George Bush increases pressure on Sudan
New York. On Tuesday May 29 2007, George Bush made the early announcement that he would impose new economic sanctions on Sudan (Picture: Fighter in Darfur. ©Tim McKulka, UNMIS) and would try to get an additional UN resolution against the regime in Khartoum in an effort to end the genocide in Darfur. “For too long, the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians, the president said in a statement from the White House in Washington. My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it”. After criticizing Sudan’s president Omar Hassan al-Bashir for not having met “the obligations to stop the killing”, the president announced three steps to increase the pressure on Khartoum. He said the US Treasury Department will tighten existing economic sanctions against 100 or so Sudanese companies already barred from doing business with the United States. It will bar from the US financial system 31 additional companies. These groups will not be able to trade in US dollars. The US government will also target individuals such as Ahmad Muhammed Harun, Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, who has been accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Awad Ibn Auf, Sudan’s head of military intelligence and security and Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group that has refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. George Bush also directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to push for a new UN resolution against Sudan, 9 months after resolution 1706 failed to deliver any major results. The president leaves next week to attend the G8 Summit in Germany, where Darfur is expected to be on the agenda. The European Union announced soon after Mr Bush’s statement that it was “open to consider” new sanctions on Sudan. Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief confirmed the issue would be discussed at G8 meeting on June 6 outside Berlin. But according to Reuters news agency, the response in China, a major trade partner of Sudan, was cool. In Beijing, Reuters quoted China’s representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, saying: “Expanding sanctions can only make the problem more difficult to resolve.” Efforts to reach the Sudanese ambassador to the UN in Geneva were unsuccessful. His staff refused to comment on the sanctions. But Khartoum had criticized the sanctions before they were even formally announced. “I think these sanctions are not justified. It is not timely. We are cooperating well with the United Nations,” Mutrif Siddig, Sudanese undersecretary for foreign affairs, told Reuters in Khartoum. Sudan expert Eric Reeves, author of a “Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide” said the new US sanctions would “accomplish nothing”. “The US has had comprehensive sanctions against Sudan since 1997 and it did not achieve much, he added. All these sanctions will do, is to make it harder for companies and individuals to deal in dollars. But they can deal in euros or yens”. The professor who launched the “Genocide Olympics” campaign to try to put pressure on China before the 2008 Olympics in Peking, believes that as long China keeps supporting Sudan, no sanctions will work. “The Chinese government just reiterated its strong opposition to sanctions, he said. How can you impose new sanctions if a major player with a veto power is against them”. CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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