UN Security Council to discuss Sudan sanctions
By Wasil Ali
April 4, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The UN Security council is due to discuss a US-UK proposal to impose sanctions on Sudan Thursday for its refusal to allow UN peacekeepers to deploy in Darfur, Sudan Tribune has learned. It is not clear whether a draft resolution has already been introduced for debate.
The British Permanent Representative to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry indicated last month that they are working on a draft resolution to impose sanctions on Sudan. Britain holds the presidency of the Security Council this month.
The Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last month suggesting severe limitations on the mandate and numbers of UN personnel in Darfur. The US & UK suggested that it may be time that the UNSC move to sanction Sudan for its refusal to let UN peacekeepers into Darfur. However on Monday Ban asked the US & UK for more time to engage in diplomacy with Sudan on the issue.
Ban’s plea for more time got a cool reception from US special envoy for Sudan Andrew Natsios who met with him on Monday. According to an article by the Washington Post, Natsios suggested to Ban that a failure to act quickly could push Congress to adopt harsher measures.
The article quoted one US official as saying that Natsios cited bills that would support the right of states to divest their financial holdings in companies that do business with Sudan and ban those firms from tapping U.S. capital markets.
The Washington Post also quoted senior US officials that the Bush Administration has decided “to stop watering down U.N. resolutions before they are even introduced,” and that “this time they will ask for what they want” including military and economic sanctions without fearing objections by China, a veto wielding member of the security council. Beijing voiced its objections to any sanctions on Sudan during in a closed meeting with other Security Council members on the issue last month.
China buys two-thirds of Sudan‘s oil and is the largest investor in the country. The Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Sudan in January where he signed a series of economic deals. It was also reported that president Hu urged the Sudanese president to accept AU-UN hybrid force in Darfur.
(ST)