UN’s Annan says US resolution on Sudan likely to pass
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (AFP) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that a new US-sponsored draft resolution that threatens sanctions on Sudan is likely to be approved by the UN Security Council.
“The reactions were quite positive,” Annan said at a joint appearance with US Secretary of State Colin Powell shortly after the United States presented the resolution at a meeting of the 15 council members.
“My sense is that it will be successful,” Annan said.
The draft, obtained by AFP, said the Sudanese government must bring to justice leaders of the Janjaweed militias who have carried out atrocities in Darfur or face the threat of unspecified sanctions within 30 days.
The resolution would also impose an immediate arms embargo on Darfur, an enormous area in western Sudan where more than 10,000 people have died and more than a million have been displaced in over a year of conflict.
A first version of the US resolution presented last month got a lukewarm welcome from council members, but Powell also said this draft, “in some ways tougher than the original version,” was more likely to get council backing.
“There is probably more support for this resolution,” he said.
The two men, who both visited Darfur in the past few weeks, presented a united front in calling on Sudan to take action to ease the crisis in Darfur, called by UN officials the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world.
In an agreement with Annan earlier this month, Sudan pledged to punish those responsible for atrocities, disarm the Janjaweed and other militias, let aid workers travel freely, and allow African Union rights monitors.
The conflict began in February 2003 with a rebel uprising against Khartoum, protesting that the largely black African Darfur region had been ignored by the Arab government.
In response, the pro-government Arab militias went on the rampage, carrying out what aid and rights agencies have called a brutal and systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The government has repeatedly denied reports that it has backed the militias, although Human Rights Watch said Monday it had obtained official documents that showed it did.
Sudan has also rejected international intervention in what it has called an internal matter but Annan has said Khartoum must honours its commitments.
If it does so, he said, “nobody would meddle and they would come under no pressure. So the solution is in their hands.”
The 15 Security Council delegations wil hold further talks on the draft resolution on Friday, diplomats said.