Not yet time for UN sanctions on Sudan officials: Russia, China
UNITED NATIONS, April 17, 2006 (AFP) - Russia and China said Monday that the time was not ripe for slapping proposed UN Security Council sanctions on four Sudanese officials over their alleged role in bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region.
The sanctions against four unidentified officials deemed to be impeding the peace process and violating international human rights law were to have come into force at the end of a 48-hour silence procedure, which expired at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) Monday, provided no council member objected.
They involve an assets freeze and travel restrictions on the four persons for their alleged role in the Darfur violence, which Washington calls genocide.
Russia's outgoing UN ambassador Andrei Denisov said the council needed "to be constructive" when dealing with Sudan pending the outcome of African Union-sponsored talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels in Abuja, Nigeria.
"The whole situation is very fragile," he told a farewell press conference. "Let's wait at least until the end of April and then come back to the issue."
"Don't do any harm to the very fragile process in Sudan, don't antagonize, don't impose more tension on the whole issue," said Denisov, who has just been promoted deputy foreign minister.
He said the council should use the interval to clarify the whole issue "because some of the allegations are based on non-verified messages from some unofficial sources".
China's UN envoy Wang Guangya, the president of the council for April, also argued that "this is not the right moment" to impose the sanctions in view of the ongoing Abuja talks.
"We have to be careful with any step the council is going to take," Wang said, in explaining his country's stance, restating Beijing's reluctance to resort to sanctions.
US Ambassador John Bolton said that in light of the Russian and Chinese objections, "I have asked for a meeting of the council this afternoon to take up the sanctions issue."
The list of four Sudanese officials was submitted more than a year after the council adopted Resolution 1591, which authorizes measures against people committing atrocities or undermining peace efforts in Sudan's western region.
Russia and China along with Algeria had abstained during the vote on resolution 1591.
"We've been trying to get this process in gear for a year. We think that the list of four names submitted by a number of delegations is a solid list, it's a downpayment, certainly not the end of the sanction process," Bolton said.
Co-sponsored by Britain and 10 other countries, including the United States and France, it was narrowed down from a much longer list of individuals.
Those other individuals remain under investigation, Bolton made clear.
Explaining the significance of council approval of the sanctions, Bolton said: "This will be in effect a test of the council to see if the sanctions procedure is going to work at all and we have moved slowly, unfortunately slowly, but we certainly have come to the point where it's time for a decision."
The purpose of a new resolution, Bolton noted, was "to move quickly, find out how serious the objection (is) and see what we need to do to overcome it."
The seventh round of the Abuja talks has now lasted for four months but appears to be making no progress despite mounting UN pressure on the parties to reach a deal by the end of April.
UN officials are preparing to send peacekeepers to Darfur by the end of the year or at the beginning of 2007 to take over from cash-strapped African Union troops, who have failed to restore peace in the vast western Sudanese region.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is strongly opposed to the UN mission.
War broke out in Darfur in February 2003 when rebel groups revolted against what they say is the political and economic marginalization of the region's black African ethnic groups by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.
Since then, the fighting coupled with a dire humanitarian crisis has left up to 300,000 people dead and more than two million displaced, according to some estimates.
ga/kd AFP 172224 GMT 04 06
Copyright (c) 2006 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 04/17/2006 18:24:43
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