US moving ahead with sanctions on Sudan
June 13, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — US President George W. Bush on Wednesday said he was moving ahead with tighter sanctions on Sudan, after the government there agreed to a joint African Union-UN force to end bloodshed in Darfur.
“The Department of Treasury is tightening existing economic sanctions against Sudan, and we’re imposing additional ones,” the president told the politically influential group in an address from the White House.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “is working with our allies to draft a new UN Security Council resolution that will seek to impose new sanctions, expand an arms embargo, and prohibit Sudan’s government from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur,” said Bush.
His comments came as the Security Council welcomed Sudan’s acceptance on Tuesday of the joint Darfur force and urged “timely and full implementation” of the deal, after getting assurances that Khartoum means business.
A joint statement by the AU, the UN and Sudan said the Khartoum government had “accepted the joint proposals of the hybrid operation” and that delegates at the three-way talks had agreed on the need for a comprehensive ceasefire accompanied by a inclusive political process.
Khartoum had previously rejected attempts to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur, where a four-year conflict has killed at least 200,000 people and forced more than two million from their homes, according to the UN.
There are currently around 7,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur but they have been unable to halt the clashes in a region the size of France because of a severe shortage of funding and equipment.
“The people of Darfur are crying out for our help, and the Southern Baptists and the United States will not turn away, because we believe that what matters overseas matters here at home,” said Bush.
(AFP)