UN shies from Sudan, Ivory Coast sanctions – envoy
Dec 20, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. Security Council lacks the unity and political will to impose sanctions on more individuals seen as blocking the peace process in Ivory Coast and Sudan, a key council member said on Wednesday.
Security Council committees charged with monitoring the peace process in both African nations have been given lists of individuals recommended for sanctions but have not acted, Greek U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis said.
Vassilakis, whose two-year seat on the 15-nation council runs out at the end of the month, made the statement in a final report to the council on his activities as chairman of its sanctions committees on Sudan and Ivory Coast, two African nations riven by internal conflict.
Each of the Security Council’s 15 members has a seat on each of the council’s 11 sanctions committees. The committees typically work by consensus, so an objection from even one member can block action.
In Sudan’s volatile Darfur region, the council last April imposed sanctions on four individuals accused of impeding peace, but has since been unable to agree on any others to be targeted, despite soaring violence there, Vassilakis said.
While some council members wanted to take action against additional individuals, others stressed the Sudan panel “should take political sensitivities into account and be more attuned to the ongoing diplomatic initiatives to address the situation in Darfur,” he said.
As a result, the committee yet to take further action, “due to lack of the unity of purpose and political will necessary to take a decision and designate individuals on its lists,” he said. The lists are typically compiled for the committees by individual council members or outside experts.
Similarly, the council imposed restrictions on the financial assets and travel of three Ivory Coast individuals last February, accusing them of obstructing the peace process.
While the February action had a calming effect in Ivory Coast for a short time, violence later resumed and the peace process has since reached a new stalemate, he said.
No other individuals have been sanctioned, despite the identification of other individuals who could be targeted, Vassilakis said.
Again, Ivory Coast sanctions committee members lacked “the necessary unity of purpose and political will” to sanction additional individuals, he said.
While Vassilakis did not name individual countries, China has in the past questioned the need for sanctions in Ivory Coast while China, Russia and Qatar have questioned whether additional sanctions would help bring peace to Darfur.
(Reuters)