US Ambassador Danforth says sanctions are still on the table

Going by what US Ambassador John Danforth and others say in a Washington File report Jan 12 there is no mention of a no-fly zone for Darfur.

The following is an excerpt from the report that gives an insight into what is being put forward to the UN Security Council. Who knows how much will change around Jan 25 when the UN makes public the findings of its investigation into genocide in Darfur:

Mr Danforth says that "sanctions are still on the table." Sanctions were discussed during the session, Danforth noted. Even though some council members are opposed to sanctions as a general principle, "it may be possible to fashion" sanctions in a way that would be agreeable to a majority of council members, he said.

The peace agreement, he pointed out, "has ended a war that has lasted more than two decades and that has claimed more than 2 million lives, and people are pushing that off the front page as though nothing had happened last Sunday [January 9]. Something big happened last Sunday and it was due in large part to the engagement of the United States in this process."

Pronk said that the North-South peace process can be applied to Darfur and "it must."

"We can make it work," he said. "It is hard to imagine that the peace dividend promised by the Nairobi agreement will be reaped without an end to the suffering in Darfur," Pronk said. "International aid will not flow and, more important, in Sudan itself, the achievement will turn out to be vulnerable." As long as there is war in some part of Sudan, resources will be spent on weapons, not welfare, he said, and "investors will be reluctant, entrepreneurs will hesitate, young people with brains and initiative will want to leave the country, displaced people will wander around."

Offering several suggestions that could encourage a peace agreement, Pronk said that the government and rebels in Darfur must be pressured, reasoned with, and offered alternatives to the status quo.

Suggestions included: As a show of good will, the government and rebel movements should all withdraw behind reasonable and well-defined lines with African Union troops moving in to protect the areas; the government should make a new start in disarming the Jingaweit; the rebel movement should agree not to block or disrupt peaceful seasonal movements of nomadic tribes and their cattle; and the parties must identify practical means to provide basic needs such as food to their forces in order to lessen the urge to steal, loot and kill.

He urged the international community to "do whatever is required to accelerate the rate of deployment of AU troops."

Danforth also mentioned the possibility of adding international police protection in the camps, and Pronk suggested that the number of human rights monitors in the region be increased from 20 to 150.

The security situation in Darfur is bad and the humanitarian situation poor, Pronk told the council. Violence has spread into the camps for displaced persons and is directly affecting humanitarian workers as well; refugees are not returning in sufficient numbers to plant sustainable crops; and livestock is being lost on a huge scale, he said.