US senators call for UN sanctions against Khartoum

WASHINGTON, Mar 2 (AFP) — Two US senators called for the United Nations to place “hefty” sanctions on the Sudan government to end the “genocide” taking place in Sudan’s Darfur region.

In a bill submitted to the US Senate, Republican Sam Brownback and Democrat Jon Corzine called for the US government to press the UN Security Council to set international sanctions against Khartoum.

They also called for US President George W. Bush to name a special envoy to deal with the Sudan situation.

Some 70,000 people have died and 1.6 million have been displaced in Darfur during the last two years, largely at the hands of the Khartoum-supported Janjaweed militia.

“The UN should vote to immediately levy hefty and serious economic and diplomatic sanctions against the government of Sudan, the government-sponsored Janjaweed, and any businesses or companies complicit through their government connections,” said Brownback.

“We must insist upon an arms embargo against the government of Sudan, travel restrictions on Sudanese government officials, and a freeze on the assets of companies controlled by the ruling party that do business abroad,” he said.

In February Washington proposed new targeted UN sanctions for Sudan in what it called a bid to get all sides in the conflict to end the bloodshed.

Earlier Wednesday, a Sudanese foreign ministry official expressed “astonishment” over the US proposal, while a senior Sudanese security official accused the US embassy in Khartoum of carrying out “hostile activities” against the country.

Last year Brownback and Corzine pushed through the Senate a resolution that labelled the conflict in Darfur “genocide”, while the UN continues to avoid the term in dealing with Sudan.