Enlarge imageBy Sebastian Alison and Opheera McDoom
BRUSSELS/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The European Union is to threaten sanctions against Sudan’s government for failing to stop "massive and severe" human rights abuses by Arab militia against African villagers in Darfur.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels were expected on Monday to announce "appropriate measures, which could include sanctions, against the government of Sudan ... if no tangible progress is achieved," an EU diplomat said.
The latest U.N. situation report on violence in the vast and arid western region of Sudan -- where the United Nations says the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding -- said looting and attacks were on the increase.
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The report came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sudan’s efforts to rein in the Arab militia known as Janjaweed were not working, and declared that Washington would continue to work for sanctions against Khartoum.
The draft conclusions set to be approved by the EU foreign ministers read: "The Council (of foreign ministers) concludes that there is no indication that the government of Sudan has taken real and verifiable steps to disarm and neutralise these militia and the Janjaweed.
"Contrary to various announcements by the government of Sudan, there are reports about continuing massive and severe human rights violations by the armed militia, including systematic rape of women."
The United States last week circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution threatening sanctions on Sudan’s budding oil industry, which pumps 320,000 barrels per day, if it did not stop abuses in the region.
In a letter to the Security Council, the New York-based international rights group Human Rights Watch called for a U.N. arms embargo on the Janjaweed to be extended to government forces, which it said shared camps with the Arab militia.
"The Bush administration recently declared that the atrocities being committed by Sudan and the Janjaweed militias it supports amounts to genocide, but without calling for an arms embargo against the perpetrators, such talk is all bark and no bite," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the group’s Africa division.
"The bark is important, but it’s time for some bite."
The U.S. resolution also calls on Sudan to accept a larger monitoring force from the African Union which already has 80 observers and a 300-strong protection force to monitor an often-violated ceasefire between Darfur rebels and Khartoum.
Rebels in Darfur launched a revolt in early 2003 after years of skirmishes between African farmers and Arab nomads over land. The rebels accuse Khartoum of arming the Janjaweed to crush them and their civilian sympathisers, a charge the government denies.
TONED DOWN
But several Security Council members have objected to the sanctions threat. China, one of Sudan’s oil customers, threatened to use its veto power against the resolution if changes were not made.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Oslo on Monday Washington was willing to tone down the wording.
"I do expect some modifications," Armitage told a news conference after talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen. "We want as strong a resolution as possible, but the resolution will only be as strong as the traffic will bear."
But Washington would insist Khartoum had to be "part of the solution" to the Darfur problem and accept its responsibility for bringing the Janjaweed under control.
The Janjaweed have been accused of killing, raping and uprooting African villagers. The United Nations says more than a million people have been forced to flee their homes and up to 50,000 people killed in violence Washington has called genocide.
A U.N. situation report sent to Reuters on Monday said "the increased trend in insecurity ... particularly in South and North Darfur, continued this week with approximately six serious security incidents confirmed in the two states".
Most of the incidents were attacks by armed men who looted cash and food from commercial and aid agency vehicles, it said.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail reiterated that his government was committed to ending the conflict.
"The government of the Sudan pledges to honour its commitments and obligations of getting the situation in Darfur back to normalcy," he said in a statement on a visit to Seoul.
He again dismissed the charge of genocide, saying the "erroneous conclusion" would "inflict a devastating blow" to peacemaking efforts by the AU, which is mediating in stalled talks between the government and rebels.
