Russia, China still oppose Sudan sanctions threat
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, July 23 (Reuters) – Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria on Friday opposed a threat of sanctions against Sudan in a U.S.-drafted U.N. resolution aimed at keeping the pressure on Khartoum until atrocities against civilians in Darfur stop, diplomats said.
At initial Security Council negotiations on a revised draft, envoys at the talks said there was no agreement on a provision demanding that Sudan face unspecified U.N. sanctions within 30 days if it did not arrest and prosecute Arab militia leaders, called Janjaweed, accused of abusing civilians.
The 15-month conflict has killed at least 30,000 people, forced villagers into concentration-camp type compounds and left 2 million people without enough food and medicine in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur.
Although there is no outright opposition to the draft and strong support from Europeans, diplomats said Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria objected to using the word “sanctions,” against Khartoum, preferring only a threat of “further action.”
Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador, Munir Akram, said some council members were waiting for reports from international monitoring missions in Darfur so that any resolution would be on firmer ground. The text was “a good basis for discussion” but there were “several ways to improve it,” he told Reuters.
Both U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday they were confident the council would adopt the resolution. And some European envoys hoped the United States would put it to a vote soon and see who would dare oppose the measure.
The U.S. draft resolution demands Sudan “apprehend and bring to justiceIt expresses” the council’s “intention to consider further actions, including the imposition of sanctions on the government of Sudan, in the event of noncompliance .”
DECLARE GENOCIDE
The new resolution also calls for an immediate weapons ban on armed groups in Darfur, including the Janjaweed and anti-government rebels. Diplomats said no one objected to that except Germany, which wants an arms embargo on all of Sudan.
The United States and its allies want to maintain a threat of sanctions against Khartoum so that the government takes the lead in resolving the crisis and disarming the Arab Janjaweed, accused of murder, rape and uprooting African villagers.
“Since they turned it on, they can turn it off,” Powell said on Thursday at the United Nations. “And we’re making it clear to them that there will be consequences if it is not turned off.”
U.N. officials said there were no volunteers for a multinational force, which leaves the sanctions threat as the strongest weapon. “It is not a simple military solution that is at hand,” Powell said.
The U.S. Congress has asked the Bush administration to declare a genocide in Darfur, thereby triggering a 1949 international convention on genocide. But the treaty is vague about what action would be taken once those who ratify the convention decide genocide had occurred.
“There is no monitoring or implementation mechanism for the genocide convention, but the signatories are free at any time to bring a case of genocide before any body of the United Nations – the Security Council or now, the International Criminal Court,” U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
Sudan, in an agreement with Annan two weeks ago, pledged to protect displaced civilians, disarm the Janjaweed and other armed groups, suspend visa and travel restrictions on relief workers and punish those responsible for atrocities.