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The Mercenary David Hoile Still Working against The Will of Sudanese People
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David Pallister Monday February 17, 2003
The Guardian
The Home Office has enlisted the help of a controversial rightwing apologist for the Sudanese government to block an appeal by a Sudanese asylum seeker and to discredit an expert whose reports regularly persuade adjudicators not to deport Sudanese refugees.
In a written submission to the appeal tribunal an immigration official has questioned the objectivity of Peter Verney, the editor of Sudan Update, who has produced 200 reports for Sudanese asylum seekers in the past two years.
The accusation of bias, said the official, Fareth Javid, was based on an article written by David Hoile, a consultant for the Sudanese authorities and director of the pro-government European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council.
Mr Hoile has in the past allied himself with a number of unsavoury rebel and terrorist groups: the Contras in Nicaragua, Renamo in Mozambique and Unita in Angola. As a student at Warwick University in the 1980s he used to wear a sticker saying "Hang Mandela".
Since setting up the council in 1998 Mr Hoile has crossed swords with numerous human rights groups, academics and journalists who have reported on the human rights abuses, particularly on the side of the government and their militias, during Sudan's long-running civil war.
In his article he said: "Events in Sudan appear to have overtaken Peter Verney and Sudan Update quite some time ago. His is a reactionary perspective on Sudan that is out of keeping with political and constitutional developments in the country."
Mr Hoile confirmed to the Guardian that he had advised the Sudanese authorities for several years but he added: "The use of this article is a surprise to me."
Mr Verney, who has studied Sudan for 25 years and has contributed to several international inquiries into the conflict, said of Mr Hoile: "He has defended the regime against accusations ranging from support for terrorism to involvement in slavery. I am one of the few people in a position to do these reports [for asylum seekers].
"I have been able to demolish the Home Office arguments so now they have obviously decided to undermine my credibility."
The appeal is by Hassan Adam Ismail, a member of the non-Arab Masalit community in western Sudan. Mr Verney wrote that this ethnic group "has been subjected to increasingly violent treatment in the last decade. Arab tribal militia, with the apparent complicity of government forces, attack the Masalit areas, people and their farms and livestock, loot their possessions and take over their land."
Drawing on published evidence from Sudanese human rights groups, Mr Verney rejects Ms Javid's assertion that the tribe is not subject to persecution.
Shortly after Mr Hoile set up the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, Lord Avebury, chairman of the parliamentary human rights group, said in a Lords debate: "It is believed Mr Hoile receives all his money from the Sudanese government. I hope that those who receive his literature will take careful note of that."
Mr Hoile denied that the council was Sudanese funded. Donors were mainly British businesspeople, he said. But he acknowledged he had been paid for his consultancy work.
Ms Javid did not respond to telephone calls and the Home Office said it could not comment on the use of Mr Hoile's article.>
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