Sudan says U.N. sanctions would destroy society
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Sudan said on Saturday that U.N. sanctions, threatened over atrocities in the Darfur region, would lead “this society to a complete destruction”.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Saturday threatening sanctions unless Sudan stops the atrocities in the western Darfur region where Arab militias have been attacking African villagers.
“Imposing economic sanctions, this means that actually you condemn the whole society, this means that you are actually leading this society to a complete destruction,” State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Mohamed Yousif Abdalla told Reuters.
“Therefore I believe that if economic sanctions are imposed on the Sudan, only the Sudanese people are going to be penalised and that should not be the intention of the Security Council,” he said.
The U.S.-drafted resolution also says Sudan has to cooperate with an expanded African Union monitoring mission in Darfur, where an estimated 50,000 people have been killed from violence, disease or famine, and 1.2 million forced out of their homes.
It calls for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to set up a commission that would investigate human rights abuses and determine if the U.S. declaration that genocide had occurred in Darfur was correct.
OPTIMISTIC ON PEACE TALKS
Abdalla, a member of Sudan’s team negotiating with Darfur rebels, said he was hopeful for a solution.
“I am optimistic that we are going to get a solution for Darfur,” he said. “It is a social struggle in the area, and those issues are I think are resolvable.
“If people give themselves a chance for a fruitful discussion, faithful dialogue, we will have no doubt a good conclusion.”
Sudan on Friday blamed the United States for the failure of three weeks of peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja between Khartoum and Darfur rebels, but African Union mediators said negotiations would resume in October.
Although there was no agreement, the mediators said progress was made with both sides on certain issues such as the need for greater humanitarian access to more than a million people who have fled their homes in the Darfur region.
African Union special envoy Hamid Algabid said the talks would resume in about one month.
The Sudan delegation leader, Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed, said the arrival of a delegation from a southern rebel group influenced the Darfur rebels refusal to sign any kind of agreement at the recent talks.
“There are clear differences between the two rebel groups,” he added, saying this did not help the talks.
After years of skirmishes between African farmers and Arab nomads, rebels took up arms last year accusing Khartoum of supporting the Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, in their campaign to drive the sedentary population from their lands.
The government denies any links to the Janjaweed.