Sudan has last chance to avoid US sanctions – Bush
April 18, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — President George W. Bush warned Sudan’s president on Wednesday that he has one last chance to stop violence in Darfur or else the United States will impose sanctions and consider other punitive options.
Bush said he has decided to give U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon more time to pursue diplomacy with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir but made clear in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum that his patience is limited.
“President Bashir should take the last chance by responding to the secretary general’s efforts and to meet the just demands of the international community,” Bush said.
Bush raised the possibility of an international no-fly zone aimed at preventing Sudan’s military aircraft from flying over Darfur. He accused the Sudanese of painting military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
“I’m also looking at what steps the international community could take to deny Sudan’s government the ability to fly its military aircraft over Darfur, and if we don’t begin to see signs of good-faith commitments, we will hear calls for even sterner measures. The situation doesn’t have to come to that,” Bush said.
Britain has pushed for a no-fly zone in Darfur but U.S. defense officials have said it is not an option being actively explored as such a measure would be hard to implement in an area the size of Texas.
Bush has been frustrated at the international community’s failure to stop what he calls genocide in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003. In his speech, he accused Bashir of routinely violating past agreements.
“Sudan’s government has moved arms to Darfur, conducted bombing raids on villages. They’ve used military vehicles and aircraft that are painted white, which makes them look like those deployed by humanitarian agencies and peacekeeping forces,” Bush said.
Speaking sternly, Bush said to avoid sanctions Bashir must allow deployment of a full joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to Darfur, end support for Janjaweed militias, reach out to rebel leaders and allow humanitarian aid to reach the people of Darfur.
Outlining the sanctions Sudan would face, Bush said the Treasury Department will bar 29 companies owned or controlled by the government of Sudan from the U.S. financial system, making it a crime for American companies to do business with them.
Washington would also target sanctions against individuals responsible for violence.
And Bush said he would direct Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would apply new sanctions against the Sudanese government.
The new resolution would impose an expanded arms embargo on the Sudanese government and prohibit Sudan from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur, Bush said.
(Reuters)