Britain hails tougher US sanctions on Sudan
29 May 2007 (LONDON) — British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday welcomed new US sanctions against Sudan, saying years of inaction over events in Africa were over.
Britain ‘would obviously support’ the additional measures, Blair said shortly before US President George W. Bush announced the toughened measures against the Khartoum regime.
‘Darfur has shown what has been done and what still needs to be done,’ he told reporters on board his plane shortly before taking off for Libya, his first stop on a three-nation trip to Africa.
His official spokesman said earlier that the United States and other countries were ratcheting up the pressure on President Omar Al Beshir ‘because what is happening in Sudan is not acceptable by any international standards.’
He said the international community could not afford to drop its guard with Sudan.
‘We believe that Sudan agrees to things under pressure from the international community, then backtracks at a later stage,’ the spokesman added. ‘We need to maintain that pressure.’
Bush ordered economic sanctions, barring 30 companies ‘owned or controlled by the government of Sudan’ from the US financial system.
He also said he was barring people found responsible for violence in Darfur from doing business with Americans and would continue to work toward a diplomatic solution through the United Nations.
US officials said Bush would also seek a tough new UN Security Council resolution punishing Khartoum.
US officials hope the new US measures would compel Sudan to accept the deployment of a hybrid UN-African Union force, end support for the Janjaweed militias in Darfur, and let humanitarian aid reach Darfur.
In welcoming the new measures, Blair said: ‘The truth is that the African Union has been prepared to send in peacekeepers and are prepared to work with a joint UN force.’
Sounding upbeat about progress on the situation, Blair added ‘a few years ago nothing would have happened. Now something has happened.’
Blair’s spokesman noted that the 27-nation European Union is ‘at the moment slightly further ahead’ of the United States in terms of banning arms sales to Sudan.
‘We believe that we need to go further, go further at the UN on issues like no-fly zones and targetting individuals,’ he added.
The Darfur conflict has cost at least 200,000 lives and forced more than two million people from their homes, according to the United Nations, though Sudan contests those estimates, saying 9,000 people have died.
(AFP)