Terrorism Case Puts Focus on Secretive Sudan : Suspects: Troubled African state has been a base for radical groups, has ties to Iran. Its U.N. mission denies links to arrests in New York.

The arrest of five Sudanese among the eight suspects in the latest New York terrorism case focuses attention on one of the most troubled and secretive countries in Africa, a civil war-torn state with a fundamentalist Islamic government that is increasingly dependent on Iran.

Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been used in recent years as a base for international terrorist groups, especially groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas that also have strong links to Iran.

According to U.S. government sources, the FBI is investigating reports that two men from Sudan’s mission to the United Nations were implicated in the plot to blow up the U.N. building and New York auto tunnels and to assassinate U.N. Secretary Gen. Boutros Boutros-Ghali and other officials.

The Sudanese mission denied the reports, and the State Department said it does not have enough information to determine whether to take action against the diplomats. But the Clinton Administration has been concerned about possible Sudanese links to terrorism.

“At this time we have no evidence that the government of Sudan has conducted or sponsored a specific terrorist attack, but I would say that the United States is very disturbed by the close relationship that Sudan has developed with Iran,” State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Friday. “We know that Iran is a leading sponsor of international terrorism.

“A number of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad--they all maintain offices in Khartoum,” McCurry said. “And, in addition, there are reports that a small number of Iranian Revolutionary Guards are training Sudanese militia.”

The Sudanese government is controlled by Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, an ardent Muslim fundamentalist, who overthrew the last civilian government four years ago. His attempt to impose strict Islamic law throughout the country aggravated an already bitter civil war between the predominantly Muslim north and the mostly Christian and animist south.

In the south, the government’s effort to end the rebellion has produced a man-made famine every bit as serious as the starvation in Somalia, which preceded the intervention last year of the United States.

“Southern Sudan has become one of the world’s darkest humanitarian nightmares,” Herman Cohen, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told Congress in March. “It is a chaotic territory where civil war, disease, homelessness and hunger form a tapestry of tragedy for millions of Sudanese. . . . In at least some areas, people are already dying in large numbers, at rates comparable to the worst situations in Somalia.”

In Bashir’s northern stronghold, there is no similar danger of starvation. But the area also is affected by the war, which has been raging off and on since 1955.

Last year, Bashir’s government claimed that the conflict is a jihad--an Islamic holy war. The declaration produced additional support for the regime from Islamic fundamentalists but it further alienated the non-Islamic world.

Bashir’s government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and political executions. In addition, the U.N.-affiliated International Labor Organization reported earlier this year that Sudan is one of only two countries left in the world that condones slavery. The report said the Bashir government encourages slavery as a weapon of war against the rebellious south.

In its annual report on global terrorism, the State Department cited Sudan for “a disturbing pattern of relationships with international terrorist groups.”

Sudan’s increasing support for radical Arab terrorist groups is directly related to the extension of National Islamic Front influence over the government of Sudan, the report said. Many key government positions are held by members of the hard-line Islamic front.