The Mercenary David Hoile Still Working against The Will of Sudanese People

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.>