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UN council demands Sudan stop Darfur atrocities
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-31 01:55
The U.N. Security Council on Friday adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution
demanding Sudan disarm and prosecute marauding militia in Darfur and threatened
sanctions if Khartoum did not comply.
The 13-0 vote with abstentions from China and Pakistan came after the United
States, facing considerable opposition, deleted the word "sanctions" and
substituted a reference to a section of the U.N. Charter permitting punitive
measures.
A newly-arrived
displaced Sudanese boy from Darfur region waits for aid distribution at
the Bredjin camp in eastern Chad July 29, 2004. Aid groups gave out
emergency supplies of food, plastic sheeting and blankets to thousands of
refugees from Sudan's Darfur region stuck outside an already overcrowded
camp in eastern Chad. [Reuters] | This provision,
called Article 41, allows the "interruption" of economic, transport,
communications or diplomatic measures, which amounts to sanctions.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Chile and
Romania, demands that Khartoum disarm and prosecute within 30 days militia known
as Janjaweed or the Security Council will consider punitive measures under
Article 41.
At least 30,000 civilians have been killed in Sudan's western region of
Darfur, 1 million have been driven from their villages into barren camps and 2
million need food and medicine in what the United Nations calls the world's
worst humanitarian crisis and the U.S. Congress has branded as genocide.
The resolution also places an immediate weapons embargo on all armed groups
in Darfur, where government forces and Arab militia have been battling a
rebellion from some African tribes. But Sudan security forces, accused of
protecting the Janjaweed as they rape and kill, are excluded.
The United Nations has been planning a peacekeeping force after a final peace
pact in southern Sudan, where a decades-old civil war is ending. The resolution
says the planning should also include Darfur, although troops are not expected
soon.
The United States and its European allies faced an uphill battle in the
Security Council, where developing nations as well as Russia questioned the
15-member body's right to interfere in internal affairs and argued that
punishing Sudan would make matters worse.
But after deleting the word "sanctions" made the resolution more palatable to
most objectors, 13 members voted in favor. But China said it had hoped all
references to sanctions would be removed and decided, along with Pakistan, to
abstain.
"The initial draft included the word sanctions. It turns out that the use of
that word is objectionable to certain members of the Security Council," U.S.
Ambassador John Danforth said earlier. "They would rather use 'U.N. speak' for
exactly the same thing."
He said one could use word "banana, so long as it is clear that it equals
sanctions. The meaning has to be very clear."
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