
relieve humanitarian suffering in Iraq. A UN coordinator in
Khartoum, Philippe Borel, expressed his concern over the bombing on
24 August: "We are very concerned about this incident... What we
have to put into perspective is the suffering of the Sudanese
people from this terrible [10-year-old civil] war... It's tough to
add suffering to suffering."
International political reaction was divided along predictable
lines, with varying degrees of approval from key US allies such as
Canada, Germany, France and the UK, and varying degrees of
condemnation throughout the Islamic world. Russia, too, was
fiercely critical, with President Yeltsin declaring on 21 August:
"My attitude is indeed negative as it would be to any act of
terrorism, military interference, failure to solve a problem
through talks... I am outraged and I denounce this."
Reports: Transcript - Clinton announces anti-terrorist
strikes, United States Information Service, 20 August;
Berger - strikes in Sudan destroy chemical precursor
factory, United States Information Service, 21 August;
Russia slams raids, allies rally round Clinton, Reuters, 21
August; Suspected chemical in Sudan among deadliest known,
Reuters, 21 August; Sudan refutes chemical weapons talk,
Associated Press, 21 August; Fact Sheet - US strike on
facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan, United States Information
Service, 22 August; Sudan wants UN to check US chemical weapons
claim, Reuters, 24 August; Pharmaceutical is Sudan's only
'oil-for-food' export, Reuters, 25 August; Sudan says US
soil test at factory invalid, Reuters, 25 August; US - Sudan
plant worked with Iraq, Associated Press, 25 August; US
intelligence defends VX-Sudan link, Reuters, 25 August; US
has chemical weapons-related soil sample from Sudan plant,
United States Information Service, 25 August.
© 1998 The Acronym Institute.
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