EU maintains sanctions threat on Sudan

BRUSSELS, July 26 (AFP) — The European Union vowed Monday to keep up pressure on the Sudanese government over the crisis in Darfur, maintaining the threat of sanctions despite what it calls some encouraging signs from Khartoum.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said he had been given assurances by visiting Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail whom he met Saturday.

“I expressed the great concern of the European Union… and he was very positive in the sense that he promised full implementation of the agreement between the United Nations and the Sudanese govenrment,” he told reporters.

But he said: “Of course it is not words that count, it is deeds. If deeds are not following then of course we will reconsider and see if sanctions or measures are necessary.”

Since early 2003, Sudan’s western Darfur province has been in the throes of armed conflict between government forces backed by pro-Khartoum Arab militias and several rebel movements.

The conflict has claimed between 30,000 and 50,000 lives and about 1.2 million have been displaced, with around 200,000 people taking refuge in neighboring Chad, according to a UN representative.

The Dutch minister declined to specify what sanctions might be imposed on Khartoum.

“That is something we have to consider later. Now that the Sudanese government has promised full cooperation, let us encourage them,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

“Let’s not talk about sanctions before we have seen what those encouraging elements will bring us,” he added.