US threatens tough measures against Sudan
March 13, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States and others will consider imposing a range of punitive measures against Sudan for its refusal to accept an international force into Darfur region, the State Department said on Tuesday.
U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters the United States and other countries felt a growing impatience over what he called Sudan’s “delaying tactics” in allowing a joint African Union-United Nations force into Darfur.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir sent a letter to the United Nations this month arguing in detail against U.N. plans to bolster under-financed AU military monitors.
“To the extent that Sudan continues to frustrate implementation of this agreement, the U.S. and other members of the international community are going to have to think seriously about implementing additional measures to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Darfur,” said Casey.
“It is clear our patience is limited,” he added, when asked how long it would take the United States and others to act.
Casey declined to say what these measures would be but U.S. officials in the past have indicated they could include a range of financial measures against Sudan’s government to put pressure on Khartoum to accept the hybrid force.
In addition, Britain is pushing for a no-fly zone to be imposed in Darfur, a tactic Washington has also considered to ease the humanitarian crisis there.
In his letter, Bashir said he wanted to restrict U.N. movements in Darfur, limit overflights or attack helicopters and would bar international police from government controlled zones and other areas.
“I think people were surprised by exactly how far of a pulling back this (the letter) represents and I do think that means people … are going to have to make some decisions on both sides fairly quickly about how to go,” said a State Department official who asked not to be named.
U.N. REPORT
A United Nations human rights mission report accused Sudan’s government of orchestrating gross violations in Darfur, a claim Khartoum called invalid, arguing on Tuesday that the humanitarian situation there had improved.
Sudan charged the U.N. team’s leader with bias and said the mission should not have gone ahead after some members dropped out.
“We therefore strongly and resolutely oppose any consideration by this esteemed council of any report that comes out of this mission,” Sudan’s Justice Minister Mohamed Ali Elmardi told the 47-state Council in Geneva.
But the report found the government had “manifestly failed to protect the population … from large-scale international crimes and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes.”
More than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 in Darfur in what the United States says is the first genocide of this century. In addition, more than 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in the violence.
U.S. special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios, who has threatened a “Plan B” if Khartoum continues to resist a hybrid force, visited Sudan last week and said the government was paralyzing the humanitarian operation in Darfur.
He also said he had failed to reach any agreement on allowing non-African peacekeeping troops to assist the cash-strapped AU mission struggling to keep the peace in Darfur, a region about the size of France.
Rwanda, which has about 2,000 troops in Darfur, threatened Tuesday to withdraw its troops unless more resources were committed to the AU force, saying its soldiers had seen “no results” from their mission.
The United Nations has been unable as yet to get enough troops for the joint mission, with most countries reluctant to offer troops without Khartoum’s consent.
The United States, which has offered logistic support but none of its own troops, said nations had an obligation to help. “It is important that countries do step up,” said Casey.
(Reuters)