Highlights of new US draft on Sudan at UN

A report from Reuters today reveals:

Diplomats said the US had so far failed to get enough council support for its proposed new court set up in Arusha, Tanzania. Some nine of the 15 council members prefer the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Consequently, the resolution may be adopted, possibly within two weeks, without mentioning the name of a court if no agreement is reached by then while negotiations continue.

The measure again threatens an oil embargo if violence continues in Darfur, but diplomats said there was little chance it would be implemented. The resolution also leaves the door open for a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur and asks Kofi Annan to report on options to help the African Union.

Another report from Reuters today, is copied here in full:

The United States proposed on Monday a draft UN Security Council resolution on a peacekeeping force in southern Sudan and sanctions in Darfur. Following are highlights of the eight-page measure that may be voted on within two weeks.

- Establishes a U.N. Mission in Sudan, called UNMISUD, for an initial period of 6 months to help enforce a landmark peace agreement in southern Sudan that ended 21 years of civil war. The draft calls for 10,000 troops, 715 police and civilian personnel with a mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of violence.

- Asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to come up with options in 60 days on how to reinforce an African Union monitoring mission in Darfur.

- Sets up a special unit to make sure peacekeepers do not sexually exploit the local population as was the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

- Imposes a travel ban and financial assets on violators of a Darfur cease-fire and other violence as determined by a new Security Council committee, consisting of all 15 member nations. Exemptions are possible on religious grounds and for negotiating purposes.

- Widens an arms embargo in Darfur to include the Sudanese government and demands Khartoum refrain from conducting military flights in and out of Darfur unless the Security Council approves them in advance.

- Determines that perpetrators of crimes and atrocities identified in a sealed list by a U.N. inquiry commission be brought to justice by "internationally accepted means."

Council members are still debating where the trials will be held, with the United States wanting a court in Tanzania and at least nine other council members preferring the International Criminal Court that Washington opposes. The resolution may be adopted without naming the specific court.

- Establishes within a month from the date of the resolution's adoption, a panel of four experts, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and El Fasher in Darfur, to assist the Security Council and make recommendations on future action.

- Threatens to consider an oil embargo if the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate.

- Urges parties to the North-South agreement, including former rebels, to "play an active role" in the Darfur talks in Abuja, Nigeria.



Some members of the Security Council are set to object to the new US Sudan resolution. According to sources from within the Security Council they anticipate opposition from Russia and China, who both have the veto power, as well as Algeria. All three have rejected previous calls for sanctions in order to give Khartoum more time to rein in the militia. [Photo courtesy Aljazeera]
- - -

Gaddafi attacks Annan's proposals for Darfur

Reuters confirms today that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has attacked Kofi Annan's call for the EU and NATO to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, saying it risked creating a second Iraq.

"The brother Kofi Annan's statement is very dangerous and stops us from pursuing the African efforts. If his statement were to be implemented that will make Sudan a second Iraq," Gaddafi said in remarks reported late on Monday by the official news agency Jana. "I made my position on that known to the African Union chairman and the leaders in Darfur."

Gaddafi has close relations with the government in Khartoum as well as tribes and rebels in Darfur region, which borders on Libya and Chad.