US readies revised UN resolution on Sudan’s Darfur
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS Sept 14 (Reuters) – The United States is expected to distribute on Tuesday a revised version of its U.N. resolution on Sudan, but retain a threat of sanctions if Khartoum does not stop atrocities in its Darfur region, diplomats said.
Facing opposition from China, Russia, Algeria, Pakistan, and other members of the 15-nation Security Council, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth still hopes to get a resolution adopted this week, before presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers address the U.N. General Assembly next week.
The new draft is expected to acknowledge in more detail Khartoum’s cooperation on relief aid and add some critical sentences on rebel groups challenging the Sudan government, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.
“The text needs to give a bit more credit to the government on what it has been doing,” he told reporters on Monday. But he said pressure had to continue against Khartoum so it would disarm Arab militia, called Janjaweed, accused of killings, rape and uprooting African villagers. More than 1 million people have been driven out of their homes.
The draft Washington submitted last Wednesday threatens to consider sanctions on Sudan’s oil industry if Khartoum fails to disarm the Janjaweed or fails to cooperate with a deployment of thousands of African Union monitors in Darfur.
Sudan is also under pressure to accept a U.N. proposal to expand a small Africa Union monitoring force to about 3,000 observers and soldiers to guard them.
“The more monitors of the African Union involved, the less likely it is that the atrocities can continue,” Jones Parry said.
The U.S. draft also calls on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a commission that would determine whether crimes in Darfur amounted to genocide. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week said acts of genocide had been committed, but no other country has gone that far.
China has threatened to use its veto power if changes are not made, objecting to both the reference to punitive measures against Sudan as well as an investigation of human rights abuses and possible genocide.
The United States is supported by the European Union members of the council — Britain, Germany, France and Spain — as well as Romania and Chile.