US faces opposition on Sudan sanctions resolution
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, July 9 (Reuters) – The United States is facing considerable opposition from U.N. Security Council members in its quest to impose sanctions on militias sowing death in Sudan’s Darfur region, diplomats reported.
At initial negotiations on a U.S.-drafted resolution on Thursday, China, Russia, Pakistan, Algeria, Brazil and others were wary of any embargoes, arguing it would be more helpful to get Khartoum’s cooperation than force it into a corner, participants in the meeting said.
Europeans, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Romania, supported the Bush administration in the 15-member council, they added.
The resolution would impose an immediate arms and travel ban on leaders of the Janjaweed militia who U.S. officials say have considerable wealth. It would give the government 30 days to implement pledges before it too faces possible sanctions.
With support from Sudan’s military, the Janjaweed are accused of burning villages, kidnapping and enslaving children, contaminating water sources, systematically raping women and uprooting 1 million black African villagers.
“If there were a vote today, the United States would lose,” said a senior council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But Washington will have to push it through by intensive lobbying.”
Another ambassador said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan might be able to persuade members to adopt the resolution, if Sudan did not cooperate.
The secretary-general, who spoke to council members in a video-conference during his travels to Nairobi on Wednesday, urged them to keep pressure on Sudan but did not specifically mention the resolution.
In an agreement with Annan last week, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir promised to disarm militias, send police to Darfur to protect civilians, begin political talks with rebels and provide access for international aid agencies.
GOVERNMENT PLEDGE
Stuart Holliday, a U.S. deputy ambassador, said one solution might be for Khartoum to send security forces to Darfur from outside the region as the government had done successfully in other parts of the country.
The government has pledged to send some 6,000 police to Darfur, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said on Thursday. “It is understood this deployment will take some time, but the United Nations in Sudan is following up on this,” she added.
Some 10,000 to 30,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur so far. At least a million people were forced out of their villages into barren camps, desperate for food, and more than 150,000 Darfur refugees have fled to neighboring Chad, U.N. officials say.
On Wednesday, John Danforth, the new U.S. ambassador, said, ‘We’re talking about days, we’re talking about this week,” for Sudan to keep its promises.
Danforth has dealt extensively with the Sudanese government in his role as presidential envoy. He helped broker an agreement in May between Khartoum and rebels in the Christian and animist southern part of the country that ended 21 years of civil war.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who visited Khartoum at the same time as Annan last week, said the Sudanese government had not yet done enough to honor its promises.
“We want to see dramatic improvements on the ground right now. But despite the promises that have been made, we have yet to see these dramatic improvements. Only actions, not words, can win the race against death in Darfur,” Powell told reporters in Washington on Thursday.