by Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)�The Bush administration continues to press its diplomatic initiative aimed at a cease fire in civil war torn Sudan, sending a seven-member "technical team" there Dec. 7 to follow-up on proposals made by the president�s special envoy in a series of meetings in the region in November.

The team included officials from the State Department, Defense Department and the Agency for International Development, will stay about a week, former U.S. Senator John Danforth told reporters at the State Department.

Following his first official visit to Sudan in mid-November�where he met with both Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, and Sudanese People�s Liberation Army leader John Garang�Mr. Danforth briefed President Bush, State Department and congressional officials on his proposals for an eventual end to the 20-year-old war.

"I told the people that I met with in Sudan that I�m from Missouri," Mr. Danforth said, "and our motto as a state is: �Show me.� There have been a lot of agreements over a long period of time in Sudan, and nothing has really come of them. The time has come for the sort of steps that people can see, and those were the proposals that we put forth."

Sudanese officials have cautiously embraced the Danforth mission. "The Danforth trip is looked at as a positive sign," in U.S.-Sudanese relations, according to Hodari Abdul-Ali, a Sudanese Embassy press spokesman in Washington.

"The general feeling is that a new chapter is opening in U.S. Sudan
relations," said Mr. Ali.

At least one congressional leader is hopeful Danforths� efforts can help end bloody fighting, which has cost more than 2 million lives. Though he himself is an Episcopalian priest, Mr. Danforth goes into the peace process without the image of favoring the rebels over the Sudanese government, according to Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), a frequent visitor to the region and other trouble spots in Africa.

Mr. Danforth will likely not continue "the way we�ve always cozied up to (Mr.) Garang," Rep. Hall told The Final Call. "That�s wrong. (Mr. Garang) has got blood all over himself," just as the government is accused of having, said Rep. Hall.

During meetings with the Sudanese government and with the rebels, Mr. Danforth offered four proposals: a truce in the Nuba Mountains in order to allow food aid to reach civilians there; the establishment of "zones and times of tranquility" to allow humanitarian efforts, particularly immunizations, on specific dates at specific places; an end to bombing and shelling of civilian populations; and an end to the abduction of civilians�also known as the slave trade.

He also plans to return to the region for another 10 day visit in early January.

The government and its supporters, composed mostly of Muslims; and Christian religious leaders supporting the rebels, have separate perceptions of life in Sudan, said Mr. Danforth, commenting on a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.

"The Muslims took the position that this was not a religious problem, that there was freedom of religion. The Christians had a list of grievances and were very, very heated in expressing the fact that they believed that religiously and culturally they were being terribly, terribly mistreated," he said.

President Bush appointed Mr. Danforth even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sudanese government had been cooperating with the U.S. and its allies in the region�Egypt and Ethiopia�as well as in Europe for months before the attacks, prompting the U.S. to drop its objection to the expiration of United Nations travel restrictions.

After the Sept. 11 attacks Sudanese intelligence sources were even more cooperative, according to administration sources. The Sudanese reportedly turned over reams of information concerning accused terrorist-mastermind Osama bin Laden, who lived there for five years until 1996. Sudan also reportedly cracked down on a network of Egyptians who reportedly fled to Sudan after a failed assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, during a visit to the Organization of African Unity summit in Addis Ababa in June 1995.

Mr. Bush�s overtures to Sudan were made despite both House and Senate passage of the "Sudan Peace Act," which the administration opposed. Mr. Bush has prevailed on congressional leaders to postpone final action on the bill, which would provide $10 million�ostensibly for "humanitarian" assistance�to the SPLA, as well as block oil companies now doing business in Sudan from raising money by selling stock in this country. Recently discovered oil revenue is seen as helpful to the Khartoum government.

A coalition of more than 100 U.S. religious and civil rights leaders�including NAACP President Kweisi Mfume�oppose Mr. Bush�s overtures to Sudan however. They sent him a letter Nov. 19, urging him to take a harder stance.

Mr. Danforth does not tie his peace initiative to the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign. Peace in Sudan has separate value as far as the United States is concerned, he said.

For all of the last 18 years, and for all but 10 years since 1955, the civil war has raged on, despite various peace initiatives.

In addition to the Danforth mission, there is a mediation effort pending led by Egypt and Libya, and another 36-nation UN and OAU-led peace conference scheduled for Abuja, Nigeria in mid-November was postponed at the last minute by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.