Too early to decide on Darfur sanctions – Powell
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – The international community must keep pressure on Sudan over a humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region, but it is too early to say whether sanctions should be imposed, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday.
Reacting to a new U.N. report on Darfur, Powell said there was some progress in the humanitarian situation, but much more must be done by Sudan to end militia attacks.
“We have seen some progress but we have to keep the pressure up. We are not satisfied with where we are yet,” Powell told reporters returning with him to Washington after a brief visit to Panama for the inauguration of its new president.
Powell said he was encouraged by news from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, that Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government had agreed to increase access for humanitarian agencies trying to address the crisis in the desert region.
He also said there had been some improvements in refugee camps but the security situation outside these areas was still too unstable, and people were unable to move back to their homes.
“We don’t want permanent camps, we want people to go back to their villages, put in crops and start to rebuild their lives,” said Powell, who visited Darfur in July.
The U.N. report was drawn up in response to an ultimatum, which expired on Aug. 30, for the Sudanese government to reign in marauding militia or face possible sanctions. Jan Pronk, the U.N. special envoy to Sudan, is to brief the Security Council on Thursday.
Asked whether he thought the time had come to impose sanctions, Powell said it was too early to make such a decision and sanctions were not the only option. He cited a U.N. proposal for more African troops in the region.
“It’s always been a case of orchestrated pressure in a way that moves the government along and improves the situation and keeps the pressure up but not to the point where you might get a consequence that you might not like or is unintended,” he said.
Russia and China, veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council, have expressed opposition to sanctions, as have council members Pakistan and Algeria.
The crisis in Sudan has cost up to 50,000 lives and resulted in the pillaging, rape and cleansing of African villagers by the mostly-Arab militia, called Janjaweed.
The United Nations has called Darfur one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than one million displaced and 200,000 refugees encamped in neighboring Chad.