Sudan says US draft resolution contradicts UN report
KHARTOUM, Sept 13 (AFP) — The Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday that a US draft resolution aimed at sanctioning Sudan over the conflict in Darfur contradicted a recent UN report on the situation there.
The United States has drafted a UN Security Council resolution including the threat of sanctions on Sudan’s oil industry if Khartoum does not disarm and stop Arab militias which have rampaged through the country’s western Darfur region over the last 19 months.
The Sudanese ambassador, Al-Fatih Urwah, said the draft resolution “does not comply with the facts on Darfur contained in the report submitted to the Security Council by envoy Jan Pronk”, Sudan’s official Al-Anbaa daily reported.
Pronk’s report to the council last month said that while some progress had been made since a first resolution was passed July 30, the government had not resolved the crisis or met all of the commitments that it had made to try to do so.
Urwah did not specify which of the report’s facts were contradicted by the new resolution.
The July resolution gave Khartoum 30 days to disarm and rein in the Janjaweed, end restrictions on aid workers in Darfur and take other steps to end the chaos — or face unspecified sanctions.
The United States has said the killing amounts to genocide, a claim rejected by the Sudanese government.
However, Washington appeared to soften its stance on Wednesday, with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage saying that he expected some modifications to the draft.
Urwah said his country wanted to “ensure that any issued resolution should reflect the reality in Darfur,” indicating that Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria “have shown opposition to the US draft resolution regarding it as contradictory to the Pronk report.”
He said he doubted the resolution would pass “unless Washington displays a high degree of flexibility with regards to its draft resolution”.
As well as raising the threat of sanctions on Sudan’s oil industry, the US draft also calls on Sudan to accept an expanded African Union mission already monitoring an April ceasefire between the government and rebels, and asks the United Nations for an enquiry to determine if genocide has occurred.