U.N. Security Council ready to adopt Sudan sanctions

NEW YORK, July 29, 2004 (dpa) — The U.N. Security Council is prepared to adopt sanctions against Arab militias in Sudan’s Darfur region and to threaten the Sudanese government with punitive measures unless it stops the fighting in that region, diplomats said Thursday.

The 15-nation council has before it a final draft resolution introduced by the United States and Britain, which calls for an arms embargo on the Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who have been accused of committing grave atrocities against civilians in Darfur.

The council planned to vote on the draft on Friday.

The conflict pitting the Janjaweed against two African rebel groups has killed an estimated 30,000 people in the past year and displaced more than 1 million people. More than 100,000 have taken refuge in Chad.

The draft threatens to impose sanctions on Khartoum if it fails to implement a set of demands it signed with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on July 3, which aimed at bringing an end to the conflict and humanitarian situation. The resolution calls on Annan to report 30 days from the day the council has adopted the measure and monthly thereafter about progress of implementation of the demands.

If there would be lack of progress, the council intends to take “further actions” allowed by the U.N. Charter, including economic sanctions.

Several council members, including Pakistan, China and Russia, have voiced opposition to imposing sanctions on Khartoum, arguing that the government there should be given ample time to implement the set of agreements with Annan. The July 3 agreements called on Khartoum to give international relief workers free access to Darfur, to investigate and punish human rights violators, to deploy thousands of police and to allow the African Union to send monitors to Darfur to observe a ceasefire in that western region of Sudan. Khartoum agreed also to disarm militias in Darfur.

The U.N. said only one demand had been met, which is more access to relief workers to Darfur.

The draft calls for resumption of peace talks between Khartoum and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – the African rebel groups fighting the Janjaweed. Khartoum has been accused of supporting the Janjaweed, a charge it has denied.