EU “open to consider” new sanctions against Sudan – Solana
May 29, 2007 (HAMBURG) — The European Union is “open to consider” new sanctions on Sudan, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday after President Bush called for more pressure Sudan’s government to halt bloodshed in the Darfur region.
Javier Solana said the issue would be discussed with foreign ministers at a Group of Eight diplomatic meeting outside Berlin on Wednesday.
“In principle, we are open to consider that,” Solana told The Associated Press at the end of two-day EU-Asia foreign ministers talks here. The EU currently has an arms embargo on Sudan and visa bans on a number of Sudanese officials.
Solana said the 27-nation bloc was also “open to consider” the creation of a humanitarian corridor from neighboring Chad to Sudan’s Darfur region, allowing safe-access to aid workers there to help relieve the suffering of the conflict’s victims. The idea is being pushed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Bush ordered new U.S. economic sanctions Tuesday to pressure Sudan’s government to halt the bloodshed in Darfur that the administration has condemned as genocide. Beyond the new U.S. sanctions, Bush directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to draft a proposed U.N. resolution to strengthen international pressure on the government of President Omar al-Bashir.
The sanctions target government-run companies involved in Sudan’s oil industry, and three individuals, including a rebel leader, suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur.
Washington had been prepared to impose the sanctions last month, but held off to give U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon more time to find a diplomatic end to the four-year crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region where more than 200,000 people have been killed.
EU officials have too become increasingly frustrated over the continued conflict in Darfur and have consistently warned they would take added measures if the government in Khartoum failed to stop the fighting.
U.N. action on Sudan has made little progress in the face of Chinese objections, and the EU continues to see China as a major obstacle.
EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said Darfur and China’s ties with Sudan were not raised by EU officials with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the Hamburg talks.
Liu Guijin, China’s new troubleshooter on Africa, defended Chinese investment in Sudan on Tuesday as a better way to stop the bloodshed in Darfur. He said he saw no desperation in refugee camps in Darfur during a visit last week and found that international and Sudanese groups were working together to solve humanitarian problems there.
“I didn’t see a desperate scenario of people dying of hunger,” Liu said at a media briefing. Rather, he said, people in Darfur thanked him for the Chinese government’s help in building dams and providing water supply equipment.
“The Darfur issue and issues in eastern Sudan and southern Sudan are caused by poverty and underdevelopment. Only when poverty and underdevelopment are addressed will peace be there in Sudan,” Liu said.
China, the biggest buyer of Sudanese oil and a major investor in Sudan’s economy.
(AP)