EU ministers to warn Sudan but stop short of action

June 12, 2008 ( BRUSSELS) — EU foreign ministers are expected to warn Sudan of possible EU sanctions if it fails to cooperate on war crimes but will stop short of the immediate action demanded by rights activists, diplomats said on Thursday.

Foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday will for the first time warn of specific EU sanctions against individuals instead of repeating warnings of possible sanctions via the United Nations, which have been opposed by China.

“The council stands ready to consider measures against individuals responsible for the non-cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC)” should they continue to disregard their obligations under a U.N. resolution, said a draft of the ministers’ statement seen by Reuters.

The ministers will stop short of giving instructions to EU experts to draw up sanctions that could be imposed, after France and Spain argued for a step-by-step approach, EU diplomats said.

In March, the Slovenian EU presidency said the EU would back sanctions if Sudan failed to hand over to the ICC Ahmed Haroun, its former minister for humanitarian affairs, and former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, in connection with suspected crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Human rights activists, including Human Rights Watch, say the time to act is now.

“The EU has threatened … we believe now that they should do it,” HRW’s EU director Lotte Leicht said, adding the bloc should target individuals with assets freezes and visa bans.

The European Parliament, which has no direct say in EU foreign policy, called for sanctions in a resolution in May.

“We have not only a moral, but also a legal obligation, to do everything in our power to help criminals be prosecuted and punished,” the parliament’s president Hans-Gert Poettering told a news conference on Thursday.

Sudanese human rights lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman told the same briefing the international community had done little more than “gently air complaints” in the face of Sudan’s “clear and explicit defiance of the ICC”.

While welcoming EU moves towards sanctions, Osman, winner of the EU’s top rights prize this year, said: “I am at a loss to explain the lack of decisive response from the European Union, a powerful group of nations that has repeatedly declared its strong support for the ICC.”

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who will meet the EU ministers in Luxembourg, presented a report to the Security Council this month making clear he wants to pursue senior officials for war crimes in Darfur.

Experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in five years of ethnic and political conflict in Darfur. Khartoum says only 10,000 people have been killed.

(Reuters)