African Union mulls sanctions on Darfur groups
June 28, 2006 (BANJUL) — The African Union is ready to impose sanctions on any group undermining a peace agreement for Sudan’s violent western Darfur region, the chairwoman of the AU’s Peace and Security Council said on Wednesday.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the AU Peace and Security Council which she chairs had decided to impose sanctions on “anyone who undermines the peace process” although she declined to say who may be targeted.
One of three Darfur rebel groups and Sudan’s Khartoum-based central government signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5. The African Union has around 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur to help promote peace.
Since the deal, the AU has come under attack in the camps which house 2.5 million displaced Darfuris, and their patrols have been obstructed by hostile armed factions who did not sign the deal or were not present at negotiations.
Key deadlines, including receiving Khartoum’s crucial plan to disarm pro-government militias by June 22, have been missed with no repercussions.
Dlamini-Zuma was expanding on comments made after a Peace and Security Council meeting on Tuesday in the Gambian capital Banjul.
“We discussed how to deal with those who undermine the implementation of the Abuja agreement on Darfur, and said that (with) those who actually undermine the agreement, we must take certain measures. Measures like a ban on travel and (seizing) their assets and so forth,” she told reporters late on Tuesday.
Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Dlamini-Zuma declined to say whether the sanctions were more likely to be targeted at Darfur rebel groups, the pro-Sudanese government Janjaweed militia, or even governments.
“I do not want to speculate. It’s enough to say ‘anyone who undermines the implementation of the peace process.’ The act of not signing in itself does not constitute anything wrong,” she said.
The African Union wants to transfer its peacekeeping force in Darfur to the United Nations, but so far the Khartoum government has refused to allow a U.N. force to deploy.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Dlamini-Zuma insisted that unless something changed, the African Union would allow its force’s mandate to expire as scheduled at the end of September.
“The mandate should finish by Sept. 30 with a view to transferring to the United Nations,” she said.
“We are willing to review that decision if there are new developments in the discussions between Sudan and the United Nations. For instance, if in their discussions they agree it can be transferred to the U.N. but maybe the U.N. says it needs a little bit more time to come in, then we can review it in that light,” she said.
“We don’t have the finances to continue beyond the date we have set ourselves, Sept. 30, unless there are new developments,” she said.
(Reuters)