The government of Sudan repeated its demand for compensation from the United States for the 1998 cruise middle attack that destroyed the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum.
US fighter jets destroyed Al-Shifa on August 20, 1998, in retaliation for bomb attacks that hit US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Former US President Bill Clinton said that the plant had links to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and had been making chemical weapons.
Marking the fifth anniversary of the attack this past August, Sudan demanded the US government to compensate victims of the raid. A statement from the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi said that the attack on Al-Shifa was an "unjustified and an act of aggression".
Denying the accusations, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said, "we recall our feeling of bitterness renewed by the fifth anniversary," at the United Nation (UN)'s annual ministers meeting at the General Assembly. He stressed that Washington should "rectify this serious mistake" by paying compensation, reported AFP.
The small factory in northern Khartoum provided more than half the medicine for Sudan’s population. The American cruise missile attack murdered 12 workers at the plant and two food-processing factories were also damaged in the strike. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
