asch-Schifa pharmaceutical factory

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The Ash Shifa Medicines Factory ( Arabic شركة الشفاء للصناعات الدوائية Sharikat asch-Shifāʾ li-s-sināʿāt ad-dawāʾiyya , DMG Šarikat al-šifāʾ li-ṣ-ṣināʿāt ad-dawāʾiyya , English : Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Factory ) in al-Chartum Bahri was the largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical products in Sudan until 1998 . It was destroyed on August 20, 1998 by a US cruise missile attack.

meaning

The asch-Schifa drug factory was built between 1992 and 1996 using components from the USA , Sweden , Italy , Switzerland , Germany , India and Thailand . The factory employed over 300 workers. The facility was easily accessible to foreign visitors.

The German ambassador to Sudan from 1996-2000, Werner Daum , informed the German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel on the day of the bombing that "with the best will" one could not call the factory a chemical factory. Rather, the factory produces "predominantly human drugs, for example antibiotics, antimalarials, drugs against diarrhea, infusion fluids and some veterinary drugs."

bombing

Ash Shifa Drug Factory - Source: US Department of Defense

On August 20, 1998, the factory was destroyed by a US attack with 13 Tomahawk cruise missiles shot down by three military ships; one person was killed and 10 people injured. Three of the factory's buildings were completely destroyed, the fourth badly damaged. The bombing of ash Shifa was part of Operation Infinite Reach , which was carried out in retaliation for the August 7, 1998 attacks on US embassies in Dar es Salaam , Tanzania and Nairobi , Kenya, which left an estimated 224 dead and over 4,000 injured. The Clinton administration gave the production of chemical weapons and connections with the violent Islamist group al-Qaeda as the official reason .

A key piece of evidence for chemical weapons production was the alleged discovery of methylthiophosphonic acid O-ethyl ester (EMPTA) in a soil sample taken during a secret CIA operation on the premises. According to the Chemical Weapons Convention, EMPTA is classified as a Schedule 2B compound and as a precursor for VX . Although various theoretical uses and patented processes using EMPTA have been specified, such as the production of plastics, no industrial uses have yet been documented. However, EMPTA has not been banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention as claimed by the US government. In addition, so the objection of Michael Barletta, the evidence from EMPTA does not prove that this was produced on the premises; it could simply have been stored there.

State Secretary at the time, Thomas R. Pickering, alleged there was sufficient evidence against Sudan, including contacts between Ash Shifa officials and Iraqi weapons experts. The National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) , a Sudanese opposition party in Cairo led by Mubarak al-Mahdi , also insisted that components for chemical weapons be manufactured in Ash Shifa. Former counter-terrorism advisor to the Clinton administration, Richard Clarke , and former national security advisor, Sandy Berger , pointed to the factory's links with the previous Iraqi administration. Clarke cited a contract between Ash Shifa and Iraq for $ 199,000 for veterinary medicine under the United Nations' oil-for-food program .

In his CIA: The whole story has Tim Weiner points out that only vague assumptions formed the basis for the attack and this also in the National Security Council was criticized US CIA employee Mary McCarthy. Nevertheless, the highly controversial CIA wanted to prove its efficiency.

Immediately after the attack, the Sudanese government asked the UN Security Council to conduct an investigation into the site for chemical weapons production. The United States opposed such an investigation from the start. The EMPTA soil sample was also never examined by an independent laboratory. So there is no evidence of chemical weapons production in Ash-Shifa.

Consequences of the bombing

asch-Schifa factory in 2008, ten years after the attack

Werner Daum estimates that the attack indirectly led to tens of thousands of deaths among the Sudanese civilian population. The regional director of the Near East Foundation published a letter in the Boston Globe with the same estimate. By that point, the US had eased its sanctions on the commercial sale of medical products in Sudan.

The government of Sudan wants to leave the remains of the factory as a memorial to the American attack and offered to have the site examined for chemical substances - an offer that was rejected by the USA. Sudan demands an apology from the US, which they refuse, pointing out possible links to the development of chemical weapons.

Web links

literature

  • Werner Daum: Universalism and the West: An Agenda for Understanding . In: Harvard International Review . tape 23 , no. 2 , 2001, p. 19-23 , JSTOR : 42762701 .
  • Michael Barletta: Chemical weapons in the Sudan: Allegations and evidence . In: The Nonproliferation Review . tape 6 , no. 1 , 1998, p. 115-136 , doi : 10.1080 / 10736709808436741 ( nonproliferation.org [PDF]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SUDAN: "USA destroyed pharmaceutical company" . In: Focus . No. 36 , August 31, 1998 ( focus.de ).
  2. ^ Online News Hour - African Embassy Bombings. PBS archived from the original on February 3, 2008 ; Retrieved August 20, 2008 .
  3. ^ The Strike Briefing ( Memento of October 2, 1999 in the Internet Archive ). Interview with William Cohen. PBS , August 20, 1998.
  4. ↑ Michael Barletta: Chemical weapons in the Sudan: Allegations and evidence . In: The Nonproliferation Review . tape 6 , no. 1 , 1998, p. 115-136 , doi : 10.1080 / 10736709808436741 ( nonproliferation.org [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Tim Weiner: CIA. The whole story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 2008, p. 608f
  6. ↑ Werner Daum: Universalism and the West: An Agenda for Understanding . In: Harvard International Review . tape 23 , no. 2 , 2001, p. 19-23 , JSTOR : 42762701 .

Coordinates: 15 ° 38 ′ 45.1 ″  N , 32 ° 33 ′ 40.6 ″  E