June 2004 Egypt today Just eat it IF YOU’RE POOR and not into eating donkey meat, don’t worry: Dr. Fayza Aboul Naga has some good news for you. At a meeting of the PA’s planning and budget committee last month, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs declared the price of meat (LE 30 a kilo in most supermarkets) will plunge after her office inked a deal with Sudan to import 30,000 tons of beef a year in a barter for Egyptian products. "The deal will translate into less expensive meat that should sell for LE 11 per kilo," Aboul Naga said. "Sudan can cover Egypt’s meat needs and become the Arab world’s animal farm." Making matters more interesting, rumor has it that Aboul Naga isn’t the only one interested in Sudanese livestock. A page-two Al-Ahram report noted last month that a prominent unnamed Egyptian investor was looking to corner the private market on cheap, Mad-Cow-free Sudanese beef. The investor? None other than telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris, sources tell us. Aboul Naga has already given the Sudanese beef her good-eating seal of approval: "It even beats local meat since Sudan’s farms are 100 percent natural, which isn’t the case in Egypt. Our animals aren’t that privileged," the minister of state said. Is it too good to be true? Skeptics in the local press noted that Sudan has not yet won international health agencies’ accreditation for safe veterinary exports, and some experts speculated livestock there may carry exotic diseases that can cross over to the human population from live animals. So while Sudan reportedly wanted to export the animals as livestock, Aboul Naga insists Egypt will only buy beef properly slaughtered in Sudan at approved facilities. And if not? Well, we didn’t complain too loudly about donkey meat, did we? http://www.egypttoday.com/arttemplate.asp?ArtID=14&IssueNo=05&IssueYear=04&MagID=ET

June 2004 - SUDAN: US pressures Khartoum over Darfur situation Un office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs NAIROBI, 16 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - The United States government is threatening to take action against Sudan over what it said were ongoing human rights atrocities in the western region of Darfur. "We do not intend to stand by while violence and atrocities continue in Darfur," said Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder in a statement before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. "Our message to the government of Sudan is clear: Do what is necessary now, and we will work with you. If you do not, there will be consequences. Time is of the essence. Do not doubt our determination." Snyder said the US administration was "exploring actions" it could take against individuals responsible for the situation in Darfur, specifically by "freezing assets they may have in the US and prohibiting the issuance of visas to them". US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week that the US government was considering whether the mass displacements and killings in Darfur constituted "genocide". He said the matter was being discussed "inter-agency" and that lawyers and policy officials were looking into it. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - to which the US is a signatory - defines genocide as acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, [ethnic], racial or religious group". Such acts include killing; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group in whole or in part. Over one million non-Arabs have been displaced within Darfur, predominantly by attacks conducted by Arab Janjawid militias, who are reportedly allied to the government. Up to 200,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad, while estimates of numbers killed vary from between 15,000 and 30,000. According to the US Agency for International Development, a further 350,000 may die over the coming months from a combination of hunger and disease. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41702&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN