Britain Backs U.S. on Darfur Sanctions

CBNNews.com

May 30, 2007

CBNNews.com - Britain is backing a U.S. proposal for the United Nations to impose sanctions against the government of Sudan for its role in Darfur's bloodshed, an official said Wednesday.

Click Play to watch Melissa Charbonneau's report on whether sanctions will make a difference in Darfur.

President Bush announced Tuesday that the United States would draft the U.N. resolution. Bush said the Sudanese government has been complicit in atrocities against civilians and has been uncooperative with international efforts to end the Darfur crisis.

Fighting in the region has displaced 2.5 million people, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Britain "fully supports U.S. efforts to address the desperate situation in Darfur in the Security Council," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

"We hope that all members of the will work with the U.S. to create a resolution which will effectively address the challenges in Darfur," he said.

Blair was expected to be in Sierra Leone later Wednesday for a tour of Africa that started in Libya and ends later this week in South Africa. Aides said Blair's agenda would include his trying to build support for action to stop the violence in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died since the conflict began in 2003.

The U.N. resolution would apply new international sanctions against the Sudanese government, whose capital is in Khartoum.

The resolution would seek to impose an expanded embargo on arms sales to Sudan, prohibit Sudan's government from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur and strengthen the U.S. ability to monitor and report any violations.

The president also announced new U.S. sanctions against Sudan, targeting government-run companies involved in Sudan's oil industry, and three individuals, including a rebel leader suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur.

The international sanctions resolution is expected to face a tough time in the Security Council because of the timing and long-standing opposition from China, which has business interests in Sudan.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he still needed more time persuade the Sudanese government to accept more peacekeepers.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed in November to a three-phase U.N. plan to strengthen the over-stretched, 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur.

After stalling for five months, he gave the go-ahead for the second phase, which calls for 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel.

Over last weekend, however, al-Bashir reiterated his opposition to the deployment of a 22,000-member joint U.N.-AU force, saying he would only allow a larger African force with technical and logistical support from the United Nations.

After years of low-level skirmishes over water and other resources among Darfur's tribes, the larger conflict erupted in 2003 when ethnic African tribesmen rebelled against what they considered decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated central government.

Sudanese leaders are accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militia to put down the rebels and destroy any support they might have among African villagers. The government denies the charges.

Source: Associated Press

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