Sudan faces tough action if no Darfur progress – UN’s Beckett

June 5, 2007 (LONDON) — Britain will push for tougher U.N. sanctions against Sudan if its government does not support international efforts to end the conflict in Darfur, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Tuesday.

All sides in the Darfur conflict faced a choice of committing to the political process outlined by the African Union and United Nations or “face the consequences,” Beckett told Britain’s parliament during a debate on Darfur.

Sudan’s cooperation would lead to an end of sanctions and more money for reconstruction and development, she said.

But if Sudan failed to honour agreements, Britain and its partners would seek to introduce a further sanctions resolution at the U.N. Security Council, she said.

“And what goes for the government of Sudan goes for the rebel groups: If they do not cooperate, if they are not willing to enter into a genuine ceasefire, then in our view they too should, and will, be subjected to sanctions,” she said.

The United States and Britain have been working on an expanded U.N. sanctions resolution for weeks, but Russia and South Africa have questioned the timing and China has opposed further penalties.

The U.N. Security Council endorsed plans last month for an African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur, although a dispute over who is to command the force has delayed deployment.

Beckett said she understood the African Union and the U.N. had agreed on detailed proposals for the so-called “hybrid” force and these would be put to the government of Sudan.

“We are urging very speedy agreement and very speedy acceptance of those proposals,” she said.

Beckett accused Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of failing to implement a peacekeeping plan discussed in Addis Ababa last November despite repeated assurances he would do so.

“He sent more aircraft to bomb the people of Darfur. There have been continued attacks on civilians, peacekeepers and the humanitarian agencies…,” she said.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on rebels and militia but not on the government, although it forbids offensive military flights by Khartoum over Darfur, where more than 200,000 people are estimated to have died and at least two million people have been uprooted since 2003.

The United States and Britain are considering an arms embargo over the entire country, a halt to all military flights over Darfur, monitors at Sudanese airports, and an expansion of the list of people under sanctions.

(Reuters)