EU urges more Sudan sanctions, pledges funds
March 5, 2007 (BRUSSELS) — The European Union called on the United Nations to consider tighter sanctions on Sudan over Darfur and pledged on Monday to find funds to help transform an African Union peace force into a joint mission with the U.N.
EU foreign ministers said in a statement they were “deeply concerned” about deteriorating security in Sudan’s vast west and blamed all parties involved in the conflict.
“The Council underlines its support for urgent consideration by the (U.N.) Security Council of further measures” against those impeding the peace process, the ministers said.
Officials said the term “measures” in the statement referred to sanctions. Existing sanctions on Khartoum include an arms embargo and restrictions against individuals. The ministers did not say how the sanctions should be tightened.
“There area various ideas being kicked about,” British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said. “It’s not so much the sanctions that people want to take but the clear warning people want to be giving to the government of Sudan.”
Rights group Human Rights Watch criticised the EU sanctions call as insufficient and said the 27-nation bloc should itself impose immediate travel bans and asset freezes on senior Sudanese officials over the conflict in western Sudan.
“Sudanese officials are getting away with murder in Darfur, but continue to face no significant consequences for their actions,” said Lotte Leicht, of Human Rights Watch.
“EU leaders should place senior Sudanese officials under immediate travel bans and asset freezes.”
Khartoum has so far refused to allow the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to join 7,000 AU troops, who have failed to stop the violence which has killed an estimated 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes in four years.
Transforming the AU mission to a joint mission with the United Nations needs 200 million euros ($260 million) and so far has only received a pledge of $41 million from Canada, an EU diplomat said last week.
A few EU countries, including Denmark and Greece, individually pledged less than 2 million euros each on Monday, an EU official said.
The EU as a whole vowed to find a bigger sum in its budget, but no amount was announced. Deciding on the exact amount will take at least a few weeks, the official said.
Ministers said the EU had already given about 400 million euros to the AU mission and urged other donors to step in.
Ministers once more condemned attacks on humanitarian staff and harassment of relief work and called on Sudanese authorities to remove obstacles to the work of U.N. agencies and aid groups.
Attacks on the AU and aid workers in Darfur, the world’s largest humanitarian operation, have largely gone unpunished.
The International Criminal Court last week said it wanted to prosecute a state minister and a pro-government militia leader for crimes against humanity in Darfur but President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has vowed not to send any Sudanese national for trial outside the country.
(Reuters)