US threatens sanctions on Sudan’s oil
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 8 (Reuters) – A new U.S. draft resolution calls for an enlarged African Union monitoring force in Darfur with an expanded mandate and threatens sanctions, including on oil, if the Sudanese government does not comply.
The draft Security Council measure, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, also sets out steps Sudan must take, including submitting names of Janjaweed militiamen disarmed and arrested for abuses. The militia are accused of killing, raping and uprooting African villagers.
The resolution does not give a date for when Sudan must comply, although diplomats said this might be added during negotiations with council members. It says Secretary-General Kofi Annan should report back in 30 days.
The Security Council threatened on July 30 to consider imposing unspecified sanctions on Sudan if it failed to disarm and prosecute the Janjaweed.
The new resolution again threatens punitive measures “including with regard to the petroleum sector” or against individual members of the government in the event of non-compliance “or failure to cooperate with the African Union mission on the extension of its monitoring presence in Darfur.”
But sanctions have a slim chance of approval at this time. However, the United States wants to increase the pressure on Khartoum so that punitive measures have a chance of being adopted in the future, the envoys said.
The 53-member African Union has some 80 monitors and 300 troops to protect them in Darfur. The United Nations has proposed about 3,000 AU military observers and troops and another 1,100 police, although some U.N. officials say the numbers should be higher.
Sudan has said it would accept more African Union monitors but not if their mandate is expanded as Jan Pronk, the special U.N. envoy to Sudan, and others proposed last week. The draft resolution calls for them to investigate all abuses and visit camps for uprooted Africans.
The rebels began their uprising in February 2003 after years of low-level fighting between mainly African farmers and Arab nomads over scarce land and water resources.
The Arab Janjaweed then escalated the fight by driving African villagers from their homes and into camps.
The United Nations says more than a million people in the vast arid Darfur region have fled their homes in the past 19 months for fear of attack by the Janjaweed. The U.N. estimates about 50,000 people have been killed.