Sudan: UN wrestles with sanctions threat

United Nations Security Council members say concerns remain over whether to threaten Sudan with sanctions, but hope a vote can be held this week.

The United States circulated a draft UN resolution last week that for the first time included a direct threat of sanctions against the Sudanese government if it did not rein in Arab militias accused of killing thousands in that country’s western Darfur province.

And the European Union has threatened Sudan with “imminent” UN sanctions unless the killing stops.

At the UN, a British official was “hopeful” that a vote could be held this week, saying the United States was expected to present a new draft resolution today without significant changes.

The new draft would still include a regional arms embargo on Darfur and threaten sanctions on the government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Russia, Pakistan and China have opposed the threat of sanctions and called for Sudan to be given sufficient time to meet its commitments under a July 3 agreement it reached with secretary-general Kofi Annan.

“We have to get it right,” Pakistan’s UN ambassador Munir Akram said. “We need a clear strategy on how to deal with the situation.”

The 15-month conflict in the vast region has killed up to 30,000 civilians, most of them villagers, displaced more than a million and left some 2.2 million in urgent need of food or medical attention.

US and humanitarian officials have accused the Sudanese government of backing Arab militias known as Janjaweed in a brutal campaign to drive out black Africans farmers. The government denies any connection to the violence.

The draft resoltion presented last Thursday sets a timetable for assessing progress on apprehending and bringing to justice the Janjaweed militia blamed for the bulk of the violence. It also calls on Annan to report every 30 days “and expresses its intention to consider further actions, including the imposition of sanctions on the government of Sudan, in the event of non-compliance”.

An arms embargo would apply to individuals, groups or governments that supply the Janjaweed or rebel groups.

Algeria’s UN ambassador Abdallah Baali said many delegations wanted to change the wording about sanctions. He did not elaborate but said he was “hopeful” that differences could be overcome.

“What is at stake is very important,” Baali said. “We need the security council to agree as quickly as possible on the action that is required.”

US Congressman Donald Payne also urged the security council to take a “stronger stand” in pressing the Sudanese government to end the killings that the US Congress has branded “genocide”.

Payne and two other Congressional Democrats met Annan yesterday to urge the international community to offer more resources, including helicopters and vehicles, to relieve what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Payne denounced the Sudanese government and said a multinational force might be needed to stop the violence.

“Time is of the essence,” he said. “It’s a pariah government. It always has been. It only reacts to pressure.”

Darfur’s troubles stem from long-standing tensions between nomadic Arab tribes and their African farming neighbours over dwindling water and agricultural land.

Those tensions exploded into violence in February 2003 when the two African rebel groups took up arms over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle with Arab countrymen.