Britain wants sanctions if UN's Darfur plans fail
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A senior British official on Wednesday advocated sanctions and an arms embargo against Sudan if President Omar Hassan al-Bashir reneges on pledges to allow U.N. and African peacekeepers into Darfur.
David Triesman, the British minister for Africa, who consulted with U.N. peacekeeping officials, also told reporters the world body needed to move far more rapidly in setting up a force and naming a special envoy for Sudan.
That post has been empty since Dutchman Jan Pronk was expelled late last year.
Triesman, a member of the House of Lords, said if plans for some 4,000 extra personnel in Darfur were not settled by late March, "there are bound to be international consequences."
For one, he said the U.N. Security Council should add names to its list of four Sudanese now under sanctions and widen its violated arms embargo to the whole of Sudan, not just Darfur.
If Russia or China threatened to veto or abstain, Triesman said a resolution should be put to a vote anyway.
"I think every country will have to stand up and be counted," he said, recalling that Russia and China abstained during last summer's vote on creating a U.N. force for Darfur.
Fighting in Darfur began four years ago when rebel tribes challenged the Arab-dominated government.
As warfare escalated, pro-government militia committed rape and murder, driving more than 2.5 million people into camps. Rebels retaliated and, in the past year, have also severely abused civilians.
Some rebel groups "behaved violently and badly," Triesman said, while Khartoum had violated cease-fires, refused to disarm the brutal Janjaweed militia and preferred a military solution to a political one.
THREE STAGES, NO PROGRESS
Sudan over the past few months had agreed on three stages for peacekeepers: a so-called light option of several hundred support staff for the 7,000 African Union troops now in Darfur, a heavy stage of 4,000 extra troops and then a larger "hybrid" operation by the United Nations and African Union.
But Khartoum is now hesitating on many of the details and the number of troops, while the overburdened U.N. peacekeeping department is far from ready.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote to Bashir late last month on Sudan's concerns over a peacekeeping force but is still awaiting a reply.
The African Union has been unable to stop the violence, lacking troops, equipment and finances. Some money has come from Western nations but Arab League financial promises have not materialized.
"Conditions on the ground are getting worse and worse" and the African Union force "has been reduced almost to the point where there is nothing they can do," Triesman said.
He said he came to New York in an effort "to accelerate those parts of the process for which the U.N. is responsible."
They included appointing a special representative and calling for Alpha Oumar Konare, the African Union commission chairman, to visit quickly to work out the numbers, composition and rules of engagement with U.N. officials, he said.
Triesman also said work had to be accelerated on the hybrid force, where the United Nations wants 17,000 troops but Sudan says far fewer will do. He noted that few countries would volunteer until terms, conditions and financing were set.
While it was unusual for the United Nations to pay for troops not under its full command, he said members of the U.N. General Assembly should move quickly in approving operations once plans were completed.
"I don't believe anyone in the world will understand a long bureaucratic process while people are dying," Triesman said.
