- As the UN and relief organisations report of only "mixed progress on enhancing humanitarian access" in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, the UN Security Council cannot agree upon possible sanctions against Sudan in the case of further lacking progress. German activists have singled out veto-holding France as the largest obstacle of UN sanctions against Sudan.
Yesterday evening, the UN reported that progress in reaching out to the one million displaced people in Darfur is only limited, despite earlier threats of sanctions against the Sudanese government. UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said local authorities in Darfur are still requiring aid workers from the UN and relief organisations to obtain travel permits for their districts.
There are no reports of progress regarding the disarmament of the Janjaweed militias, reported to have committed an ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur. The militias, which according to the UN "are allied to the government," are still controlling most of Darfur, thus preventing the displaced people from returning to their homes.
The US government is rapidly losing patience with Khartoum and today concluded that Sudan was not fulfilling the promises made. "We've seen more words than action at this point, but there is a mixed picture and some reports of positive actions and some reports of negative actions," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a press briefing yesterday.
As the UN, relief organisations and Western governments are observing that the Khartoum government is not living up to its promises, the UN Security Council on Friday started debating the possibility of imposing sanctions against Sudan. Especially the US government, together with the UK and Germany, have been pushing for tough action against Khartoum in the case of further atrocities in Darfur.
The US government indeed presented a draft resolution on Thursday, calling for sanctions and an arms embargo against the Janjaweed militias. The UN Security Council reportedly was split on the US draft, with non-permanent members Algeria, Brazil and Pakistan urging for more time to secure cooperation from Khartoum. Also permanent members China and Russia were reported to have opted for more time.
Britain and Germany, on the other hand, were reported to push for an even tougher sanctions regime. They called for a Security Council resolution that would ban any arms trade with all of Sudan, not only Darfur, in addition to travel bans for political leaders thought to be responsible for the atrocities in Darfur. Khartoum was to be given 30 days to comply with UN demands, the draft said.
According to the German human rights group GfbV (the Society for Threatened Peoples), with contacts within the Berlin government, it was however France that was emerging the main obstacle to a possible resolution sanctioning the Sudanese government. Ulrich Delius of the group yesterday claimed to know of a French campaign "obstructing the efforts of its European partner and the US" regarding UN sanctions on Sudan.
Only on Thursday, the French Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Renaud Muselier, had confirmed that his government was against UN sanctions against Sudan. "Further, France is denying the ethnic cleansing in Darfur," Mr Delius said.
Already in the 1990s, GfbV recalls, France had blocked a large number of initiatives criticising Sudan within the European Union, in addition to support Khartoum in the UN and the IMF. At that time, the UN had imposed sanctions against the Sudanese government due to its brutal warfare in South Sudan and connection to international terrorism.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Sunday had travelled to Khartoum to present the government with concrete demands from Western powers. Yesterday, he had been engaged in "serious and open discussions" with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail and President Omar Al-Baschir, Mr Fischer said. He had repeated the demand Sudan needed to disarm the Janjaweed and to assist relief work in Darfur.
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