UN Council plans vote on abuses in Sudan’s Darfur
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, July 30 (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council was set to approve on Friday a U.S.-drafted resolution threatening Sudan with sanctions if it does not rein in Arab militias, blamed for widespread rapes and killings in Darfur.
In a last-minute bid for votes, the United States deleted the word “sanctions” from the resolution and instead referred to Article 41 in the U.N. Charter that calls for an “interruption” of economic, communications or diplomatic activities, which, in effect, amount to sanctions.
U.S. officials are hoping for a 15-0 vote although support from China and Pakistan is not certain.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Romania, proposes a 30-day period in which Khartoum would be told to disarm and prosecute marauding militia, known as Janjaweed, or the council would consider other measures, including those in Article 41.
At least 30,000 civilians have been killed in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, 1 million have been uprooted from their villages into barren camps and 2 million need aid in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Other nations, such as Algeria and Russia, which raised objections for weeks, apparently believed that deleting the word “sanctions” would make the resolution more palatable to Sudan, diplomats said.
But U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said the changes did not alter the threat of sanctions.
“If you read article 41, it speaks of ‘measures,’ and it says these may include complete or partial interruptions of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio and other means of communication and the severance of diplomatic relations — so this is a sanctions provision,” he said.
ARMS EMBARGO
The resolution also places an immediate arms embargo on militia and rebels in Darfur, where government forces and Arab militia, who come from pastoral tribes hard hit by desertification, have been battling a rebellion from African villagers since last year.
Janjaweed, which colloquially means “men on horses with guns,” is considered a derogatory term by some Arab tribal leaders. The Sudan government has described the Janjaweed as “criminals,” although its forces have aided them.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in Ghana for a meeting with African leaders on the Ivory Coast, said he had received new reports of rape and attacks by the Janjaweed.
He also said in a statement on Thursday that government security personnel had threatened people who spoke to foreigners and “beaten several community leaders.”
Humanitarian organizations, as well as U.S. congressmen, who have branded the violence genocide, have criticized the Bush administration for not threatening military intervention or imposing sanctions immediately on Khartoum.
The United Nations has been planning a peacekeeping force after a final peace pact in southern Sudan, where a decades-old civil war is ending. The resolution says the planning should also include Darfur, although no one expects peacekeepers on the ground there soon.
But some council members question whether Sudan can control the militia and its own forces and keep its agreement with Annan a month ago to disarm the Janjaweed.
“It is not an easy task for them to turn off this Janjaweed crowd and other militias that may be out there,” Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged on Thursday in Kuwait.
“There is a concern that we don’t want to put so much on the Sudanese government that (it) causes internal problems that might make the situation worse,” Powell told reporters.
“At the same time, everybody recognizes that pressure is needed or else we would not get any action at all,” he said.