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US Suspends Sudan Peacemaking Efforts VOA News 21 Feb 2002 23:58 UTC 
The United States says it is suspending its peacemaking efforts aimed at ending Sudan's long-running civil war.
The decision follows an attack Wednesday by a Sudanese government helicopter on a United Nations food relief center, killing 17 people and injuring several others.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Thursday Washington is suspending all discussion with Sudan until it receives a full explanation for the attack. Mr. Boucher said the attack is part of a pattern of "senseless" killings of civilians by the Sudanese government. The United Nations World Food Program says the helicopter fired five rockets at local people waiting to receive food at a humanitarian compound in the southern village of Bieh.
The Sudanese army denied it was deliberately targeting civilians. In a statement Thursday, the army said such accusations are lies by the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA).
International relief groups and the United States have often criticized the Sudanese government for attacking civilians and humanitarian relief workers in rebel-held southern areas of the country.
Sudan apologized for another deadly attack on civilians earlier this month. The United States launched an initiative last year to help end Sudan's civil war, which pits the Muslim dominated government in the north against the mainly Christian and animist south.
The conflict and famine have claimed some two million lives since 1983.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
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