Syria tested chemical weapons on victims in Darfur, with cooperation of the Sudanese government, says major German newspaper

This story, if true, is a blockbuster. The blog community should really pick up on this one and try to verify it. Here is a direct link to the German news article in Die Welt, one of Germany's major newspapers. The story is just out onlline in Germany now, and will be published in Wednesday's (tomorrow's) paper.

Here is an English-language version of the story based on Die Welt's reporting, syndicated by the AFP (the French press agency), entitled "Syria tested chemical arms on civilians in Sudan's Darfur: Press."

UPDATE: From Expatica (the news for English-speaking expats in Germany) this morning:

Berlin questions chemical weapons report in Dafur

15 September 2004

BERLIN - German intelligence sources said Wednesday they had no information which could confirm a report claiming Syria had tested chemical weapons in cooperation with the government of Sudan on black Africans in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

"We find the details very surprising and would have evaluated them differently," said a German intelligence source speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Asked to comment on the report a spokesman for Syria's embassy in Berlin said: "We have nothing to say on this - the newspaper can write whatever it wants." He refused any further comment.

The U.S. embassy in Berlin also declined to comment on the story, saying there would probably be a response in Washington later Wednesday.

EXCERPT from original AFP English-language story:

BERLIN, Sept 14 (AFP) -- Syria tested chemical weapons on civilians in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region in June and killed dozens of people, the German daily Die Welt claimed in an advance release of its Wednesday edition.

The newspaper, citing unnamed western security sources, said that injuries apparently caused by chemical arms were found on the bodies of the victims.

It said that witnesses quoted by an Arabic news website called ILAF [www.elaph.com] in an article on August 2 had said that several frozen bodies arrived suddenly at the "Al-Fashr Hospital" in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in June.

Die Welt said the sources had indicated that the weapons tests were undertaken following a military exercise between Syria and Sudan.

Syrian officers were reported to have met in May with Sudanese military leaders in a Khartoum suburb to discuss the possibility of improving cooperation between their armies.

According to Die Welt, the Syrians had suggested close cooperation on developing chemical weapons, and it was proposed that the arms be tested on the rebel SPLA, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, in the south.

But given that the rebels were involved in peace talks, the newspaper continued, the Sudanese government proposed testing the arms on people in Darfur.

Details of what were in the weapons were not disclosed.

..The United States has accused Syria of trying to acquire materials and the know-how to develop chemical weapons and claims that Sudan has been seeking to improve its capability to produce them for many years.

EXCERPT from the German version is below the fold, click:

Syrien testet chemische Waffen an Sudanern Geheimdienste: Dutzende von Opfern

von Jacques Schuster

Berlin - Syrische Sondereinheiten haben im Juni dieses Jahres chemische Waffen gegen die schwarzafrikanische Bevölkerung von Darfur eingesetzt. Die Aktion, bei der Dutzende von Menschen umkamen, erfolgte in Absprache mit der sudanesischen Regierung. Zu diesem Schluss kommen westliche Geheimdienste. Sie werden durch Berichte von Augenzeugen gestützt, die in verschiedenen arabischen Medien veröffentlicht wurden.

Folgt man den Unterlagen westlicher Nachrichtendienste, die der WELT vorliegen, haben sich syrische Offiziere im Mai dieses Jahres in einem Vorort von Khartoum mit Vertretern der sudanesischen Armee getroffen. Bei den Gesprächen sei es um die Frage gegangen, wie man die militärische Zusammenarbeit ausweiten könne. Nach Geheimdienstinformationen soll die syrische Delegation dem Sudan eine engere Kooperation auf dem Gebiet der chemischen Kriegsführung angeboten haben. Dabei, so die Quellen weiter, sei vorgeschlagen worden, die Wirkung der chemischen Kampfstoffe an den Rebellen der Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) zu untersuchen. Da sich Khartoum im Mai in Friedensverhandlungen mit den Rebellen befand, riet die sudanesische Delegation offenbar dazu, die Kampfstoffe an der schwarzafrikanischen Bevölkerung zu testen. Dazu seien mindestens fünf Flugzeuge der syrischen Zivilfluggesellschaft Syrian Arab Airlines von Damaskus nach Khartoum geflogen, an Bord Spezialisten der syrischen Hochschule für chemische Kriegsführung samt technischer Ausrüstung. [more]

Comments

[Wikus Hattingh]

Very strange that the "unnamed western intelligence sources" would leak the information to a German paper, whereas Germany's BND doesn't seem to know a thing. My guess is that this is a CIA disinformation operation and that they chose to go the German route since the United States is increasingly being perceived as a malevolent instigator against Sudan. The fact that Syria, another enemy of the Neocon strategists, is named, also points to the CIA.

The very effort to cover its tracks, indicates a hidden agenda on the part of the originator. It confirms my contention that the GoS is being destabilized from the outside and that it is the target of a vicious smear-campaign - because it has oil and dares to oppose the US.

[Wikus Hattingh]

Caught red-handed. See how Americans are "building democracy" by backing Sudannese rebels.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=43829

What is astonishing is that the SPLM is supposedly a group of Christians rebelling against the Islamist government, but reportedly that group constitutes no more than 5% of the total population. How is it possible for such a small grouping to have effectively driven the Sudannese army out of the South - if not with massive outside assistance?

[gotttaB]

Last month I read Levon Sevunt's account of travels with the SLA ("Fight to live, or flee and be killed"). An SLA leader complained that they were getting no outside help, "not even a spoon."

A few weeks later I read another account of travels with the SLA by Somini Sengupta, who reported that one SLA emissary to Chad was in possession of a US military ration. One can easily imagine that he had an MRE with an accessory packet that includes, naturally, a spoon.

Wikus, I'm taking the story in die Welt with a grain of salt, because of suspicions similar to yours, but I don't believe it in anyway confirms your views. Here's why: (a) there are plenty of well-documented atrocities that can be used to tarnish the image of the government of Sudan; there's nothing to be gained by manufacturing sham atrocities at this point; (b) Sudan is doing a very good job of making enemies, internally and externally, without any assistance from the United States.

Perhaps there was a time only 5% of the population of Sudan claimed to be Christian. Since the civil war, I believe that number has grown. Would that be because of a conspiracy of Western Oil companies/crusaders? Or is it rather the predictable outcome of Khartoum's murderous policies? And is it any wonder that Christians united with non-Christians against a murderous central government to form a strong resistence movement?

Now we see the ranks of the SLA swelling. Is that because the US has poured aid in to that group, like, you know, a food ration, and probably a spoon? Or is it rather because, as many rebels have testified, the government of Sudan drove them out of their homes, and made them want to fight?

[Wikus]

It seems that this allegation is not new. It was first aired in 1999 in Norway by an SPLA-aligned group and subsequently dismissed by Norwegian authorities as an intentional smear-campaign.
See:
http://www.afrol.com/articles/13956

[Wikus]

Hallo Gottab,

The ranks of the "Christians" might have swollen because of a promised payoff at the end perhaps? I recently met a representative from the SLA who told me that he once was an officer in the Sudanese army, meaning that he had to have been a Muslim at that stage (only Muslims qualify for government jobs). His gripe with the GoS was that there was a ceiling on promotion if you were black. When I asked him if he was a Christian his answer was a very adamant "yes".

With him was a gentleman who introduced himself to me as a writer and the chairman of the local Holocaust Remembrance committee. He did not seem very pleased with my line of questioning. That was the first time I began to suspect a possible Neocon/CIA plot to overthrow the GoS.

Regards
Wikus

[gottaB]

afrol mistated the facts. Such allegations were made by others long before 1999.

See Barletta's study, "Chemical Weapons in the Sudan: Allegations and Evidence,"

"http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol06/61/barlet61.pdf

esp. the section on prior allegations, where he says allegations go back to 1989. Note that Barletta focuses on the threat of the chemical weapons proliferation, which is a slightly different matter than dropping mustard gas on a village as a matter of internal governance.

[Wikus]

Hi GottaB

Sorry, the misstatement was mine. Nonetheless, whether the allegations surfaced earlier is not at issue. The fact that it was used as a smear before is.

Regards
Wikus