U.S. submits revised resolution for sanctions against Sudan
NEW YORK, July 27, 2004 (dpa) — The United States on Tuesday submitted a revised draft resolution seeking sanctions against Arab militias fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region and threatened the Sudanese government with similar measures if the humanitarian crisis there continues.
The revised text was given to the U.N. Security Council after it was rewritten by legal experts and amended by several council members.
U.S. diplomats warned that some countries were opposed to imposing sanctions on Khartoum without giving it time to solve the Darfur crisis. Pakistan, China and Russia – while not opposing sanctions against the Arab militias known as Janjaweed – want to give Khartoum a chance to implement demands to improve the humanitarian situation and end the conflict, the diplomats said.
The draft seeks to impose an arms embargo on the as Janjaweed, which are supported by Khartoum. The Janjaweed have been fighting for the past year two African rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), resulting in at least 50,000 deaths and more than 1 million displaced persons.
Islamabad said Tuesday Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf conferred by telephone with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on his own diplomatic efforts to thwart sanctions against Khartoum. Musharraf talked to Sudanese President Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir on Monday, urging him to meet international demands to ease the Darfur crisis.
Islamabad said in a statement distributed at U.N. headquarters in New York that Musharraf told Annan and Powell of the need “for creating more diplomatic space for solutions that avert” sanctions.
The diplomats said the U.S. may want to demand a vote by the council by Thursday or Friday. U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States hoped a vote on the U.N. resolution would take place by the end of the week, but he would not be more specific.
If adopted by the council, the resolution would call on Annan to report within 30 days whether Khartoum has implemented the set of demands it signed with Annan on July 3 when the U.N. leader visited Khartoum.
After the initial 30 days, Annan is to report monthly on any progress in ending the crisis. The draft says the council will express its intention to take “further actions,” including sanctions in the event no progress is made.
Khartoum agreed on July 3 to allow free access to Darfur to international relief workers, investigate and punish human rights violators, deploy thousands of police and allow the African Union to send monitors to Darfur to observe a ceasefire in that western region of Sudan. Khartoum agreed also to disarm militias in Darfur.
The draft calls for peace talks between Khartoum and SLA and JEM to resume following a breakdown of negotiations earlier in July.
Ereli said at a briefing Tuesday that access to humanitarian aid in Darfur continues to be hampered by the “deplorable” security situation there. The lack of security along with “continuing bureaucratic obstacles” are limiting the international community’s ability to respond to the crisis, Ereli said.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail previously denied the accusation. He said 800 aid workers and 30 to 40 representatives of international media were in the region, but added not everyone could be let in “because we are responsible for their security”.
Powell arrived in Egypt Tuesday and will discuss developments in Sudan with the new Egyptian prime minister, foreign minister and president, Ereli added.
“The secretary remains very actively involved and will continue in that capacity through the resolution of this issue at the Security Council,” Ereli said.
Asked whether the Sudanese government was keeping its word on easing the humanitarian situation, Ereli said the Sudanese government is “not fully, not adequately” fulfilling its promises. “I think, all aspects of the commitments, there are problems.”