Global Policy Forum

Maggie Farley

Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council on Wednesday that it should pass a resolution as soon as possible to pressure the Sudanese government to disarm militias and protect citizens from ethnic violence.

But several council members are hesitant to pass a proposal sponsored by the United States that would impose immediate sanctions against militia leaders — and perhaps the Sudanese government — arguing that it is more helpful to the Sudanese people to secure the government's cooperation than risk its alienation.

Speaking by videophone from Nairobi, Kenya, Annan briefed the council on his trip to Sudan and Chad last week to assess the humanitarian crisis caused by the displacement of more than 1 million black African villagers fleeing rape and killing by government-supported militias, known as janjaweed. He called the situation in the western Sudanese region of Darfur "totally intolerable and totally unacceptable" — but refrained from labeling the systematic attacks by the largely Arab militias as "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing."

On Saturday, Annan received a written pledge from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir to take immediate action to halt the attacks and allow access for aid workers. The communique also included promises to disarm the janjaweed, continue peace talks with rebels and allow international monitoring. A committee comprising Sudanese and U.N. representatives will report on the agreement's implementation. But Annan, who arrived at a camp for displaced people to discover that the government had moved its thousands of inhabitants overnight, urged the council to keep the pressure high.

John C. Danforth, the new U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and former American envoy to Sudan, said the Security Council would start negotiations today on a resolution that would impose immediate sanctions on the militias, but could give the government a 30-day grace period to implement its promises before it too faced possible sanctions. But he said that he wanted to see immediate action from officials in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

"We are talking about days. We are talking about this week. This is a matter of urgency," Danforth told reporters on his first day at the United Nations. "Thirty days is too long for the government to act," he said. "Sudan is clearly on a short leash."

Several Security Council members, including Pakistan, China and Brazil, debated whether imposing sanctions too harshly or too quickly would alienate Khartoum, stranding millions of Sudanese without international help. "Without the cooperation of Sudan, the international community can't help the displaced people," said Pakistan's ambassador, Munir Akram. "There's no alternative. We're not in a position to send in an international force, so we're not in a position to make empty threats."

The U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egelund, said recent moves allowing greater access for aid groups were welcome, but warned that relief efforts might fail for lack of funds and security. During the U.N. team's visit, four trucks with relief supplies were looted, and attacks against locals in Darfur have increased since the Saturday agreement, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

Egelund said the U.N. planned by the end of August to feed 1.2 million people and have shelter for 90% of those who had fled their homes. But he said he feared that a shortfall in the $350 million pledged by donors would become more of a constraint than would a lack of access. "It would be ironic now that we have access to be unable to save lives because we have only 40% of the money we asked for," Egelund said after the session.

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