U.S. to slap new sanctions on Sudan
(Adds Sudan reaction)
By Joanne Morrison
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The United States plans to announce tough new sanctions against Sudan on Tuesday before working out a resolution in the United Nations in an intensified effort to end the bloodshed in Darfur.
President George W. Bush will announce punitive action against 31 companies and four individuals, according to a draft of his speech.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's "actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods of obstruction," Bush will say.
Sudan quickly criticised the expected sanctions.
"I think these sanctions are not justified. It is not timely," said Mutrif Siddig, a senior official in Sudan's Foreign Ministry.
The ratcheting up of U.S. pressure coincides with a broader effort by United Nations officials to get Sudan's government to end the violence that has devastated Darfur since 2003.
Fighting by government-backed militias and rebel groups in the Darfur region of western Sudan has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes. Khartoum disputes the figures and says 9,000 people have died.
Bush and other top U.S. officials have grown increasingly impatient with Bashir's reluctance to stop attacks by Arab militias widely believed to be supported by the government. They have also expressed alarm over splits in rebel groups that have fuelled yet more violence.
Bashir stalled for months in accepting U.N. peacekeeping support packages to the African Union of 7,000, a prelude to a larger force of more than 23,000 troops and police. He received the latest plans for that force from the Security Council on Friday but has said the number of personnel was far too large.
Siddig said U.S. sanctions would not affect Sudan's response to the U.N. proposal for a hybrid peacekeeping force for Darfur and it was "quite possible" to reach a compromise on the force.
OIL INTERESTS TARGETED
New U.S. sanctions against Sudan would extend those implemented in 1997 and be aimed mostly at companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government.
One other company is believed to be violating an arms embargo for Darfur and will also be banned from doing business in the United States or having access to its financial system.
The companies targeted will include firms in the oil and petroleum export-related businesses, all of which are crucial to Sudan's economy. They are all expected to be named.
The four individuals affected include senior Sudanese government officials and rebel leaders.
"This will be the first time we are taking such an action ahead of the United Nations," said a senior administration official, referring to the sanctions against the individuals. The U.N. Security Council last year imposed sanctions on four mid-level individuals.
The United States and Britain are considering drafting a U.N. resolution that would impose an arms embargo on all of Sudan, not just Darfur, increase the number of people subject to sanctions and monitor airports in Sudan to determine who is breaking previous resolutions on offensive military flights.
China, a major customer of Sudan's oil and a permanent Security Council member, said it opposed expanded sanctions.
"Expanding sanctions can only make the problem more difficult to resolve," China's representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Asked whether China would veto any new U.N. resolution targeting Sudan, he said: "It's still too early to speak of."
By Joanne Morrison
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The United States plans to announce tough new sanctions against Sudan on Tuesday before working out a resolution in the United Nations in an intensified effort to end the bloodshed in Darfur.
President George W. Bush will announce punitive action against 31 companies and four individuals, according to a draft of his speech.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's "actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods of obstruction," Bush will say.
Sudan quickly criticised the expected sanctions.
"I think these sanctions are not justified. It is not timely," said Mutrif Siddig, a senior official in Sudan's Foreign Ministry.
The ratcheting up of U.S. pressure coincides with a broader effort by United Nations officials to get Sudan's government to end the violence that has devastated Darfur since 2003.
Fighting by government-backed militias and rebel groups in the Darfur region of western Sudan has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes. Khartoum disputes the figures and says 9,000 people have died.
Bush and other top U.S. officials have grown increasingly impatient with Bashir's reluctance to stop attacks by Arab militias widely believed to be supported by the government. They have also expressed alarm over splits in rebel groups that have fuelled yet more violence.
Bashir stalled for months in accepting U.N. peacekeeping support packages to the African Union of 7,000, a prelude to a larger force of more than 23,000 troops and police. He received the latest plans for that force from the Security Council on Friday but has said the number of personnel was far too large.
Siddig said U.S. sanctions would not affect Sudan's response to the U.N. proposal for a hybrid peacekeeping force for Darfur and it was "quite possible" to reach a compromise on the force.
OIL INTERESTS TARGETED
New U.S. sanctions against Sudan would extend those implemented in 1997 and be aimed mostly at companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government.
One other company is believed to be violating an arms embargo for Darfur and will also be banned from doing business in the United States or having access to its financial system.
The companies targeted will include firms in the oil and petroleum export-related businesses, all of which are crucial to Sudan's economy. They are all expected to be named.
The four individuals affected include senior Sudanese government officials and rebel leaders.
"This will be the first time we are taking such an action ahead of the United Nations," said a senior administration official, referring to the sanctions against the individuals. The U.N. Security Council last year imposed sanctions on four mid-level individuals.
The United States and Britain are considering drafting a U.N. resolution that would impose an arms embargo on all of Sudan, not just Darfur, increase the number of people subject to sanctions and monitor airports in Sudan to determine who is breaking previous resolutions on offensive military flights.
China, a major customer of Sudan's oil and a permanent Security Council member, said it opposed expanded sanctions.
"Expanding sanctions can only make the problem more difficult to resolve," China's representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Asked whether China would veto any new U.N. resolution targeting Sudan, he said: "It's still too early to speak of."
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