Britain calls for sanctions against four Sudanese over rights violations in Darfur

By Edith M. Lederer
April 12, 2006 
San Diego Union Tribune
Original Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20060412-1951-un-sudan-darfur.html


UNITED NATIONS – Britain and the United States called for sanctions Wednesday against four Sudanese who have blocked peace efforts and violated human rights in the conflict-wracked Darfur region. 
The four came from a list of 51 that a U.N. panel recommended last year be prosecuted for war crimes, including senior government officials. But until now, council members have not been able to agree on any names to put on a U.N. sanctions list. 
Monday is the last day for countries to object or the sanctions take effect. 
If set in motion, the sanctions will be the first against any participants in the Darfur conflict, which has left about 180,000 dead over the last three years – most from disease and hunger – and displaced another 2 million from their homes. 
A Security Council resolution adopted in March 2005 authorized an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals who defy peace efforts, violate international human rights law, or are responsible for military overflights in Darfur. 
The U.N. panel that investigated the Darfur conflict recommended last year that 51 people be prosecuted for war crimes. 
“What we're going to do today is the start of a process,” Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said. “I join with .... the United States in putting forward today four names representing a balanced package.” 
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the list is “really a down payment on what we expect will be additional sanctions.” 
But Russia said it wants to study the list, warning that it could aggravate the fragile peace process. 
Since freezing financial assets are involved, Jones Parry said, the names will not be disclosed until the sanctions take effect, hopefully on Monday. 
Decades of tribal clashes over land and water in the Darfur region erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 when ethnic African tribes took up arms, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglect. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages – a charge it denies. 
Council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the list has not been released, said the four names proposed for sanctions include one member of the Sudanese government, two rebel figures, and one member of the Janjaweed. 
Seven rounds of peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria since August 2004 have yet to yield a breakthrough to end the fighting. 
In a statement Tuesday, the Security Council demanded that the Sudanese government and rebels reach agreement by April 30 to end the conflict in Darfur and reaffirmed its determination to hold accountable those blocking peace and violating human rights. It stressed that “an inclusive political settlement is key to peace in Sudan.”