Blair calls for sanctions on Sudan if it refuses UN force

April 17, 2007 (LONDON) — Sanctions should be imposed on Sudan if it refuses the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force in war-wracked Darfur, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday.

Sudan said at the U.N. on Monday that it would allow the U.N. to send 3,000 peacekeepers, six attack helicopters and other aircraft and equipment, a move it had rejected for five months. But given Sudan’s history of backtracking on such pledges, U.S. diplomats and U.N. officials said they would be cautious until the U.N. peacekeepers were on the ground.

Blair said Sudan would face Security Council action if it blocked the peacekeepers’ deployment.

“It is clear that the only thing that will make the Sudanese government understand its responsibilities is pressure,” Blair said. “We must be prepared, as the United Nations Security Council, if they do not agree to the U.N. package, to pass a strong resolution with sanctions in respect to the Sudanese government.”

The 3,000 peacekeepers are part of a so-called “heavy support package,” which is the second phase of a U.N. plan to help a 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur. The ultimate U.N. goal is deployment of a 20,000-strong “hybrid” U.N.-AU force, a move Sudan opposes.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has repeatedly rejected a U.N. force for Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced since the conflict began in 2003. Al-Bashir has come under increasing pressure from the United States, the European Union, some Arab and African countries, and China, which buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports and sells Khartoum weapons and military aircraft.

Blair called the situation in Darfur a “scandal” which the world could not afford to ignore.

“The reality of today’s world is that you can’t opt out of these conflicts,” he said.

(AP)