Security Council expected to vote on Sudan sanctions next week
NEW YORK, Sep 10, 2004 (PANA) — In spite of Sudan’s rejection of the
US description of the Darfur crisis as genocide, Washington
said it had received a “very positive” response at the
Security Council late Thursday to a draft resolution aimed
at ameliorating the security and humanitarian crises in
Darfur.
US Ambassador to the UN John Danforth told reporters after
the Council’s closed session on the issue, he was hopeful
the Council could pass a resolution on the issue by next
week.
He said the 15 members recognised that Council action
was necessary, and stressed the need for the African
Union (AU), which has a force of monitors in place in
the war-torn region, to play a vital role.
“The importance of getting an outside presence into
Darfur to monitor the situation is something that’s
impossible to overstate. That provides the most immediate
assurance to the people of that region that they will
have some protection,” Danforth said.
Some 1.2 million people are internally displaced in Darfur
and another 200,000 have fled over Sudan’s border into
neighbouring Chad because of attacks by militias believed
allied to the Khartoum government. The government has been
fighting two Darfur rebel movements over the past one year.
UN human rights reports said the militias, known as the
Janjaweed, have carried out murders, rapes and assaults
against thousands of civilians, and also destroyed or
damaged villagers’ homes and cropland.
Asked whether the draft resolution’s threat of sanctions
against Khartoum was a stumbling block, Danforth said the
provision was essential.
“The government of Sudan is not going to respond if there
is no pressure. And nobody wants to impose sanctions just
for the pleasure of imposing sanctions – that’s ridiculous.
“But the government of Sudan must act in an appropriate way
to save the lives of these people. If they don’t, and if they
stiff the AU or if they just go through sort of a long-delaying
dance, there has to be some possibility of taking some action
that they will notice,” he stressed.
In testimony before a US legislative committee, Secretary of
State Colin Powell said Thursday the killings in Darfur
constituted genocide.
On whether Powell’s remarks would lead to the invoking
of the 1951 Genocide Convention, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard
said: “We will now have to see the next step. The matter is
being brought to a competent organ of the United Nations,
the Security Council. We’ll have to see what action the
Council takes.”
Eckhard claimed the peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria between
representatives of the Khartoum government and the two Darfur
rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice
and Equality Movement (JEM), were deadlocked.
He said a draft security protocol issued by the AU mediators
was not approved by the Sudanese parties and the mediators
now plan to adjourn the talks. (Latest reports from Abuja
said the talks had been adjourned).
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative
to Sudan, Jan Pronk, has returned to Khartoum after visiting
Oslo, earlier this week for talks with Norwegian government
officials about international aid to Darfur.
A two-day donors’ conference on Sudan is planned for Oslo
from 27 September.