HRW urges sanctions against Sudan to stop Darfur attacks

September 20, 2007 (NEW YORK) — The United Nations should impose sanctions on the Sudanese government if it continues to attack civilians and humanitarian workers in the war-torn Darfur region, an international human rights organization said in a new report.

Human Rights Watch accused the international community of failing to take effective action despite increased global attention on the Darfur crisis.

“Concerned governments and international institutions should be prepared to strengthen the less-than-robust track record on maintaining pressure on the government of Sudan and other parties to the conflict to meet their obligations under law,” the group said in a report released Wednesday.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in fighting since 2003, when ethnic African rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated government. The government has been accused of retaliating by recruiting militias who are blamed for the worst atrocities against civilians including beatings, murder and rape. The Sudanese government denies the accusations.

The human rights situation in Darfur has “evolved from an armed conflict between rebels and the government into a violent scramble for power and resources,” according to the 76-page report.

The Sudanese government and other parties to the conflict continue to be responsible for indiscriminate attacks on civilians, ethnic cleansing through land use and occupation, and obstructing the work of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers, the report said.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on Sudan and authorized a 26,000-strong U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force this summer to replace a 6,000-member AU force that has been unable to stem the violence.

The Security Council also has ordered sanctions on four Sudanese individuals accused of rights violations in Darfur, but Human Rights Watch criticized the move as ineffective because the four aren’t high-level officials.

“The sanctions they’ve imposed are inconsequential – they are a joke,” said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the organization’s Africa Division. “They placed travel bans on people who have never even left Sudan and financial penalties on people who don’t have external accounts.”

Takirambudde praised the U.S. for imposing unilateral sanctions earlier this year on a list of Sudanese companies suspected of shipping arms to Darfur, as well as three individuals suspected of being involved in the violence.

The report blamed divisions among Security Council members for the lack of action and accused China, a permanent member of the council and the biggest foreign investor in Sudan, of blocking additional targeted sanctions.

It urged the Security Council to take action if a list of benchmarks are not met by the Sudanese government and other parties, including facilitating the deployment of the new peacekeeping force and increasing humanitarian access to the 4.2 million civilians in need.

“Governments and international institutions should take multilateral and if necessary unilateral measures, such as implementing targeted individual sanctions on people identified by the U.N. Panel of Experts, and on other entities, such as companies, that are contributing to rights abuses in Darfur,” the report said.

Takirambudde said he welcomed the high-level meeting to be hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at U.N. headquarters on Friday to discuss the deployment of the peacekeeping force, but was skeptical of its outcome. Sanctions aren’t on the meeting agenda.

“There have been too many meetings, too many summits, consultations … this has been an ongoing crisis since 2003 and there is massive suffering continuing, it is pervasive all over Darfur and these people can’t wait another day,” he said.

To view the Human Rights Watch report, “Darfur 2007: Chaos by Design – Peacekeeping Challenges for AMIS and UNAMID,” please visit:

http://hrw.org/reports/2007/sudan0907/

To view a photo gallery by Gary Knight/VII documenting the situation in Darfur in January 2007, please visit:

http://hrw.org/photos/2007/sudan0907/

(AP)