New U.S. draft Security Council resolution on Sudan still faces opposition

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS, July 28, 2004 (AP) — The United States circulated a new draft U.N. resolution on Sudan keeping the threat of sanctions and increasing pressure on the Sudanese government to disarm Arab militias blamed for rampant violence in a western region.

However, the text presented Tuesday made few significant changes and diplomats said the reference to sanctions still faced opposition from Security Council members who want to give the Sudanese government more time to rein in the militias in Darfur.

“We’ve got the same lineup of people who have doubts,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said after closed Security Council consultations, adding a vote would likely be held on Friday.

He didn’t single anybody out but said concerns included the sanctions language and the timing, with the United States pressing hard for a vote by the end of this week.

Parry said he wouldn’t rule out a change in the wording to threaten further measures instead of sanctions. Experts said such a change would make little difference in substance but could satisfy opponents.

But U.S. officials were determined to retain the threat of sanctions, stressing the urgency of the crisis, which has been called “genocide” by the Congress.

At least 30,000 civilians, most of them black villagers, have been killed, more than 1 million displaced and some 2.2 million left in urgent need of food or medical attention as pro-government Arab militias known as Janjaweed staged a brutal campaign to drive out black African farmers.

The 15 nation Security Council planned more consultations on the resolution during a closed meeting Wednesday.

The Sudanese government, which has accused the international community of meddling, promised to fulfill its promise to disarm the militias and said sanctions would only harm those efforts.

Raising the stakes, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail also said his country would retaliate against any foreign troops sent to stem the violence.

Military intervention was not being considered by the Security Council, diplomats said, but the statement reflected concerns among some Arabs that the United States plans to follow its invasion of Iraq with an attempt to remake the region.

“We are not looking for confrontation and we hope that we will not be pushed,” Ismail told reporters in Turkey. But “if we are being attacked, definitely we are not going to sit silent, we will retaliate.”

The new draft _ the second in less than a week _ retains the same timetable for assessing progress on apprehending and bringing to justice the Janjaweed.

But it adds a clause calling on the Sudanese government to “fulfill its commitments to disarm the Janjaweed militias,” as Khartoum agreed to do in a July 3 agreement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

It also includes more references to the African Union, including “full support” for the union-led cease-fire commission and monitoring mission in Darfur.

“It’s better than the first draft but it’s not yet the best,” Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram said. “We still have some concerns with regard to the use of a reference of sanctions.”

The resolution 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 noncompliance.”

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

Russia, Pakistan and China had expressed opposition to the threat of sanctions and called for Sudan to be given sufficient time to meet its commitments under the July 3 agreement. The agreement included a promise to crack down on the pro-government Arab militias, improve security and provide better access for relief efforts.

The 17-month Darfur conflict stems from long-standing tensions between nomadic Arab tribes and their African farming neighbors over dwindling water and agricultural land. Those tensions exploded into violence in February 2003, when two African rebel groups took up arms over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government.

U.S. and humanitarian officials have accused the Sudanese government of backing the Janjaweed _ a claim the government denies.