| U.S. push for Sudan sanctions opposed |
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| Thursday, 19 April 2007 | ||||||
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By EDITH M. LEDERER UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Britain and the United States said Wednesday they will propose new U.N. sanctions to pressure the Sudanese government and rebels to stop the fighting in Darfur, but Russia, China and South Africa opposed any new measures. The push for new sanctions was announced after a confidential U.N. report charged that Sudan's government has been flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and is impeding peace efforts by using aircraft with U.N. markings. President Bush warned that the U.S. will tighten economic sanctions on Sudan and impose new ones on its own if Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir doesn't move quickly to stop bloodshed in Darfur, where African peacekeepers reported 62 more people killed in new fighting. Diplomats from Russia, China and South Africa, which are all on the U.N. Security Council, said it was the wrong time to raise the threat of new sanctions because Sudan just agreed to the first significant deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur. They also noted the U.N. and the African Union are intensifying efforts to get Sudan's government and all rebel groups to the peace table. "It would be very strange," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters. "After a long while, we have this positive development in the dialogue between the U.N. and Khartoum, and all of a sudden to come back with some sanctions would not be good." Since Russia and China are veto-wielding permanent members of the council, their opposition signals a major hurdle for the U.S., Britain and France in trying to pass a new sanctions resolution. Other non-permanent council members who generally object to sanctions, like Qatar and Indonesia, are also likely to oppose new measures against Sudan. On April 2, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the United States and Britain to refrain from pushing for tougher sanctions, saying the U.N. needed time to promote political negotiations and to persuade Sudan to accept the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur. After five months of stalling, Sudan sent a letter to Ban on Monday giving a green light for a U.N. force of 2,250 soldiers, 750 police and six helicopter gunships to reinforce the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission already in Darfur. Poorly armed and funded, the AU force has not been able to calm the vast Sudanese region, where 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes by four years of fighting between rebels based in Darfur's ethnic African communities and nomadic Arab tribes. China's deputy U.N. ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, told reporters Wednesday that U.N. peacekeeping officials said it would take "until the end of the year" to get all of the new U.N. force to Darfur. The 3,000-strong mission is the second phase of a U.N. plan that Sudan's president agreed to in November, but then backed off. Ban and African Union chief executive Alpha Oumar Konare said Wednesday that they wanted that force to be quickly followed by deployment of the accord's final phase - a 20,000-strong "hybrid" U.N.-AU force. Ban and Konare said getting more peacekeepers to Darfur was part of "a two-track approach" being pursued alongside intensified efforts to work out a political settlement. In Washington, Bush said he would give Ban time to pursue diplomatic efforts, but added that the U.S. could impose financial and other sanctions if al-Bashir did not move quickly. Bush did not say how long he would wait. The secretary-general welcomed Bush's announcement and "is intensively working to expedite the political process and the hybrid operation for Darfur," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said. The president also said he would direct Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare a resolution for new U.N. sanctions targeting Sudan's government and people found to be violating human rights or obstructing peace. The resolution would also call for an expanded embargo on arms sales to Sudan, prohibitions on Sudan's government from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur and a strengthening of the U.N. ability to monitor and report violations, Bush said. The Security Council adopted a resolution in March 2005 authorizing an asset freeze and travel ban on four men accused of orchestrating killings and other abuses in Darfur - a former air force commander, an Arab militia chief and two rebel commanders. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said discussions on the new sanctions resolution would start Thursday. "What is happening in Sudan at the moment is unacceptable, is appalling and is a scandal for the international community," Blair told reporters. The African Union's peacekeeping force reported Wednesday that a spree of fighting earlier in the week had killed at least 62 people in the Abu Gorgah sector of North Darfur. It said 11 villages had been looted. AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said the African Union "condemns this fighting and calls on tribal leaders to avoid any further killing and destruction." The conflict began in early 2003 when ethnic African groups rebelled against the Arab-dominated national government, charging it discriminates in favor of the region's Arab tribes. Sudan's leaders deny charges that have encouraged and armed Arab militiamen blamed for attacks on civilians. The confidential U.N. report on Sudanese military flights first appeared March 28 in London's Guardian newspaper and in Wednesday's New York Times, and was later obtained by The Associated Press. The secretary-general expressed "deep concern" at the evidence presented to the Security Council about the flying of arms into Darfur, Montas said. "He is especially troubled by reports that private or national aircraft have been illegally provided with U.N. markings and used for military purposes," she said. She said such actions "would be in clear violation of international law and in contravention of the U.N.'s international status."
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