UN Security Council deadlocked on Darfur

Feb 27, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — A block of U.N. Security Council members pushed on Monday for action on proposals to punish individuals believed to be blocking peace in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, but ran into opposition that left the yearlong deadlock unresolved.

While the United States, Britain, Denmark and France argued certain individuals should be quickly designated as sanctions targets, China, Russia and Qatar called for more delay, U.N. diplomats said after closed-door talks on the way ahead in Darfur.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes and herded into grim camps during more than three years of fighting in the remote western Sudanese region pitting government forces and rebel militias against non-Arab rebels.

The council voted nearly a year ago to authorise sanctions against individuals blocking the peace process or violating a U.N. arms embargo, and U.N. experts last December gave the council a secret list of 17 people it said should be punished.

The list remained confidential until February 17, when details appeared on the Web site of The American Prospect. Additional details were published last week including by Reuters, leading to speculation the 15-nation council would now quickly move ahead with freezes on travel and assets of those on the list.

But council members instead denounced the leaks.

Sudan’s interior and defence ministers and its national intelligence chief were among the 17 names on the U.N. experts’ proposed list of sanctions targets.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Idriss Deby, the head of state of neighbouring Chad, were among the names on a second list of five names that the experts said should be considered for possible future designation as sanctions targets, according to the confidential list.

But China, which relies on Sudan for oil and opposes U.N. sanctions as a matter of policy, and Qatar, the council’s sole Arab member, called the experts’ evidence unreliable and recommended a fresh start in compiling sanctions targets.

Russia, meanwhile, argued sanctions might damage peace efforts, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions took place behind closed doors.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, the council president for February, acknowledged the divisions but warned that inaction risked undermining the council’s credibility.

“If the council … isn’t willing to take steps to persuade people to follow what it says, its credibility will decline. And people need to consider that consequence,” he said.

(Reuters)